KHAHTEE V. TURNER is the founder and director of SCP. With a background in film, writing, and teaching, she was inspired to create an enrichment Studio where children and parents are provided powerful early experiences in creative learning, imaginative thinking, and adventurous play. Most important to Khahtee's vision for the Studio is to nurture the growth of the individual in early childhood through exposure to various facets of expression, the joyous and celebratory presence of community and peers, and a resourceful, artistic environment.

Khahtee believes deeply in the child's ability to grow and his or her capacity to persevere when provided loving, compassionate, and engaging social and intellectual beginnings. She believes that when children are taught to use their imagination as a primary tool, they are more apt to become visionary leaders offering constructive change to our world.

Khahtee's design of the Studio, its comprehensive experiences and format, and unique approach to creative guidance has built a new community of families and neighbors. Each day, Khahtee leads these parents, caregivers, artists, and teachers in a playful practice that expands consciousness of the larger creative nature and innate promise of our children, our future.

In December 2006, Khahtee began Sunturns Productions, a multimedia company that produces enrichment media for parents and young children. She is a national consultant for early childhood arts, creativity, and enrichment-based programming. Khahtee is the mother of a 3 1/2 year old Venni Studio attendee. On January 15, 2012 she will launch a global enrichment initiative in which all of us will be able to share.

SCOTT JOHNSON received a B.A. in Jazz Studies from Long Island University in 2007 and, soon after, became a part of Studio Creative Play. Drawn to the studio's philosophy and holistic approach to early childhood education, he knew he found an amazing place to share his love of music, art, and exploring the imagination with young children.




Scott will be in his fifth year as a co-teacher at Studio, and is excited to begin his new role as Assistant Director. He has worked extensively with three and four year old children in Venni Studio, while also being an active teacher in Saturday workshops, Mondo Amico and Collage programs.

In addition to his time spent at SCP, Scott is an active musician and music educator. He performs throughout NYC and is the founder of Sonic Enrichment, offering creative musical instruction to both children and adults. He is thrilled to continue to be a part of Studio Creative Play and the surrounding community, and looks forward to another amazing year of teaching children to be, imagine, create, and emerge.

As a musician and songwriter, KENNY HARRISplayed, recorded, and toured with Rock N' Roll bands since he was 17 years old. He traveled extensively across the US, UK, and Europe and produced multiple recording contracts, publishing deals, and top charting radio singles.

Throughout his professional musical adventures, Kenny always remained connected to children, guiding them in play and learning that was centered on arts and music. He worked in community arts, child-care, and after school programs during the last 11 years, in Colorado, South Carolina, and New York.

In 2008 Kenny joined Studio Creative Play and worked as the primary co-teacher and musician for the parent and child classes. Over the next few years Kenny grew with the program, becoming a permanent co-teacher for Venni Studio. His greatest joy in being with the Studio is that the program provides the perfect environment for an artist to combine a love of teaching with his or her creative niche, while contributing directly to the whole development of the young child.

Kenny consistently offers a musical approach to the development of various dimensions of curricular projects through his play and humor. On a daily basis, he encourages a collaborative and hands-on approach, with the children exploring different sound instruments by his side. Kenny has the gifts of natural warmth, infectious enthusiasm, and the ability to bond with the children, all of which support the foundations of the Studio's relationship-based philosophy. He is excited to begin this year as the Studio Manager, growing alongside the SCP Venni community.

GORDON ROECKER joined Studio Creative Play in February 2008 and has taught in the Venni, Collage, Pezzotanto and Vibrato programs. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, with a concentration in alternative education and performance studies.

Gordon is currently pursuing certification as an English language teacher for children and adults. With a strong background in music, performance art and storytelling, Gordon values each child’s curiosity and ideas. In the Vibrato program, he encourages children to find their own unique voice by exploring the possibilities of sound and music. He especially enjoys creative storytelling through songwriting and experimental sounds, infusing authentic movement, vocal exercises, unusual instruments and improvisation. Gordon is excited to join SCP for a fourth year of continued art-making, inspiration and fun.

DAVID GUZMAN graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and has worked in schools in Detroit, Michigan, Toledo, Ohio, and Seattle, Washington. He has been attracted to the arts ever since he was young, loves sharing songs and writings with others and performs improv comedy.

As a teacher at SCP, David enjoys introducing children to and engaging them with, all the world has to offer, at a level that they can grasp. He enjoys his time with the threes age group because all that they absorb at this age will become the foundation for their later experiences. "They truly are learning to be themselves, finding out who they are and what they want to be, and it's up to the adults in their lives to guide them in those discoveries." With all his students David encourages creative expression, respectful relationships and new explorations.

JEFF BOLES is incredibly excited to return for his second year at the Studio. Jeff graduated with a BA in Theater Performance at Marymount Manhattan College in New York and is currently working towards a Masters Degree in Education at Felician College in New Jersey.

While working as a writer and an actor for several years, Jeff developed a passion and enthusiasm for working with children. As an educator in New Jersey, he was known for playing guitar while encouraging his students to sing along with the rhythms of the music, incorporating voice, movement, and gestures into their daily activities and routines.

Jeff finds that connecting with a young child, through his or her imagination, is an inspiring process. He loves to read to children and believes that nourishing the artistic and creative growth of a child enhances awareness and appreciation for the community within which they live.

Jeff co-directed drama club programs, taught storytelling classes, and photographed "end of year" short films. As a writer, Jeff authored his own educational performances, including, Theater - One Hilarious History, which dramatizes the history of theater from the Greeks to Broadway. Jeff is honored and excited to be a part of Studio Creative Play, an environment that is filled with loving and nurturing teacher/artists and a community that is always inspiring.

KAREN STEELE has been an art teacher and a practicing artist for the past 11 years. This will be her second year teaching at Studio Creative Play since relocating from Berkeley, CA, where Karen taught art at various after-school programs, ceramic studios, art centers, preschools, and museums. Karen’s longest position was at Habitot Children’s Museum, where she taught art classes for toddlers and ran the drop-in art studio. Through her work there, Karen’s philosophy on teaching art was formed: she believes in allowing children to do open-ended process-based art and in giving them a lot of freedom to create what they want and get messy in the process.

Karen is passionate about giving children the most positive first exposure to art that she can. Her main art form is making mixed media collages and she loves to use found objects in her work. She has a childlike approach to art and LOVES to get messy and mix colors with her hands. Studio Creative Play's multidisciplinary nature has allowed Karen to expand the depth of her teaching to incorporate other subjects that inspire her in addition to art.

Karen has degrees in Graphic Design, Anthropology, and Sociology, and she loves traveling and learning about other cultures. Her own travels help inform the imaginary journeys she takes with the children throughout the year. Karen also finds the Studio’s deep appreciation for the Earth to be inspiring. No area of study is approached without examining its impact on the earth. Karen loved exploring this diverse curriculum with her students last year and is so excited to have another incredible year ahead of her with the awesome kids at the Studio!

MEGAN BISBEE-DURLAM grew up in Vermont where her love of learning and art saturated her experience. She received a BFA in 2005 from Alfred University. She also studied art abroad in Florence, Italy, and Paris, France. For two years Megan was a Nanny in Tampa, Florida as well as a practicing professional artist.

Megan took her dual passions of art and teaching with her to Anan-cho, Japan, where she taught English, Art and Yoga for two years, to people of all ages. In January, 2010, Megan became a Kripalu Yoga certified instructor allowing her to teach yoga in Brooklyn and have plenty of time to be in her studio painting, creating found-object sculpture and making jewelry.

Megan loved spending the 2010-11 year with the 4-year-old “Vega” group at SCP. After a summer traveling and making art in Iceland she is so excited to start a new year with fresh minds, ideas and energy. She believes that young children are at an important age to cultivate their inner voice and to learn to listen to their intuition. A multi-disciplinary, creativity-based program is an ideal environment for children to develop into mindful, creative and authentic human beings. She is excited to spend time playing, exploring inspiration, moving, sharing her love of learning and teaching, and connecting with the kids, other teachers and parents in the community.

JENNA ROBINSON is very excited to be returning to Studio this fall after an amazing season teaching with Venni last Spring! She believes wholeheartedly that SCP is one of the most inspiring places to learn and grow as both a student and a teacher. She received a BFA with concentration in art therapy from the School of Visual Arts in 2002 and completed a Post-Baccalaureate Program for Art Education from Moore College of Art & Design in 2010.

While in school in Philadelphia she Co-Developed and taught art to adolescents through a non-profit Art Studio located in Coatesville, PA. There she and her co- teacher emphasized the use of natural materials in the creation of art. Their primary focus was on facilitating a sense of place and a connection between children living in an urban habitat to the natural world. She was a teacher at Friends Seminary in New York City from 2005-2007. There she developed and taught an art curriculum in a variety of mediums (fiber, wood, ceramics, drawing and painting) for 2nd to 6th grade. While at Friends she established a warm and encouraging relationship with her students while fostering a cooperative learning environment.

She participated in an Arts Education Residency at California State University Long Beach from 2007 to 2008. During this time she led two workshops that sought to empower adolescents through art and self-expression. One took place in Cambodia with Khmer adolescents and the other with Latina girls in Long Beach. Both workshops were connected under the concept of global to local. Jenna makes her own art as well focusing on designing systems that are made of unconventional and natural materials, enabling people to interact and connect to the environment around them.

CAROLINE MARTIN joins Studio Creative Play this fall with an eagerness to guide discoveries, build community, make art, and boogie. She has been a performer and nanny in New York City for the past four years, and feels especially connected to the tenets of creativity and investigation that are so valued by Venni families.

The Studio setting will be a welcome (and fortuitously unconventional) return to her roots as a classroom educator. Caroline completed the Elementary Teachers Certification Program at Connecticut College in 2006 alongside her Bachelors training for dance. Working closely with mentor, Ann Schenk, Caroline anticipated new arts legislation and graduated among the first teachers in her state with a unique cross endorsement in the field of dance. She furthered her craft at the American Dance Festival, where she studied under a Young Artist Scholarship and had the great privilege of performing in its International Choreographers Commissioning Program.

Caroline believes that young minds are most active when their bodies are free to be, and fosters movement as an integrated tool for comprehension. She is inspired by the child’s readiness to take on new information beyond developmentally-expected concepts and supports the delicate process of building a framework for how the world operates.

Caroline has also been a storyteller, costumer, collector, and explorer in her own right. Most recently, this inclination has asserted itself through soft sculptures and papier mache. Her recent experience in childcare infuses her teaching with warmth and a nurturing quality that will surely ease the three-year-old’s transition from home learner to vibrant and contributing member of the SCP family.

GIGI CHEW is thrilled to join Studio Creative Play this fall. She is a licensed Social Worker with over eight years of experience working with a wide range of high-risk adults and children in a variety of settings including hospitals, shelters, schools, soup kitchens and supportive housing facilities.  Gigi completed her BA in Psychology in 2002 at NYU and her Masters in Social Work at NYU in 2005.  More recently, Gigi has been working as a Creative Arts Therapist with in-need children in public schools, as well as savoring her time as a new mother.

In her free time, Gigi is an illustrator and crafter who loves to work with her hands.  She enjoys integrating natural elements into her work with children in ways that develop consciousness and appreciation of the natural world.  In 2010, Gigi founded Get Dirty NYC!- a nonprofit that connects volunteers to farms and gardens in the five boroughs. Her hope is to help repair the disconnect between New Yorkers, the earth, the food that they eat, and their communities.

Having grown up around the globe, Gigi encourages children to expand their global awareness and respect for culture and diversity.  In addition, she is deeply committed to providing a supportive, joyful, warm, and enriching learning environment to children and believes in the importance of nurturing strengths, playfulness and imagination within their lives.  Gigi looks forward to a wonderful year at SCP!