Poster content described as text on the webpage.Works by Those Who Teach in the Art and Design Programs at Bristol 

October 29 - December 11, 2026

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 29, 6 - 8 p.m.

Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery
Bristol Community College
Fall River, MA 02720 
Free and open to the public

The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery welcomes the return of its triennial Art and Design Faculty Exhibition. Since the first faculty exhibition in 2004, this recurring show has provided an opportunity to see the work of the artists and designers who teach at Bristol Community College.

Over the years, the exhibition has become something of a record in itself. Familiar artists return alongside new faculty members, and the work reflects both the continuing development of individual studio practices and the changing character of the Art and Design Programs. The range of media, approaches, and ideas represented here is a reminder that there is no single definition of what it means to be an artist, designer, or teacher.

For students, the exhibition offers the opportunity to encounter their instructors' work outside the classroom and to see firsthand that creative practice does not end when one enters the role of teacher. For the faculty, it provides a shared forum in which to present work, exchange ideas, and make visible the practices that remain an important part of our professional lives.

As the Gallery concludes its 25th anniversary year, it is particularly fitting to return to an exhibition format that has been part of its history for more than two decades. We are pleased to continue this tradition and to share the work of the artists and designers who contribute to the creative life of Bristol Community College.

– Kathleen Hancock, Chief Curator

Faculty

Maryellen Atkins is a tenured Professor of Art, Design and Digital Media at Bristol Community College. Based in her hometown of Newport, RI, she has lived, studied, and worked professionally on four continents. A graduate of Stonehill College and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she has worked on films screened at Berlinale, Palm Springs, DC Shorts, and Orlando International Film Festival. She is a board member of Fort Adams Trust and a founding member of Involve Newport. Her interests include design, education, and the environment.

David Barnes (b. Ohio, USA) is a painter whose landscapes portray a world in flux, occupying a space between destruction and reclamation. His subject matter ranges from skate park forms and Utopian architecture to Roman ruins and the contemporary ruin of democracies. He holds an MFA from UMass Dartmouth and a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. His awards include the Pollock-Krasner Grant and Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship. His work is held in public and private collections, and he teaches at UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College.

Alison Paige Borges is an alumna of Bristol Community College and holds a BFA in Painting from UMass Dartmouth. She is Assistant Curator at the New Bedford Art Museum. Her artistic practice focuses on the human figure and still life. Her figurative paintings explore existence, vulnerability, and the body’s connection to the natural world, while her still lifes incorporate apothecary vessels and enigmatic objects to suggest hidden narratives. Working in traditional oil painting, Borges explores absence, secrecy, ritual, mystery, and uncertainty.

Brooke Mullins Doherty was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1981. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from UMass Dartmouth and degrees in Studio Art and Philosophy from the University of Oklahoma. She has taught at Bristol Community College since 2012. Her sculptures, drawings, and prints have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, and she has created numerous public sculptures. Her work explores the whorls and eddies of time, space, and circumstance, and the turbulence of the forces that shape our lives and our smallest parts.

Erik Durant is a figurative sculptor based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he studied History and Sculpture at Southern Connecticut State University before earning an MFA in Sculpture from UMass Dartmouth in 2004. An elected member of the National Sculptors Society, Durant exhibits nationally. His public commissions include the New Bedford Fisherman’s Tribute Monument, memorials for Tom Lopes and Elizabeth Taber, and a recent commission for the Mahoney family at the North Hampton Public Library in New Hampshire.

David Stephan Graves is an alum of Bristol Community College’s Graphic Design program and holds a BFA from UMass Dartmouth and MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. A designer, creative director, and photographer, he is co-founder of Material Creative Studio. His work explores materiality and social issues including waste, temporality, identity, and mental health, often merging analog and digital processes. His research and writing address art therapy in pedagogy, decolonization, and inclusion in art and design.

Kathleen Hancock is an artist, educator, curator/director, and founding director of the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College. Her studio practice, KathleenHancockStudios, explores remembrance, storytelling, and the ways personal and family histories shape identity. Through sewing, model making, spoken word, and writing, she examines memory, loss, childhood experience, and intergenerational trauma and healing. Her decade-long Chair Project explored these themes through sixth-scale furniture. Her current project, Henry’s Last Night, is a four-part spoken-word podcast accompanied by a memoir about the life and death of her father.

Kat Knutsen is a figurative artist, educator, curator, and founder of The Siren Scene. Her studio practice explores the human figure through painting and drawing, with an emphasis on narrative and composition. She has taught at the college level for 10 years and recently co-juried and curated Curious Figure 3, a national figurative exhibition. Through The Siren Scene, Knutsen combines animation, visual storytelling, and arts journalism to highlight artists and creative projects distinguished by strong craftsmanship, thoughtful design, and compelling concepts.

Matthew Napoli (b. 1993, Texas, USA) is an artist and art educator based in Providence, Rhode Island. His painting and drawing explore growth, change, and the anxieties that accompany them. Recent works test abstraction and ornamentation within an expanded notion of the still life. A former high school dropout, Napoli earned an AA from San Jacinto College, BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and MFA from UMass Dartmouth. He has been an artist in residence at the New York Academy of Art and Chautauqua Visual Arts.

Michael Silvia is an alum of Bristol Community College’s Graphic Design program, where he earned his associate degree before receiving a BFA in Graphic Design and Letterform from UMass Dartmouth. He has more than 15 years of experience as a designer and creative director in nonprofit, political, print, and manufacturing fields. At ActBlue, he rose to Creative Director of a 10-person in-house team, shaping the company’s visual identity. He is now owner and Creative Director of M Design Co. LLC, guided by the belief that design should carry someone’s fingerprints.