Educators

Air Hoover (They/Them)
Air is an artist and designer with a BA in environmental studies and a BFA in fine art. Their work crosses many mediums including textile, drawing, and digital rendering. Topics such as systems thinking, urban planning, future imaginaries, and social patterns are important in their practice of world building. Air spends their time having fun, dancing, and making art with their trans and queer community.

Brandon Tong (He/Him)
Brandon is an artist, coder, and musician living in Ridgewood. His work explores the ways we can use the vast array of URL technology to foster IRL connection. Hailing from Golden, Colorado he loves bike rides, buffalo wings, and summer sunrises.

Deirdre Irvine (They/Them) - Educator
Originally from Rhode Island, Deirdre moved to Brooklyn by way of the Hudson Valley, and hasn’t left since. Stop motion animation, experimental photography, and printmaking, are some of the many courses Deirdre has led. Deirdre has numerous passions and interests, and apart from the artistic areas that Deirdre specializes in professionally, they also enjoy experiencing live music, television production, cartography, and earth sciences, to name a few.

Hazza Block (They/Them)
Hazza Block is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator based in New York City. They have a AAS in communication design and a BFA in graphic design from the Fashion institute of Technology, where they also took minors in art history, color studies, and ethics and sustainability. They are currently a student at the City College of New York studying for their MA in art education. In addition to their creative practice, Hazza likes to play dungeons and dragons for their friends, snowboard in the winter, and make music. They also enjoy RPG video games, animation, and manga.

Lara Lewison (She/Her)
Lara is a Unity Developer, musician, and visual artist from Mukilteo/WA. She has worked freelance as a Unity developer building AR/VR interaction prototypes, making music videos and interactive album art, and creating projections for theater and performance sets. She graduated with a B.A. in Music from Columbia University and was the 2020 class recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts.

Laura Yee (She/Her)
Laura is an illustrator and animator based in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute where she focused on 2D animation. She is currently working as a freelance artist, and is cultivating her love of visual storytelling wherever she can. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games, and playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends.

Alice Keys (She/Her)
Alice is an artist / designer of all trades and self-taught indie game developer who specializes in game designing for accessibility to better include players with visual, auditorial and cognitive disabilities. She comes from a family of many teachers and has grown up assisting classrooms and teaching others how to create and express themselves. Being autistic has helped her understand how to reach students who struggle with conventional learning through visual materials. Alice’s wide skill set includes game design, programming, music composition / production, digital painting, 3D art, narrative writing, and cooking meals for sad friends.

Lily Peterson (She/They)
Lily recently graduated with English major with a double minor in Computer Science/Philosophy, making her prepared to handle any task she may face. She previously spent a year working as a Lead Children's Coding Instructor, handling everything from basic to advanced programming, even encompassing 3D Design/Printing, Robotics, and Electronics. During this time, she often led classes in partnership with Autism Ontario as part of an outreach program. In addition, she's worked as a Multiplayer/VR Developer, Game Designer, Game Journalist, and Mental Health Educator. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, she's been instilled with a love for teaching and education.

Rhayne Batista (She/Her)
Rhayne is a Brooklyn-born and based filmmaker, screenwriter, video installation artist and projectionist. A recent graduate of Bard College Film and Electronic Arts, Rhayne has transferred her knowledge of film/video production, A/V systems, and film/art history to projecting for the IFC Center, doing freelance video/video installation work, and, of course, sharing that knowledge and passion with the children of her Brooklyn community. Her film/video work centers around themes of innocence, transience, and the (often uncomfortable) nuances of growing up a digital native, especially as these relate to the ways in which our attitudes towards ourselves, others, and our world are shaped by digital media. Rhayne likes to spend her free time watching the Real Housewives or reading in the park—it’s all about balance!