Staff

Co-Founders

Margaret Coleman

Margaret finished her BFA from the University of MN in 2005 and her MFA from Pratt Institute in 2009. She has had a broad range of experience in the arts from curating and teaching at the University level to developing children’s art curriculum and teaching community education. Many of the awards she has received for her community driven art have included involving the community, working with people of all ages and abilities. She travels frequently giving arts education workshops, curating art shows, and artist talks.

Becca McHale

Becca has been living and working in Vermont since 2001. Originally from Maryland, she took many art classes at Maryland Institute College of Art, attended Carver Center, a magnet high school for the arts, then earned her BA in Fine Arts from St. Mary’s College of MD in 2000. She worked as a graphic designer for over 10 years, but is thrilled to be painting, getting involved with the local community, and working with other artists again. Becca lives in Burlington and (besides artistic endeavors), enjoys camping, hiking, yoga, meditation, and spending time with her family. Becca has a daughter in 7th grade at Edmunds Middle and a 1st grader at the Sustainability Academy.

Director

Mikayla Messier

Mikayla was born and raised in Vermont and has been teaching art to elementary school aged kids for two years now. She earned a BFA degree in Studio Arts at Johnson State College in 2018 and received a MFA degree in Studio Arts at NVU-Johnson in 2020. Mikayla loves to paint and find new ways to incorporate sculptures in her art. She has been showing many of her paintings around Burlington and South Burlington, so keep an eye out and you might see one of her pieces! Besides being an artist, she also loves to crochet, travel and play tennis. Mikayla believes that art is just as much about the process as the finished product and with that in mind everyone can be an artist as long as they have fun making it! Her greatest hope is that she can inspire kids as much as they inspire her with their spectacular imaginations. Mikayla is thrilled to become the Director of One Arts and continue working with the kids of the community and watch them grow as young artists. 

Teachers

Sabah Abbas

Sabah Abbas grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. She has drawn illustrations for magazines, books and public service projects, illustrated four children’s books, and exhibited her paintings in many shows. Since her arrival in Vermont in 2014, she has studied oil painting techniques at CCV, and volunteered as an art classroom assistant at the Davis Studio, the ONE Arts Center and IAA. She loves working with kids, and is a mom of 6 of her own!

Hailey Ivey

Hailey moved to Vermont in 2018 where she studied at the University of Vermont, receiving a BA in Studio Arts and English. Hailey enjoys many sculptural forms, primarily using clay. She started working with children babysitting and went on to work as a swim coach and instructor in her hometown in New York. From teaching swimming she discovered that she can conjoin her passions in art with her love of sharing her skills with children. Hailey works as a preschool teacher at the One Arts Community School and is so excited to be welcomed as a teacher at the Art Center!

Ivan Klipstein

Comic artist and songwriter Ivan Klipstein has spilled ink and sung songs in many lands over the years, and presently lives right here in the Old North End. In addition to his own creative output, he enjoys assisting artists of all ages via classes and workshops. He is often collecting impromptu sketches of everyday people and places for the next project; be careful or you may just find yourself in one of them!

James Beihl

James has been teaching both children and adults since 2017. He currently runs classes both online as well as with other in-person studios in the area. Before teaching, James worked in entertainment art from 2011-2015 doing comics, and storyboards and he currently does book covers and licensed holiday art when he is not teaching. He is a huge fan of scifi/fantasy and teaches cartooning, painting and basic drawing.