Art School & Career Panel Series

KJ Lee

KJ Lee is the founder of the New York School of Arts (NYSA) in Vienna, VA. KJ previously served as the Head Director of the P.I. Art Center in New York City, where she collaborated with various art school directors and contemporary artists. With a wealth of experience, KJ specializes in teaching the arts, particularly in the college portfolio program. She is also an admission portfolio reviewer for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), offering valuable guidance to students.

Currently, KJ is pursuing her doctoral studies in educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in Art Education from Sookmyung University in South Korea. KJ Lee's career and educational journey highlight her passion for the arts and her commitment to shaping the future of art education.

Andrew Norris

Andrew Norris is an artist and educator who received his BFA from East Tennessee State University and his MFA from the University of Florida, where he also earned a Graduate Certificate in Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies. He creates figurative oil paintings that explore how the often undervalued forms of Americana and heartland kitsch can be recharged as instruments through which to generate and explore queer identities.

His work has been featured in numerous national group exhibitions including Miami University (Oxford, OH), Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (South Korea), and Capital One (Richmond, VA). Norris has been awarded fellowships to attend artist residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, FL) and at the University of Wisconsin (Green Bay, WI). Norris’ work has been featured in New American Paintings (Issue 153) and has work in the collection of the Tom of Finland Foundation.

Norris has taught in the Summer Pre-College Program, Art Foundation (AFO), and Painting and Printmaking (PAPR) Departments at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently an Assistant Professor and Studio Art Coordinator at Virginia State University.

Zia Palmer

Zia Palmer is an artist, archivist, and family historian based in the D.C. metro area. Her practice is rooted in analog and alternative photographic processes and focuses on the relationship between land, time, and memory. She is interested in how these topics shape her own identity and the preservation of culture over time.

Zia received a BFA in Art and Visual Technology with a concentration in photography from George Mason University. Her work has been exhibited in various galleries across the region including the Target Gallery, Gillespie Gallery, and Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art.

Jordan Love

Melissa Jordan Love is the Carol R. Angle Academic Curator and Co-Interim Director at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, where she has overseen the Education department since 2012. Love's career as an art historian, educator, and museum curator spans more than 25 years. Under Love’s leadership at the Fralin, the education department has grown to host university classes with over 2,000 enrolled students per year in addition to 4,000 K-12 students in Charlottesville and nine surrounding counties.  Upon her arrival on an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, Love took over a new fledgling museum studies class and developed it into an internship program, adding an undergraduate, student-curated exhibition as part of the class experience, which is organized annually by the Fralin’s student interns under Love’s guidance. Love earned a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University, completing her dissertation research on medieval art and architecture. She also pursued study in Oceanic art, inspired by having lived on Easter Island for a year as a child. Love earned a bachelor's degree, cum laude in Art History and Economics from Wellesley College. She previously held curatorial positions at the Worcester Art Museum, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum and the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in her native Wyoming.

Reece Rahilly

After graduating as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia in 2011, Reece Rahilly spent several years at Sotheby’s New York, working in both Sotheby’s Preferred and the Logistics Department, where she coordinated high-value global art shipments. These diverse experiences provided Reece a well-rounded understanding of the commercial art world and helped her transition into the client-centered, logistically-complex art fair role she has occupied since 2013, working her way to a Director title in 2016. As The Armory Show’s Director of Production, Reece works year-round to produce New York’s premier international art fair, which attracts 200 gallery participants and 60,000 visitors annually. In addition to overseeing all elements of exhibiting gallery participation and production, Reece focuses on sales and business development through fostering relationships with leading international galleries. She lives with her husband and two young children in Charlotte, NC and travels frequently to New York and other global cities, visiting art fairs and galleries.

Dena Rapoport

Dena Rapoport is a Museum Educator and Coordinator of Family Programs at the National Gallery of Art. In this capacity, she helps families learn together and connect to creativity and to the process of art making. She has a B.A. in History of Art from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Art History from The George Washington University where she worked as a teaching assistant. Previously, Dena held positions at The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of African Art. She previously attended the Harvard Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and presented at NAEA and WISSIT. Dena is the co-author of “Partners in Learning: Early Childhood Visitors, their Companions, and Museums,” published in Creating Meaningful Museum Experiences for K–12 Audiences: How to Connect with Teachers and Engage Students.