• Adam Silver. Executive Director and Co-Founder. Ex officio board trustee. Adam is an educator and arts administrator. With working knowledge of Chinese, French, Spanish and Hindi, he was a Watson Fellow in India, Nepal and China, and has a special interest in cross-cultural communications. He is a scholar of Asian art, architecture and literature, and of cross cultural studies at the intersection of art, philosophy, psychology and world religions. He has degrees in Art History, Education and Evaluation, advanced certification in Educational Administration and Supervision, and, graduate work in Accounting, Information Technology, Teaching English as a Second Language, and Language Learning. He is webmaster and chief publicist for the Cultural Center.
  • Cai Xi. Artistic Director and Co-Founder. Ex officio board trustee. Painter, t’ai chi master, caterer, art and language instructor, Cai has been giving Chinese cultural and arts performances since 1995 presenting for pre-kindergarten through college-level adults. Her residencies have included supervisory unions, school districts, statewide Arts events, public and private schools, home schooling and early childhood groups, summer programs, teacher training, and community festivals. Cai offers a variety of arts and culture workshops. She has worked in film, theatre and television doing scenic painting, costume, make-up and stage design. Her versatility in painting includes traditional Chinese brush, ink and calligraphy, abstract performance action painting, luminous landscapes, larger than life portraits, mixed media installations, and exhibition curating. Her live action painting, performance art, and art happenings have been presented on Vimeo, YouTube, in Boston and Manchester, VT, and in Brattleboro on the New England Youth Theatre stage, and filmed live for public television, BCTV and in New York on WNYE. A 2010 Fellow at Vermont Studio Center, and 2010-2011 recipient of an Arts Endowment Grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, she is an MFA candidate in Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Visual Arts program. She is featured in the exhibition at Brattleboro Museum, Hot Pot: A Taste of Contemporary Chinese Art.
  • Damon Honeycutt. Board President. Board Trustee. Damon is a transdisciplinary artist whose work involves the cohesion of many traditions. He holds an MA in Conscious Evolution and Integral Studies from The Graduate Institute and a BFA from California Institute of the Arts in Music Composition and Cross Cultural Dance Studies. Starting his training in martial arts at the age of 11, he has worked with artists and educators from all around the globe including Pickle Shoes Dance, Scapegoat Garden, The New York Jedi, Nai Ni Chen dance company, Mei Yin Ng, Beijing Opera Company Yuan, Burat Wangi Gamelan, Oddfellows Playhouse, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Spectral Voices, and Crescent Street Films. For several years, Damon toured with Pilobolus Dance Theater’s production Shadowland. He resides in Vermont where he teaches his personal evolution of Taoist martial and expressive arts.
  • Norma Willingham. Board Vice President. Board Trustee. Norma came to her interest in Asia when her daughter Grace was adopted from China in 1996. Norma has been part of a group that for a number of years sponsored the public Autumn Moon Festival and Lunar New Year celebrations which are now under the auspices of ACCVT. She is pleased to be part of an organization that is promoting a deeper understanding of all of Asia, not just China, and feels this kind of exposure is important for all children. She is an assistant professor at Landmark College.
  • Marie Procter. Board Secretary. Board Trustee. Marie has graduate degrees in Psychology and Education, attended the School for International Training has been an elementary school teacher, directed an early childhood center, has been a trustee of the Arts Council of Windham County for more than 20 years, President of the Council for 19, and served as Secretary for Baha’i administrative bodies for over 40 years, Marie has traveled to most of the 50 states in the Union. She has traveled to a number of International Baha’i Conferences through the years and have been on Pilgrimage to the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel. Countries visited include: Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Goa, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, England, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland, and Mozambique. Marie states: “I think of the earth is one country and that mankind are its citizens. We are all one people in spirit and each person has something unique to contribute. The diverse cultures in the world add to the richness of our experience on this planet. I believe that we are here to realize our common destiny and to help each other reach our full potential during our time on earth.”
  • Yasuko Ichinomiya Parmenter. Board Treasurer. Board Trustee. Yasuko is an artist making Felt art and Kimono kiri-e stationery. Originally from Tokyo, she now resides in Brattleboro, VT where she derives much of her inspiration from her two cats Mochi and Clark. She has been making her art for about seven years, displaying them at various craft fairs, farmers markets, and local stores throughout Vermont.
  • Michelle Mahin. Board Trustee. Michelle has a passion for crafting and using her hands to create art. A massage therapist, she is currently studying to become a Certified Music Practitioner, to play her harp for Hospice patients, nursing home residents and in hospital intensive care and recovery settings. As a henna artist, she creates temporary designs adorning the skin. “My mother is from Taiwan, my father of Scottish and Irish descent.” Born in Southern California, she came to New England in 1997. “I wish to steep my four children in the beauty and richness of Asian culture. I am enchanted by the study and wisdom of eastern healing arts, oral tradition, ancient symbols and music.”
  • Geordie Morse. Board Trustee. Geordie is currently a senior at Marlboro College, working on a Plan of Concentration focusing on Japanese high-school history textbooks and their history of censorship in the post-war era. He learned a TESOL Certificate in the summer of 2011, and used it to teach English to a group of Japanese high-school students that came with an exchange program to the Amherst area. He has been to Japan twice, once to study at a foreign university in Nagasaki. He plans to return to Japan after graduation to teach English, and hopefully go further abroad beyond to other Asian countries.
  • Jonathan Lohse. Board Trustee. Jonathan is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College who specializes in South and Southeast Asian visual and material culture. While at Dartmouth, he worked with an NGO in Northern Thailand to develop arts education and curatorial outreach initiatives, an experience that inspired him to write an Honors Thesis on contemporary Northern Thai temple architecture. After graduating in 2011, he was awarded a research fellowship to study “slum tourism” in Dharavi, India’s largest slum, an opportunity that allowed him to work with a leading responsible tourism provider to explore heritage-based alternatives to the traditional “slum tourism” model. Currently, he is taking a break from his globe-trotting existence, and is working as a para-educator and after-school programs coordinator at Brattleboro Area Middle School.
  • Sylvia Blanchet. Board Trustee. Sylvia is involved with cross cultural communication through the arts and her business. She has run companies in Indonesia and Singapore for the last 16 years and has loved helping to create intercultural teams with members from diverse cultural backgrounds. Her life has been greatly enriched by interfacing with the Asian wisdom traditions and through friendships with many talented Asian artists. Her son’s artistic pursuits have been a catalyst for her own appreciation of the arts. She has served on the Board of the River Gallery Art School and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.
  • Anthony Parmenter. Board Trustee.
  • Ladda Marshall. Board Trustee.
 
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