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Enriching, Inspiring, and Promoting the Arts Experience

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Meet our board
of directors.

Charlene Cerasa

Transitional Leadership Team & Treasurer

Charlene Cerasa moved to Bucks County in 2017 to be near her ​daughter and ​family.

She is a retired School Business Administrator. Throughout her career​ and after retiring​, Charlene pursued and engaged in volunteer opportunities that aligned​ with her interests​ ​and ​expertise.  ​Most recently, she ​serve​d nearly 10 years​ as Treasurer for the York Art Association​.​

After moving to Bucks County, she ​ joined the board of directors of the Bucks County Symphony Society and currently serves as treasurer.

Charlene notes, “While I am neither an artist nor a musician, I appreciate the arts and I have made wonderful acquaintances and lifelong friends because of my associations.​”​

Clifford Eberly

Transitional Leadership Team

Clifford Eberly is an artist and curator living in Doylestown. Since January 2022, he has directed the Hicks Art Center Gallery at Bucks County Community College. Eberly holds a BFA from SCAD and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. While in California, his installations, performances, collages and paintings were exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at Raid Projects (Eastside International), PØST, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, PAM, Torrance Art Museum, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Coachella Valley Arts Center, The Art Gallery at Glendale Community College, Coastline Art Gallery, and LACMA. In 2019 Eberly received the Curators LAB Grant and organized the exhibition and catalogue for CODE WORD SAFE at the Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. He is excited to build lasting relationships with the local community to promote the arts through education and innovative exhibitions.

Susan Forker

Recording Secretary

Susan began her career as a film and video editor in New York and then Los Angeles after her graduation from Syracuse University. After moving to Doylestown in 2006, her background as an editor using imagery to tell a story and interests as a vintage collector led her to create joeyfivecents, a brand of handmade jewelry that incorporates antique ephemera and resin. Sourcing materials from the area, she thrives on the local connection in her work between the past and the present with an emphasis on the beauty of asymmetry and imperfection found in her natural surroundings. She has written independent lifestyle pieces for Bucks Life magazine is an active member in Crafts Dept. Philly, a small collaborative of artists in the Philly metro area.

Carol Gilbert

Corresponding Secretary

“Art has always been a passion and part of who I am.” Carol Gilbert received a BFA degree from Tyler School of Art and enjoyed working as a Graphic Designer/Illustrator in advertising. After retiring, she pursued the fine arts as an award-winning painter & art teacher, working in her home studio in Bucks County. Carol and her husband were amateur adult ice-dancers, which led to her small business, Carol Anne Skatewear, designing/sewing skatewear for competitors. She became Test Chairperson for the national USFS organization. Bringing the beauty and joy of art to others is my heartfelt desire and reward.

Deborah Kostianovsky

Deborah Kostianovsky worked as a child and adolescent psychiatrist for thirty years, helping underserved children in Philadelphia. While working part-time, she completed a Master of Liberal Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on philosophy of aesthetics, art history, and comparative literature. The master’s program re-ignited her longstanding passion for writing about art.

She recently transitioned from medicine to writing about the visual arts. She reviewed exhibitions and events, wrote about artwork for sale, and showcased artist-members for In Liquid, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit arts organization. She also wrote a series about art and mind for a literary magazine

Louise Levy

Louise Levy has a varied career from educator to organizational development consultant; from environmental advocacy to her current pursuit of fine art photography. She serves on the Executive Committee of The Print Center in Philadelphia, the Environmental Advisory Committee of Solebury Township, and the Board of Directors of the Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County.

She is an award-winning photographer who explores the world of light and shadow. Her work has been accepted in many juried shows including the Phillips’ Mill Photography Exhibition, and a solo show at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, Pennsylvania. She also received the Best of Show award from Destig, an international Fine Arts publication.

William Milnazik

After a successful college experience at Tyler School of Art, Bill worked for one of Philadelphia’s largest and most creative design studios learning the business of creativity for marketing and branding. In 1997 he started AXIS Visual and has been the owner and lead designer ever since. He believes that “beauty and innovation hold endless value to our culture and society. We should protect and promote artistic drive wherever we find it.”

Hayden Saunier

Hayden Saunier is an actor, writer, and founder/director of No River Twice, a poetry + improvisation performance group. She is the author of five books of poetry, has been awarded numerous national prizes for her work and is a former Bucks County Poet Laureate. Film and theatre credits include The Sixth Sense, House of Cards, Mindhunter and work at the Guthrie, Walnut Street, Westbeth, Arden, and Interact Theaters. Hayden believes that the arts connect us to ourselves and our communities in the deepest and most meaningful ways.

Ashara Shapiro

Ashara Shapiro’s creative journey started in the world of performance art, as a Magna Cum Laude Graduate from Emerson College with a BFA in Acting and Theater Education. She spent years as a performer and arts educator but quickly expanded her passions to include creative writing and design. Ashara has an entrepreneurial spirit and has worked on several incredible design projects in Bucks County. Her newest venture is ArtWRKD, an art consortium that has recently opened in Newtown. It is an experiential space that houses a gallery, artists in residence and workshop space. Ashara creates her wearable art brand, ARecherche from her ArtWRKD studio. Ashara also is a published poet in the anthologies, The Pandemic Project and Shocking Verbs, Lawless Nouns, and the literary magazine Neshaminy.

Julie Standig

Julie Standig has been involved in the Bucks County writing community for the past four years. She is author of two books of poetry, Memsahib Memoir, published by Plan B Press, 2017 and a full poetry collection, The Forsaken Little Black Book, Kelsay Books, 2022. Her poems have appeared in in Sadie Girl Press, Schuylkill Journal Review, Gyroscope Review, US1 Poets/Del Val, to name a few.

She is proud to be a part of the amazing writing and art community she has found here in Bucks County. Especially in our turbulent times, she believes our art and words are essential.

Melissa D. Sullivan

Melissa D. Sullivan is a writer, journalist, editor and attorney. Her short fiction can be found in Dappled Things, The Coil Magazine, and elsewhere, and her flash fic “Dear Jacqueline” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2023, she was proud to take on the role of publisher of Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Magazine.  A graduate of Rutgers University and Boston University School of Law, she can often be found on the mean streets of Bucks County buying yet another book.

Gene Underwood

Transitional Leadership Team

Gene had a 35-year career in advertising as an agency partner and creative director. His agency specialized in helping hotels, resorts, and conference centers attract new audiences and then deepen their connections to clients. Then he threw himself into becoming a painter. After a year of private lessons, he used the time of the pandemic to develop a daily painting practice and learn as much as he could about how to express himself in paint. Gene enjoys sharing his marketing experience and ideas with nonprofit organizations, including HRC, the League of Women Voters, and Phillips’ Mill.