RSVP for ProArts 40th anniversary celebration | september 26th

faculty development panel 4:30-6:00 PM | reception & celebratory remarks 6:00-8:00 PM

4:30-6:00 PM | Panel Discussion

Creative Arts and Creative Career Planning:
Exploring the Potential of Non-Traditional Career Pathways

Over the last 40 years, ProArts has primarily focused on academic collaboration, from cross-registration and faculty partnerships to the founding of the Boston Arts Academy back in 1998. As such, it seemed appropriate for our celebration to include an opportunity for our faculty to connect and to learn. This faculty development panel will focus on supporting students in pursuing diverse/non-traditional career pathways. 

Moderator

Beth Lundell Garver (Boston Architectural College)
Bethany Lundell Garver, AIA, NCARB, is Dean and Faculty of Practice and Director of Applied Learning at the Boston Architectural College. She leads college-wide efforts to connect education with practice through reflective assessment and experiential learning initiatives including the CityLab Intensive program. Her research and teaching focuses on urban design, community engagement, design pedagogy, and professional practice. Beth holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design with distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, along with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Interior Architecture, both magna cum laude, from Auburn University. She has been elected to several board leadership positions, most recently for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the Boston Society of Architects AIA chapter.

Panelists

Andy Chau (Berklee)
Andy Chau (he/him) is an active music and entertainment professional with experience in education, artist development/management, live-performance/event production, and as a performing musician. As assistant dean of career engagement at Berklee, he leads the strategic student outreach/career engagement plan, career advising strategy, and marketing/communications for the Career Center. He also oversees the Berklee Fellowship Program, which provides funds to students participating in an internship for academic credit. As an advisor, he specializes in the performance and business career communities. Andy was formerly the director of career services and student programs at Boston Conservatory, where he developed a comprehensive career services model for the Conservatory, implementing and producing a diverse portfolio of programs that included the Entrepreneurial Grant Program, the Professional Development Initiative, and the first (and now annual) Senior Dance Showcase in New York City. He continues to serve as the executive producer for both the Musical Theater and Dance showcases for graduating students at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. 

Shaun Clarke (Emerson College)
Shaun Clarke’s dance films explore ways that movement can be transformed through the tools of the cinema. His work as Director of Photography spans a wide breadth of productions: short and feature-length narrative films, documentaries, music videos, and television commercials. His work has screened at numerous film festivals nationally and internationally. Shaun received a B.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and an M.F.A. from Emerson College. Shaun Clarke is an Associate Professor at Emerson College, where he currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Visual and Media Arts.

Kendall Reiss (School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University)
In her work, Kendall Reiss focuses on two separate yet parallel modes of inquiry: the design and fabrication of contemporary jewelry alongside material experiments, which result in sculptural objects and time-based installations. A native of Bristol, Rhode Island, Kendall grew up exploring the rocky shoreline of Narragansett Bay. She attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA where she received a BS in Geology, which provided the visual training and hands-on approach she now uses to conduct and record her studio-based investigations. After studying at several prominent institutions including the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Kendall returned to school to combine her fascination of the natural world with the study of jewelry. In 2011, she received an MFA in Jewelry + Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design. Kendall has taught across New England including at the Rhode Island School of Design and Fuller Craft Museum. Kendall is currently a Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA, where she teaches in the Metals Area and the Senior Thesis Program.

Andrew Schartmann (New England Conservatory)
Andrew Schartmann is a composer and music theorist whose work focuses on video game music, Viennese classicism, and music theory pedagogy. He is a Professor of Music at New England Conservatory and serves as Audio Director of Yale’s XR Pediatrics lab, where he crafts music and sound environments for VR games. Prior to joining NEC’s faculty, he served as an affiliate faculty member at Yale's Center for Collaborative Arts and Media. He has published several books, including Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack (2015) and Analyzing NES Music: Harmony, Form, and the Art of Technological Constraint (2025). He is a founding board member of the Society for the Study of Sound and Music in Games and currently serves as Associate Editor of DSCH Journal — a biannual publication devoted to the life and work of Dmitri Shostakovich.

Rebekah Teerlink Wright (Massachusetts College of Art and Design)
Rebekah Teerlink Wright manages the Internship Program at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design's Career Development office where she advises students as they prepare for internships and beginning their creative career journeys. She received her BA in Painting with a Minor in Creative Writing from Brandeis University and an MFA in Cinema-Television Production from University of Southern California. She started her career working in television and film production primarily as a production coordinator for animation and visual effects studios. She also worked as an art producer for storyboards for advertising campaigns in Los Angeles where she managed agency accounts and led a team of illustrators. Wright is also an artist and illustrator herself. She exhibits her paintings in the Boston & New England area (as “Bekka Teerlink”.) Most recently her work was shown at Kingston Gallery in SoWa and the Danforth Art Museum. She is also the creator of a popular illustrated webcomic called Bikeyface, which takes a humorous look at trying to get around a city on two wheels.