Diane Brigham, Executive Director joined Ryman Arts in March 2002 after serving as Head of Education at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where she worked for 14 years. She has over twenty-five years experience in art and museum education, beginning as a public school art teacher and holds a B.S. and M.Ed. in art education from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Diane has served on the national board of directors of the National Art Education Association and recently participated in the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Arts Leadership Initiative, including completion of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Leaders in the Arts.
Angela Flores, Outreach Coordinator and Teaching Assistant, joined Ryman Arts in 2007. She assists the Education Specialist by working one-on-one with students from our target schools. Previously, Angela worked for the Story Project, where she taught writing, filmmaking and production to at-risk youth. She is also an independent filmmaker and currently attends East Los Angles Community College
Emily Han , Administrative Coordinator, joined Ryman Arts in 2007. She earned her BA in English from UC Santa Barbara, previously worked for the Directors’ Guild of America, and has always had a love for literature and art. She is currently working on her own creative writing and illustrations.
Walter Marsh, Operations Manager, joined Ryman Arts in 2007. Walter earned his MFA in Classical Guitar Performance from UCLA in 1995 and comes to Ryman Arts from the Pasadena Conservatory of Music where he worked in operations and finance for eleven years. He enjoys playing music, running triathlons, basketball, tennis, and is a long time art enthusiast.
Rebecca Tuynman, Education Manager, oversees all Ryman Arts classes and student activities. She earned her MFA from UC Santa Barbara in 2005, is an artist working in photography, and has taught studio art at all levels since 1997 in a variety of community organizations, schools, universities, and museums. She earned a BA in art history at Bryn Mawr College. She has been with Ryman Arts since 2005.
Melody Verdugo, Alumni Coordinator, joined Ryman Arts in 2007. Melody organizes alumni social and professional activities, keeps up to date with what alumni are doing now, and encourages all alumni to stay connected with Ryman Arts. She earned her BA in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from Whittier College in 2007 and is an alumna of Ryman Arts (Class of 2003). She enjoys painting, songwriting and playing the guitar.
Teaching Artists
Sang Young Bang, MFA Claremont Graduate University (2007), BFA Art Center College of Design, is a painter whose work is exhibited widely on the west coast, and recently returned from teaching in Alaska. He currently teaches at LA Academy of Figurative Art along with Ryman Arts and joined our faculty in 2006.
Steve Galloway joined the faculty in 2002. He has also taught at Otis College of Art and Design. His drawings and paintings are exhibited in galleries throughout southern California, including Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery, James Corcoran Gallery, and a recent show in Paris. Steve is a former NEA Fellow and holds a BFA from California Institute for the Arts.
Chuck Huang, MFA, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and BFA, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, joined the Ryman Arts faculty in 2006 . He is a painter, and exhibits his work in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Orange County. He also teaches at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, and Mt. San Jacinto College.
Robin Palanker, BFA, California Institute of the Arts. Robin exhibits nationally; most recently her pastel drawings were shown at Santa Monica’s Hunsaker/Schlesinger gallery and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Robin has taught at California State Summer School for the Arts, Art Center College of Design, University of La Verne, Art Institute of Southern California, and Vermont College. She joined Ryman Arts in Fall 2003.
Lauren Richardson is painter who joined the faculty in Fall 2005. She earned her BA and MFA in Fine Arts at UCLA, and has taught at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts and Santa Monica College. She exhibits actively, and was part of the Frye Museum (WA) exhibition Representing LA: Pictorial Currents in Southern California.
David Schoffman, BFA, Rhode Island School of Design. David also teaches at Brentwood Art Center and the L.A. County Museum of Art. He has been an instructor at the California State Summer School for the Arts and was the Mattel Arts Teacher of the Year for Southern California in 2002. David joined Ryman Arts in Fall 2003. He was the Ryman Arts 2006 Sharon D. Lund Master Teaching Artist Award recipient and traveled to Rome and Venice to examine characteristics of Tuscan and Venetian Renaissance and Mannerist painting and drawing.
Cathy Stone lives and works in Los Angeles where she is the director of the gallery Another Year in LA. She was an artist in residence at Monet’s Gardens in Giverny, France and an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for The Arts in Sausalito, California. Internationally she has shown in Berlin, Germany at the Zweiter Berliner Kongress Fur Performance Und Visual art in Berlin. Ms. Stone has been a mentor for Transart Institute for the past two years, an MFA program in Austria, where she works with students individually here in Los Angeles. She joined Ryman Arts in 2007.
Jamie Sweetman, MFA, California State University at Long Beach, and BA from UCLA, joined the Ryman Arts faculty in 2006. She has exhibited her drawings widely since the ‘80s, and is currently teaching drawing at the USC as well as anatomy to artists at California State Long Beach.
Barbara Thomason, BFA, MA, California State University at Long Beach, is a painter and printmaker and has been with Ryman Arts since 1990. She is an instructor in Fine Art at California Polytechnic University, Pomona and has taught at Otis College of Art and Design and the University of Redlands. She has exhibited extensively since 1969, and her work is held in several corporate and private collections.
Malaika Zweig, MFA Massachusetts College of Art, BFA California College of the Arts. She teaches painting and drawing at UCLA Extension and at Citrus College. She also teaches painting at California State Summer School for the Arts. Zweig has exhibited her art on both coasts as well as in Paris. She joined Ryman Arts in 2007.
Teaching Assistants
Kristen Dikio is in her last year of earning her BA in Studio Arts with an emphasis in Fine Arts and a minor in Art History from Loyola Marymount University. She worked as an assistant at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery at Bergamot Station throughout the summer. Kristen graduated from Ryman Arts in 2004.
Wenting Hsu earned a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is now a freelance graphic designer, exhibiting artist, and has taught at the California State University, Fullerton. Wenting graduated from Ryman Arts in 1998.
Michelle Wiener is currently pursuing her MFA at Otis College of Art and Design after receiving her BFA from the University of California at Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies and graduating from Ryman Arts in 2000. She is an alumni association member and helps to coordinate alumni exhibitions.
