Emma V. Altenburg

I began my love for the arts at Summer FAIR. Alongside my older sister, I grew up in Lexington, participating in the camp. During the school year, I danced with The Studio and Rockbridge Ballet. I was trained in ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, tap, and hip hop. After many years there, I left The Studio and began performing with Washington and Lee University’s Dance Company. This will be my third year teaching dance at camp and my fifth year working for FAIR. I love seeing all of the students enjoy summer FAIR each year. I truly feel my experience has come full circle, being a student and now being a teacher. I attend Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and am excited to return to Lexington in the summer. Looking forward to seeing all of the many shining faces of FAIR this summer!


Mary Beth Baker graduated from Randolph Macon Woman’s College with a BA in Studio Art/ Education  and from VCA with a MFA in design/ photography. She taught 5 years of elementary school art in Lynchburg, VA and combined 8 years of middle school art in Goochland County and Lynchburg City Schools. Art and teaching continue to be a passion. Personally Mary Beth loves to quilt, paint, draw and make photographs. She lives in Rockbridge County with her husband and 2 children. Teaching Art in the Young Artist Camp this summer Mary Beth will guide young artists to explore multiple media including painting, printmaking, collage, assemblage and sculpture. While each project will be rooted in the study of renowned artists, students will explore each medium as a form of personal expression. With Little Mermaid Jr. as the summer performance we will also create sea inspired art pieces.  Mary Beth is FAIR veteran teacher.


Taylor Gulotta recently graduated from Washington and Lee University with a double major in Theater and Strategic Communication. During her time there, she stage managed more than six plays and musicals while studying technical theater, directing, and Shakespeare. She also collaborated on multiple dance productions as a lighting designer and served as the president of Mindbending Student Productions for two years. After graduation, she worked at The Gateway Playhouse as the Stage Management Apprentice on Swing!, On the Town, Little Shop of Horrors, Mamma Mia! and Gateway’s Haunted Playhouse. Her first venture into children’s theater was last summer as the Production Stage Manager for The Lion King Jr. with a cast of 33 children. Her most recent credits are with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, where she acted as the ASM for The Winter’s Tale and Alice in Wonderland. She is thrilled to return to Lexington and be a part of FAIR for the first time.


Accacia Mullen is the owner of Make It Sew, a fabric and sewing studio in downtown Lexington. She has been sewing since she was about nine years old and loves to make clothes for herself and family members, quilts for new babies, and all sorts of accessories like bags and scarves. She finds lots of inspiration in the textures and colors of fabric and she loves old buttons.


Hannah Palmatary graduated from Washington and Lee University in 2018 with a B.S in Neuroscience and a B.A in Religion and Creative Writing. Throughout her college career she sang, danced, and acted her way through eight theater productions. Her favorite roles in the W&L theater department included Alice Beineke in The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy, Julie in The Theory of Relativity, and Mina Harker in Dracula. She also played Cathy in The Last Five Years as a member of the Mindbending Student Productions. A soprano, she has an extensive background in vocal music, having studied privately for many years in addition to her classes in musical theater and choral music. She was a three year member and senior president of The University Singers, Washington and Lee’s top touring choir, as well as a member of General Admission, Washington and Lee’s premiere coed acapella group with whom she competed at ICCAs (the Pitch Perfect competition) three years in a row. Hannah has performed at prestigious national and international venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, and Christ Church Cathedral. She spent last summer teaching music to pre-school through middle school students at Bethany United Methodist Church’s summer outreach program. She looks forward to bringing the performing arts to students of all ages this summer at FAIR through her classes and the exciting under-the-sea adventure of The Little Mermaid Jr.


My name is Katie Peeler and I am from Southern California. I have been married for about one year and have an adorable three month old puppy named Penelope. I am a junior at Southern Virginia University studying commercial music and working towards getting my Chorale teaching license. I am currently a member of SVU’s premier A Capella group “Accolade”, a member of The Concert Chorale and have been in several other choirs and singing groups throughout my life. I enjoy arranging music for the a Capella group and writing music for myself to sing. I just recently finished being in “The Music Man” at SVU and have been in several other theater productions throughout my life. I also have been involved in live sound mixing and post production sound engineering. While I was in high school my Mom and I taught a children’s performing group called “Sunshine Generation” and I loved working with the kids! I have been singing and performing since I was 3 years old and music is my passion! And I can’t wait to share that passion through teaching these classes!


Emma Shapiro is a practicing professional artist and drawing instructor. She developed her love for art during summer art programs at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia. The classes gave her experiences that hooked her on art for life. After receiving her degree from RISD in 2010, Emma lived in NYC and worked for the Art Students League of New York as a model, instructor, and administrator. Emma left NYC in 2016 and moved to Lexington, where she focuses on her art practice instead of her rent. Inspired by artists such as William Kentridge, Marina Abramovic, and Carolee Schneeman, Emma is interested in being experimental in her own work. She has shown video, performance, and photography work from Virginia to Europe, and taught drawing workshops up and down the east coast. Emma-shapiro.com


Molly Smith moved to Rockbridge County from Philadelphia, PA three years ago to work for renowned photographer, Sally Mann. Smith graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of the Arts in 2015. Her personal work is mainly analog processes, but she loves to collaborate with digital and analog techniques. If you are interested in exploring an introduction to photography and collage making, join Molly this summer at F.A.I.R.!