OUR MISSION: Springville Center for the Arts is a rural multi-arts center that actively engages people from our community, our region, and beyond through performances, exhibitions, education and other arts programs. As a catalyst for creative inspiration and development, Springville Center for the Arts encourages direct participation in the arts by all segments of our community. Our mission is to build a culture of appreciation for the arts in our area, transforming the surrounding rural communities. Our main facility serves as the hub for a wide range of programming including concerts, theater productions, gallery exhibits, workshops for all ages, internship and residency programs, children’s after-school and summer programs, and more.
Board of Directors
Jon Horton (President) is at home in the non-profit world, working as a pastor for 37 years. He currently serves at Revive Wesleyan in Hamburg as a campus pastor and counselor. He loves creative expression, whether it’s painting, writing or acting. He and his wife, Ellen, live in Springville with Maggie, the Bassett Hound. Their four adult children live in Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana and New York. He is delighted to be part of this exciting chapter in the life of the Arts Center.
Andrea Simmons (VP) previously worked as a Senior Library Clerk for The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library System, in Human Resources for the Elderwood Cooperation, and has worked seasonally as a seasonal customer service representative for Fisher Price and as a Census Enumerator. Andrea has spent most of the past 20 years volunteering for various organizations and events, specifically, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, SWAT, the Springville School District, and Springville Center for the Arts. Simmons has been involved with SCA for many years as a stage mom and board liaison to the theater committee. She has participated in several theater shows herself, has co-directed, and is interested in directing.
Tammy Schmidt (Secretary) has been the administrator at the Pines of Machias for the last 15 years, and has worked in long term care for over 25 years. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts, Medical Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology as well as a Masters of Professional Studies, Creative Arts Therapy from Pratt Institute. Outside of work, she is an active member of the Holland Garden Club and enjoys live music and camping.
Heather Svalina (Treasurer) is a customer relations associate at Joseph Rumfola, DDS. She previously worked at First Choice Evaluations for 14 years raising funds for causes such as the Morlock Foundation, Susan G Komen, Make a Wish, and the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. She has volunteered with the National MS Society, FeedMore WNY, the Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation and the Bertrand Chaffee Hospital Foundation. Svalina has been involved with SCA’s theater programs for many years.
Dan Bryce is the owner of Funderbolt Studios Toy and Game Design, whose clients include major toy companies like Spinmaster Toys, Fisher Price, and Mattel. He has a degree in animation and illustration from The Rhode Island School of Design. He has been volunteering at Art Crawl for many years and has had his artwork in the juried show. Dan has recently finished a mural in Downtown Springville as part of SCA’s public art initiative.
Sarah Guadagna recently graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelor’s degree in Art History. A Springville native, she began participating in theater programs at Springville Center for the Arts in third grade.
Zackary Martin is a manufacturing engineer at Sopark Corporation creating printed circuit boards, previously working for Walt Disney World Company in Orlando Florida. Zack has performed in theater productions from grade 3 through college with SCA.
Elizabeth Vacanti began her career as an Officer Records Clerk in the Navy, eventually earning her B.S. degree from Medaille College in Business Administration. Over the years she worked in Government Contracting at West Valley Nuclear Services and various other U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories, retiring in 2022 as Senior Specialist at Oak Ridge Laboratory. She was Treasurer for a non-profit organization supporting charitable efforts in Appalachia, and volunteered for the Light the Night campaigns, benefiting The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s funding of research to find blood cancer cures, as well as the Susan G. Komen organization to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research.
Staff
Seth Wochensky (Executive Director) began as part-time Director of the organization in 2010. Since that time, he more than quadrupled the organization’s budget. As Executive Director, Wochensky oversaw the implementation of $2 million in capital projects, including seven simultaneous state grants from different agencies.
He spearheaded Art’s Cafe, an expansion project of the Arts Center that took a collapsed Main Street building and transformed it into a performance space, two residences designed for artists, an arts workshop, and a public green roof centered around a community-owned bakery-cafe. To finance the completion of the project, he crafted the first known combination of Historic Tax Credit Syndication and a Direct Public Offering, making smaller shares of tax credits available to 120 local investors.
In addition to arts administration, he is an artist in his own right, having appeared on stage, exhibited artwork, completed large scale installations and produced several CD’s. He previously produced several award-winning short films and has production credits including MTV, The Travel Channel, ABC, and The History Channel. He is an avid organic gardener and is co-founder of the nonprofit Green Springville.
Cassandra Cross (Visual Arts Director) attended SUNY University at Buffalo for a B.A. in Anthropology and M.A in Critical Museum Studies. She previously interned at SCA as well as the Anderson Gallery. Her focus is gallery curation and installation, visual arts workshops, event planning, grant-writing, and communications.
Nicole Hebdon (Literary Arts Director) received her MFA from SUNY Stony Brook, and her thesis was a runner-up in the 2017 Serendipity’s YA Discovery Contest. Since then, Nicole has been finalist or runner-up in several writing contests including the 2022 St. Lawrence Book Award, and Chestnut Review’s 2021 novella contest. Her fiction has been published in The Kenyon Review, The Saranac Review, The New Ohio Review, The Antigonish Review, Joyland, Carve, and F(r)iction among other places.
Anna Fitzpatrick (Performing Arts Director) received her BFA in Dance Performance from SUNY Fredonia. She is a dance educator and choreographer, creating several works for schools in the WNY area and the Fredonia Dance Ensemble company. In her professional career, Anna performed at the NYC Public Library for the SUNY Impact Foundation Inauguration Dinner. In her position she works with volunteers and staff to present concerts, coordinate theater productions and craft summer youth programs.
