About Ocean City Arts Center

Artist Bio Coming Soon!

Gail is a professional artist currently focusing on photography, drawing, and painting. Her work has been exhibited and sold at the Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts at Penn State University, the OC Fine Arts League and at Nashville North Studios in Linwood, NJ. Her work has also exhibited at the Witt Gallery in Millville, NJ and at the Ocean City Arts Center. She was honored with the “President’s Award” in the 2021 OCAC Juried Photography Show.

Robert Boney has been a professional drummer for 42 years and has been taught by & played with the area’s best musicians.

Frank Callio has been teaching at the Arts Center for the past 16 years. He studied under Ed Pedrick and Eddie Wu.

Artist Bio Coming Soon!

Artist Bio Coming Soon!

Lucy Eiselen is a retired professional cake decorator and business owner.  Her artistic background is in textile design and graphic arts.  She has practiced mosaics for six years, as a student of Michele Pasciullo at the Ocean City Arts Center.  Lucy occasionally sell her artwork, and she is most interested in perfecting her craft and helping others do the same.  Lucy firmly believes in the healing power of mosaics; an ancient art that restores the broken pieces within us all.

Edward Fischer is a certified, seasoned Ballroom and Latin Dance instructor. His 20 years in Ballroom has allowed him to bring the elegance and tradition of Ballroom into a social setting that is fun! "Ballroom makes your bad days good and your good days great!"

Jennifer Harp-Douris was born and raised in the Ocean City area and has worked as a jewelry designer for the past 25 years. Jennifer started her education at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1982 and graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Fine Arts & Journalism in 1987. Jennifer co-founded her company Mermaid Tears Jewelry in 2004. Her jewelry is available in local shops and online. Jennifer taught wire sculpting class at the Ocean City Arts Center in the early 2000's. She also taught Beginner & Advance Jewelry Design at the Cape May County Vocational School for their adult education program for seven years.

Susan Irland is an experienced facilitator in the arts, working in public school and college level environments. In part, Susan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio and Art History, and a Master’s Degree in Supervision and Administration with a Visual Arts focus and has completed additional graduate and undergraduate work.

Bethany Kelsey began dancing at a young age and has shared her passion for dance throughout the New Jersey and New York City area. She graduated in 2010 from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. While there she was the recipient of the DanceWorks Scholarship and the Margery Turner Choreographer Prize.

For 15 years she studied at the Jazz RockBallet Studio in her hometown of Linwood, New Jersey where she later returned to teach modern, ballet, jazz and tap. Throughout her years of dancing, she has had the privilege to work with many great choreographers and Modern dance companies. She has also presented self-choreographed work at Dance New Amsterdam (Gibney Dance) and Dance Theater Workshop (New York Live Arts) in New York City. She has spread her love and knowledge of dance through the New Jersey Dance to Learn Program, has had the opportunity to teach dance and yoga classes at the Gilda's Club of South Jersey in Linwood, NJ and has taught Modern and Ballet at ProDance Academy in Northfield, NJ since 2016.  

She is currently a high school Dance and Movement teacher at Leap Academy University Charter School in Camden, NJ and is fortunate to share the great art of Dance with the youth of South Jersey.

Jean Kibler joined the Ocean City Arts Center in 2023 as a piano instructor, bringing with her over 18 years of experience from the Linwood Music Center. She is featured in our annual fall  performing arts program as a solo artist, alongside Dr. May Strange and her string ensemble.

Since 2007, Jean has served as organist and choir accompanist at Central United Methodist Church in Linwood. She began playing piano at the age of five and has studied with distinguished musicians and composers, including Peter Kairoff and Russell Faith. She has accompanied numerous choirs and served as organist for many churches throughout her career.

Jean holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Charlotte Mitchell is a certified Zumba instructor since 2009, with an extensive background in dance and choreography. She is an Ice Dancing coach for the Atlantic City Figure Skating Club and has a Gold Medal in Ice Dancing (United States Figure Skating Association). Licensed to teach Zumba-Gold and Zumba-Toning with weights.

Marcos Monteiro has been teaching, coaching and inspiring artists for 25 years. His art career started in 1983 as an advertising instructor. By 1993 he was represented by artist reps from Philadelphia and New York, illustrating for big name brands using mostly oils as his medium. By 2000 he was back to where he was, formally trained as a fine art painter. 

Artist Bio Coming Soon!

Susan Palmer is a longtime educator and community artist who has devoted 29 years to teaching Statistics & Probability at Ocean City High School in New Jersey and is also an alumna of the class of 1990. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from The College of New Jersey, followed by a master’s degree in Educational Leadership, Management, and Policy, and has pursued doctoral-level studies in K–12 administration. Outside the math classroom, Susan discovered a passion for ceramics in 2001 when she began making pottery at Ocean City Arts Center, and is now a pottery instructor. As a resident of Ocean City, she combines a deep commitment to academic excellence with a love of the arts, mentoring young people in both mathematics and statistical reasoning, as well as her pottery students in ceramics and creative expression.

Susan Rau was raised in Ohio. She has spent her life painting. She works in art in various mediums and presently works primarily in the water mediums. She creates unique and unusual decorative items including furniture pieces and home decorations. Susan’s watercolors express her love of nature through working with colors, shapes and movements of design. Her works are included in many collections in the U.S. and abroad. Susan has been a teacher at the Ocean City Arts Center for many years.

Dr. May Strange is our string specialist teaching violin, viola, cello and bass. She has been teaching and performing as a violinist in the South Jersey area for many years and was the owner and director of the Music Studio in Linwood for 27 years. She has a Doctorate of Music Education from Columbia University and has taught music classes at Atlantic Cape Community College. Currently, Dr. May enjoys being the director of the Fiddle Club of Linwood as well as being a member of the Music Studio string quartet. 

Artist Bio Coming Soon!

Artist Bio Coming Soon!