Assets for Artists Staff

Blair Benjamin | Director | he/him/his

Since joining MASS MoCA in 2000, Blair has worn many hats: fundraising, real estate development, economic impact research, alternative energy project management, financial and business coaching for artists, and artist residency services. He founded the Assets for Artists program in 2007, and the Studios at MASS MoCA in 2015, and continues to steer the growth of both programs. Blair is also a poet and fiction writer whose work has appeared in North American Review, The Threepenny Review, and Pithead Chapel, among others. 

 

Olana Flynn | A4A Communications Coordinator | she/her/hers

Olana is a multi-disciplinary choreographer, educator, and producer based in Holyoke, MA. She holds an MFA in Experimental Choreography from UC Riverside and a BA from Hampshire College. She is the co-director of LOCULUS, a performance collective that creates work for non-traditional dance spaces, publishes The Loculus Journal, and programs The Loculus Studio in Holyoke. With LOCULUS she has presented the work of over 50 local and regional artists. Olana’s work as been performed, exhibited, and installed throughout the US and in Antwerp. She is currently a lecturer in the dance program at Keene State College. (Photo by Matt Flynn)

 

Luiza Folegatti | Studios at MASS MoCA Residency Coordinator | she/her/ella

Luiza is a Brazilian artist who relocated to North Adams in 2021, participated in the Studios at MASS MoCA residency program, and co-designed the Studios’ new Iris Residency (serving immigrant artists in western Mass). Prior, she spent five years in Berlin (Germany) integrating artistic practice, teaching, and social advocacy work around the rights of women immigrants. Luiza’s artistic practice focuses on gender and migration, and she applies photography, video, performance, and visual anthropology methods. She also teaches photography part-time at Bennington College and at other community projects. 

 

Briana Halpin | A4A Program Manager - Western MA | she/her/hers

Briana received her BA from Williams College, where she studied Religion and Environmental Studies. She then landed in North Adams, discovered the arts, and was instantly hooked on both. After assisting professional artists for nearly a decade, Briana joined A4A in 2013. She is thrilled to be working in support of so many talented creatives while indulging her love of spreadsheets. Briana’s extracurriculars include knitting, walking in water, and hawking curated secondhand fashion through a pop-up boutique called Briana’s Side Hustle.

 
Elizabeth Moy

Elizabeth Moy | A4A Program Manager - Central & Eastern MA, RI & CT | she/her/hers

Elizabeth joined Assets for Artists in 2022 after several years coordinating public programming and engagement at the Rose Art Museum. She is the founder of Blueprint Projects, an artist support initiative that strengthens the creative community in Waltham, MA, through free professional development workshops, coalition building, and advocacy. Drawing from her family’s photographic archive, Elizabeth’s creative practice examines what it means to be Asian American by tracing the legacy of war and its impact over four generations. She received her M.F.A from the California College of the Arts.

 

Carolina Porras Monroy | Studios at MASS MoCA Residency Manager | she/her/ella

Carolina is a Guatemalan-American who grew up in Florida. She joined the Assets for Artists team in 2022 after four years of managing Elsewhere Studios Artist Residency, a small rural program in Western Colorado. She is co-founder of Piney Wood Atlas, a country-wide artist residency research project highlighting radical and DIY spaces through publications and online resources. Currently, her creative practice involves working with her hands in any way through drawing, textile work, and repairing bikes.

 

Molly Rideout | Assistant Director | she/her/hers

Molly joined Assets for Artists in 2019 after three decades in the Midwest. She now oversees A4A’s professional development programming. A place-focused writer committed to the arts and narratives of rural areas, Molly’s stories and essays have been published in River Teeth, Fourth Genre, and the Mississippi Review. She’s the former director of Grin City Collective Artists & Writers Residency and has recently received fellowships from Mass Cultural Council, Green Box Arts, and Edith Wharton’s The Mount. (Photo by Jon Verney)


Our Support Team

trainers & coaches || artist & community advisors
application jurors || organizational partners


In addition to the core A4A staff, we rely on over one hundred amazing artists and partners to help us deliver our programming and co-design our work. Check them out at the links above. Here are a few folks you might see more often:

Kathline Carr | Print Shop Technician and Instructor, Studios | she, her, hers

Kate has been offering equipment tutorials, printmaking instruction and shop maintenance at our residency print shop since 2020. A North Adams-based writer and artist, Kate works primarily in painting and printmaking. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, Canada and widely in New England, including Boston where she is a member of Fountain Street Gallery. She holds an MFA from Lesley Art + Design, a BFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, and a professional certificate in green printmaking/intaglio from Zea Mays Printmaking. Kate received a finalist award in painting from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2022 and was recently an artist in residence at DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA.

 

Veronica Preciado | A4A Workshop Administrator | she/they

Veronica joined A4A in 2021, after having spent 2020 in North Adams to manage MCLA's Gallery 51. She enjoys supporting the artists that continue to share their knowledge through A4A's workshop series. Now back in California, Veronica is a practicing artist and administrator focusing on the intersectionality of social justice, health, and identity as a non-binary Latinx creator. She received her BA from the University of California Irvine where she studied Art, Medical Humanities, and Biomedical Engineering. Her current practice is multidisciplinary involving, welding, wood working, performance art, and drawing.