Staff
Co-Director
Nicole Avril
Nicole has dedicated her career to revitalizing spaces and forging strategic public-private partnerships that drive economic and cultural renewal. Passionate about design, creative financing, and problem-solving, she thrives on turning complex challenges into lasting community impact. As Capital Partnerships Director with SF Rec Park, Nicole led the Geneva Powerhouse Art Center and India Basin Park Initiatives, an abandoned railway building and former boatyard, respectively, which both focus on creativity and equity as tools for the empowerment of historically marginalized communities. Nicole has also served as the Director of External Relations for UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design and had leadership roles on the boards of Headlands Center for the Arts and Southern Exposure.
Co-Director
René de Guzman
René de Guzman is a longtime Bay Area curator, artist, and arts consultant. He was one of the founding curators at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as Visual Arts Curator and Director of Visual Arts, serving from 1993-2007, and subsequently served as the Senior Curator of Art and Director of Exhibition Strategy at the Oakland Museum of California from 2007-21, He also served as Deputy Director for Programs and Engagement at Headlands Center for the Arts, overseeing artist residencies and public programs. For over three decades, he has developed innovative and popular exhibitions for a wide public.
Co-Direcor
Rebecca Teague
Rebecca Teague was born in Washington, DC, raised in Chicago, and has called the Bay Area home for nearly 30 years. An artist trained at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Art University, she brings a maker’s perspective to her leadership. Over the past 15 years she has built a career guiding arts organizations through growth, partnership building, development, and community engagement. Rebecca has supported and elevated artists across the region while helping shape spaces where creativity and public life meet. Her dual perspective as artist and organizational leader fuels her commitment to building strong, equitable cultural ecosystems and creating environments where artists and communities can thrive.
Head of Faculty
Ana Teresa Fernández
Ana Teresa Fernández creates “Magical Non-fiction” through performance, video, photography, painting, and sculpture. Born in Tampico, Mexico, and based in San Francisco, she explores borders, identity, and climate through time-based actions and social gestures. Her work includes erasing the Tijuana-San Diego border by painting it sky blue while wearing a tango dress. Featured at major venues including the 2022 Armory Show, her work is held in collections at institutions like the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Denver Art Museum, and Blanton Museum of Art.
Creative Director
Jennifer Morla
Jennifer Morla founded Morla Design in 1984, creating witty and elegant work spanning motion graphics, branding, retail environments, and textiles. She has received graphic design’s highest honors: the AIGA Medal and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award. Her work appears in major museum collections including MOMA, LACMA, and the Smithsonian, with SFMOMA acquiring over 50 pieces. Notable clients include Levi Strauss, MTV, Apple, and Stanford University. She lectures internationally and taught senior level design at California College of the Arts for over 20 years.
Head of Operations
Gabriel Penfield
Gabriel Penfield served as the Lab Manager fabricator for Sculpture, Ceramics, and Art and Technology at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2007-20, and is the Founder and Lead Designer at Penfield Design Group. He has spearheaded installations for major exhibitions and managed capital improvement initiatives, and has two decades of experience in building and studio management, specializing in educational environments, art, and residential projects. His creative practice focuses on small run production tableware, specializing in formulating, creating, and testing all of the glazes and clays that are used in his production.
Web Designer and Artist
Ari Salomon
Ari Salomon is a San Francisco–based web designer who creates clean, intuitive WordPress sites for creative professionals, startups, and mission-driven organizations. With decades of experience, he builds websites that balance clarity, functionality, and long-term sustainability. His approach emphasizes responsive design, accessibility, and giving clients the tools to confidently manage their own content. Ari is known for translating complex needs into streamlined digital systems and thoughtful user experiences that grow with each project. He is also a fine-art photographer whose recent work explores loss, resilience, and transformation through a unique process of burning images into wood to create charcoal-based artworks.
Scenographer
Kristin Farr
Kristin Farr is an artist and has served as a curator, journalist and producer for KQED, Juxtapoz Magazine and Facebook’s original artist-in-residence program. She has created public art installations locally and internationally, and founded the Emmy-winning educational film series, KQED Art School. Her work is directed by color psychology and folk-art practices. She is intuitively connected to color due to her lifelong experience with synesthesia. Kristin has painted large-scale murals internationally and locally since 2014, and has made objects of all forms since childhood, mostly focused on painting, sculpture, and video art.
Media Magician
Asha Kilgallen McGee
Asha Kilgallen McGee is a curator and communications coordinator based in the North Bay. She earned her BA in Art History from UC Santa Barbara in 2023, exploring how contemporary art holds memory, builds community, and speaks across disciplines. Inspired by her Bay Area roots, she collaborates with emerging and established artists.