Art Base Staff

Annie Henninger
Executive Director

Annie first fell in love with the Roaring Fork Valley while teaching Children’s Summer Workshops at the Anderson Ranch.  She made a permanent move to the valley in 2011 to work at the Aspen Art Museum, where she developed her practice as an art museum educator and manager, and a Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion asset.

In addition, Annie has contributed to the wellbeing of many art organizations and schools across Colorado, including the Telluride Academy, The Ah Haa School for the Arts, Alpine Elementary I.B. World School, and the Glenwood Springs Community Art Center.

With a passion for art education and bringing people together, she hopes to make the world a better place by providing opportunities for all to experience the power of art by tapping into their own creativity. In the words of the artist Keith Haring, “Art is for Everybody.”

In her free time, Annie loves to draw and paint, camp and hike, and go on gravel biking adventures with her partner Keith.

Alyssa has been an artist since she was very young & able to draw. Her high school art teacher, Mrs. Neilson, inspired & encouraged her to study art & photography at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, there she took the opportunity to study fine art at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany for a summer abroad. She obtained her BFA in Photography in 2009.

She worked at the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center as Social Media Manager exploring & thriving with design, marketing, promoting arts educations programs, & cultural events. She has also worked in galleries, photography studios, and as an independent contractor from Boulder to Seattle.

Dana Higbie has spent her life surrounded by art, design, and beauty. A native of Michigan, and later Aspen, Dana received her design degree from Colorado Institute of Art an her BFA from California College of Art. For many years, Dana was a principal in the Denver-based Partners in Design, an award-winning graphic design studio. For 15 years after that, Dana lived and traveled with her family in Mexico and Central America, sourcing native artwork and artisan wares for her retail business, La Tiende (The Store), with locations in Mexico and Honduras. Dana currently resides in Basalt.

Erin Morrison
Gallery and Shop Manager

Erin Morrison (b. 1985, Little Rock, AR) studied painting and sculpture at Memphis College of Art and UCLA, where she received her MFA in 2014. She has exhibited internationally and acted as co-curator for multiple events including Collect For Choice, fundraiser for The Brigid Alliance (2022); LAMMAHOUSE, Hong Kong (2021); and Binder of Women Exhibitions, LA (2017-2020)

Living in Basalt with her husband and two children while managing her own studio at SAW Carbondale, Erin is invested in forming relationships between emerging regional artists and the Roaring Fork community.

Holly Hoffman Gressett excitedly returns to the Art Base. She is a fifth-generation Roaring Fork Valley resident and has worked in arts administration for organizations such as Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Carbondale Arts, as well as several galleries, including the Michael Fatali gallery in Southern Utah.  Her degree is in Business Administration from Arizona State University.

For the past 40 years, Stephanie Gale has immersed herself in multiple art disciplines- design, fine contemporary art, and luxury fashion.

She holds a BFA from Georgia State University and has a strong business background. These credentials and her personal enthusiasm have brought her enviable positions from coast to coast. Stephanie brought her passion for art and design wherever she worked, whether it was Saks Fifth Avenue, Gucci, and Escada in New York City, or Harry Winston and Frette in Beverly Hills.

When Stephanie and her Husband, Arnie, first moved to the Roaring Fork Valley, she quickly connected to the Art Base, first working as a volunteer and now as a member of the staff.

It’s been a successful match.

Kayla Henley is a Roaring Fork native, born and raised in Carbondale, Colorado. She has a BA in English and a double minor in Italian and Anthropology from the University of Denver. In 2018, Kayla began working as a freelance book editor, pivoting from her original dream of being a writer. She is the owner of Henley Ink: Book Coaching and Editing, which she founded in 2020 to help authors navigate the editing process of writing a manuscript. In 2022, Kayla received a Certificate in Publishing from the Denver Publishing Institute. Over the last couple of years, Kayla has continued her work as a freelance book editor while also working at TACAW as their Database Administrator.

The arts have played a crucial role in Kayla’s life. As the daughter of Carbondale-based artist Denise Henley, whose work has been featured in galleries throughout the valley as well as abroad, Kayla has grown up surrounded by arts, and even enjoys trying her hand at acrylics. In addition to her passion for the visual arts and writing, Kayla also works with Thunder River Theatre Company as their dramaturg, providing background research and script analysis for each mainstage production. Kayla deeply believes in the power of the arts and is excited to join the team at The Art Base in helping foster creative expression for all ages.

Since she was a young child, Megan has loved the arts. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she always chose “artist.” However, over the years, her life has taken a winding path, exploring many other aspects of life. She has lived in many places, both domestic and abroad, and has worked for many types of organizations – non-profits, start-ups, and small businesses. This path eventually led her to earn her MBA in the Pacific Northwest.

When living abroad in Ecuador, she discovered textile art and worked with a mentor for weaving, felting, and natural dying, which rekindled her passion for the arts. She now feels passionate about creating opportunities for others to find their artistic outlet.

Megan has lived off and on in the Roaring Fork Valley for almost 25 years and now she and her husband and two sons permanently call Carbondale home.

Kathy, originally from El Salvador, has proudly called the Roaring Fork Valley home since 2008. With a profound passion for art and culture, she is committed to fostering connections among individuals from diverse backgrounds, abilities, and ages. She believes deeply in art’s transformative power to break barriers and strengthen community ties. 

Kathy brings a wealth of skills in community outreach, program development, and collaborative engagement, which she has honed through her current role as the Community Programs Manager at the Aspen Art Museum. Kathy creates inclusive opportunities for artistic expression and cultural engagement by working closely with various community groups to emphasize the importance of accessibility in the arts.

In addition to her professional work, Kathy enjoys painting, dancing, and exploring the outdoors.

Annie Bell is a visual artist, photographer and educator living and working in the Roaring Fork Valley. In her artistic practice, she works with discarded, locally salvaged materials to create mixed-media collage, assemblage, bricolage, and sculpture. Annie currently teaches in the Roaring Fork School District, as adjunct faculty for Colorado Mountain College’s Community Education Program, at the Red Brick Center for the Arts, the Art Base, and with the Aspen Art Museum. She was awarded the 2024 Artist Fellowship by the Aspen Art Museum. Annie is a member of the AAM’s Teaching Artist initiative and is coordinated/curated the inaugural Teaching Artists exhibition (opened in Aspen in May 2024). She is currently working with members of the Roaring Fork School District administrative team to initiate a project which will bring RFSD students together to transform stockpiled/damaged/trashed books into colorful “learning murals”. A solo exhibition of her mixed media work will open at the ArtBase Gallery in Basalt in November 2025.

Annie received her BFA in Photography/Film & Animation from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She exhibits nationally. Annie lives with her husband, Bruce, and two daughters,Frances and Katharine.

Celebrated painter Stanley Bell was born in 1977 in Dallas, Texas.  His work has been exhibited publicly in the Dallas Museum of Art, the Aspen Art Museum, has had numerous Gallery openings all over the nation and his work is owned by collectors internationally.  He is a previous Arts Recognition Winner in the Visual Arts for the National Endowment for Advancement in the Arts.  He resides in Carbondale, Colorado. He is currently represented by KEEP Contemporary gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

To view his work please visit www.stanleybellartist.com

Curt Carpenter makes woodblock prints inspired by the dramatic landforms of the Roaring Fork Valley.

The prints start with ink drawings made in the field which are later transferred to the woodblock, then carved, and printed in my studio.

Carpenter has a BS in studio art (1973) and an MA in graphic design and printmaking (1978) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been a graphic designer, printmaker, and taught printmaking in Aspen since 1979.

This spring he had prints at the 528.0 Regional Juried Printmaking Exhibition at the Arvada Center, Under Pressure 2024, a national juried exhibition at the Lincoln Center Art Gallery in Fort Collins, and Past, Present & Future and TAPAAM (Teaching Artist Program at the Aspen Art Museum) at the Aspen Chapel Gallery in Aspen. His prints can be found at Anderson Ranch Artworks Store and at curtcarpenter.net.

As a self-taught portrait artist, Sophie is a “learn-by-doing” type of instructor, embracing autodidacticism (i.e., the process of self-teaching) over dry and sequential lesson plans. With additional experience in dioramic sculpture-making and a life-long interest in worldbuilding, Sophie seeks to foster compound creativity and self-expression in her students.

Worldbuilding involves creating detailed and immersive fictional universes, a passion Sophie has cultivated since childhood through imaginative play. She enjoys creating characters based on real-life people and blending reality with fantasy in her digital portraits. Sophie believes that each person, particularly children, has the capacity to generate entire worlds within their minds, complete with internal logical systems. In her opinion, this is a criminally overlooked superpower.

Nicole Gogolak 

Nicole Nagel-Gogolak holds an MFA in fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in painting from The University of Michigan. Her work combines traditional and non traditional textile techniques with mixed media materials. 

“My work is inspired by the ornate and colorful imagery found in Buddhist temples and Thangka Paintings. On a recent trip to Nepal and Tibet I had the opportunity to see first hand the collision of ancient art and architecture with the growing influence of contemporary western aesthetics and consumerism. This layering of sacred and commercial is very similar to ideas and imagery found in my work. In the temples and paintings of Nepal and Tibet, richly colored and ornately ordered designs are intended to be both inspirational and meditative. Buddhist artwork manages to arrange an abundance of visual imagery both sacred and mundane into a cohesive whole without feeling chaotic. By assembling seemingly useless material into something greater than itself, my hope is that presumed worthless debris will become an object of organized beauty and meaning.” 

Brian Weller 

Brian started his art education and career with lifelong friend and mentor Bruce Manchee learning all the tricks of the trade to become a master cartoonist and artisan of the industry. He has been art educating for over 15 years, teaching classes to the public, including instructing at Colorado Mesa University and Western Colorado Community College. He created a small business and has worked for many companies as a professional artist such as the Walt Disney Corporation, major theme parks and haunted attractions across the country. 

Brian is also a trained and Special Makeup Effects artist and Cosmetic Beauty professional, working on TV, Film, and other Entertainment productions. He is also into Cosplay and costume design and creation. Brian’s personality is fun and wacky, and his toons are goofy and zany. But don’t let that fool you, he can make you into a gruesome filled monster or zombie too! 

Pam Porter 

Pam Porter has her master’s degree in Arts Education and has a strong background in printmaking and other art forms. She ran a children’s art studio in Boulder for 20 years and also taught adult printmaking and collage classes in her studio, Naropa University, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, and other schools and centers in the U.S. Pam is a certified life-coach and loves helping students of all ages tap into their natural creativity. She is also the author of the children’s book, The Magic Cookbook. 

Pam and her husband moved to Carbondale in the fall of 2013 after their home was flooded in Boulder. Pam is thrilled to be back. She lived here when she was a kid- her parents taught at CRMS in the 1960s. Her studio is in The Third Street Center in Carbondale, which happens to be her old elementary school. 

As a self-taught portrait artist, Sophie is a “learn-by-doing” type of instructor, embracing autodidacticism (i.e., the process of self-teaching) over dry and sequential lesson plans. With additional experience in dioramic sculpture-making and a life-long interest in worldbuilding, Sophie seeks to foster compound creativity and self-expression in her students.

Worldbuilding involves creating detailed and immersive fictional universes, a passion Sophie has cultivated since childhood through imaginative play. She enjoys creating characters based on real-life people and blending reality with fantasy in her digital portraits. Sophie believes that each person, particularly children, has the capacity to generate entire worlds within their minds, complete with internal logical systems. In her opinion, this is a criminally overlooked superpower.