Community Artists Gallery & Studios, Inc.
Board of Directors

Community Artists Gallery and Studios is served by a board of directors with experience in the arts as well as in effective administration.

Eileen Wroe,
President

Eileen enjoyed a 20-year career as a corporate meeting planner, and has experience as a licensed Realtor in New Hampshire and on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where she began painting. Beginning with watercolors and moving on to oils, she studied with Lois Griffel and Susan Sarback, influenced by the impressionists of the Cape Cod School of Art.  She is a member of the Coastal Carolina Plein Air Painters and the Twin Rivers Artists Association, serving as Program Chairman and Vice President in 2015-2016.

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Sandy Bruno, Coordinator,
Workshops and Classes

Sandy as a B.A. in Art History with a dual minor in English and Studio Art from St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut. Her artwork has been showcased at the former Baxter's Fine Art, Bear Hand Art Factory, and the Bank of the Arts. Sandy has taught art to children and adults in Connecticut and New Bern. She served on the Board of Directors of the Craven Arts Council & Gallery, is a member of the Twin Rivers Artists' Association and the North Carolina Watercolor Society. She lived in Berlin, Germany, for three years, where she studied painting and conducted art tours.

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Amber Williams

Born and raised in Carteret County, Amber has pursued a career primarily in management and sales. She is currently an art instructor at Wine & Design in New Bern. Drawn to all things creative, Amber has experience in building, refinishing furniture, stained glass art, and painting. She "loves finding new life and purpose for ordinary things."

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Heidi DiBella,
Vice President
and Gallery Manager

A native New Englander, Heidi L. White-DiBella, now calls New Bern her home. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, she didn't discover art until she moved to Maine, where she studied with accomplished artists: watercolor artist Vertene Carter, and world-renowned sculptor Joseph Query. In North Carolina, she studied with artist Linda Hastings, and has taken workshops with many other talented artist-teachers. Her style is always evolving, and she enjoys several mediums, from Chinese brush painting and watercolor, to alcohol inks and mixed media, in styles from realism to abstract. She has won many regional awards for her work, which is also in private collections across the country.

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Karen Rawson,
Publicity Coordinator

Karen began plein air painting several years ago with the Coastal Carolina Plein Air Painters and loves the adventure of painting outdoors. Karen has studied with many North Carolina artists including Ed Macomber, Richard Christian Nelson, Dan Nelson and John Ebersberger from Maryland. She was awarded first prize in 2015 at the Twin Rivers Art Association (TRAA) annual show in New Bern. She belongs to the Coastal Carolina Plein Air Painters, the TRAA, and the Craven Arts Council Bank of the Arts.

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Joyce Stratton

Award-winning artist Joyce Stratton creates her mixed-media works in the Community Artists Gallery Studio Annex. A resident of New Bern, she is the recipient of numerous awards and has received the coveted Cill Rialaig Residency Award in Ballinskelligs, Ireland, in four separate years.

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Virginia Wernersbach, Secretary

Virginia worked for Eastern Airlines before starting a family. She retired to New Bern in 2000 and started painting. She is on the board of the Twin Rivers Artist Association and is a member of Craven Arts Council.

Mary Phelps, Office Manager

Mary was born in New Bern, but moved to Virginia as a young child.  For most of her career, she was the system analyst responsible for all commercial payments for both the U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Agency. After retiring from government, she returned to her hometown. She began her artistic career as a decorative painter, then quickly moved to oil and watercolor painting through workshops and local classes. She was introduced to the CAW Center for the Arts during her first ArtWalk, and says that its welcoming atmosphere gave her “the confidence to display her art in a gallery for the first time” as she continues to develop her skills.

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Patricia O'Brien Smithwick, Social Media Coordinator

Patty has a B.S. in Business and retired as Vice President, Controller, for an Ohio manufacturing company. She has served on the Boards for National Association of Accountants and Interact (an organization working to end domestic & sexual violence). She began working with vintage silverplate as a creative outlet during her career in accounting.

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Chris Wagner

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Chris graduated from the Corcoran College of Art & Design in 1992; since then he has been selling and showing in galleries throughout North Carolina. Originally a watercolorist, he recently has branched out to working with acrylics on canvas. His work is available regionally and also on line. He has sold paintings to collectors in the United States and Europe. He teaches classes in painting and in digital image editing to help artists promote their work photographically.

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Brenda Gear,
Treasurer

Like many artists, Brenda’s first forays into art started as a child, but were set aside as the rigors and demands of career and adulthood took over. Finally taking a chance to learn at the age of 53, Brenda took classes in any art form that interested her.

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Deborah Phillips

Deborah’s first job as a teenager was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After graduating from Hobart/William Smith Colleges, she studied illustration and graphics at the School for Visual Arts, and painting at the Roslyn School of Painting. After attending NYU for a Construction Management diploma, she ran a small construction management consulting company, and served as treasurer on the Board of the NYC chapter of National Women in Construction (NAWIC). After fifteen years she sold the company and entered a master’s level program for teaching English overseas, which included a teaching internship in Veracruz, Mexico. Moving to North Carolina to be near family, Deborah worked in business and law until she returned to the study of art at Craven Community College. She won the President's Award at the Student Art Show at the Bank of the Arts, which led to her connection with the New Bern arts community, as well as ongoing creativity in her studio.

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 Rebecca Preece

Rebecca studied photography at Chestnut Hill College, and set up a darkroom at home. After raising her children and retiring from a career as a librarian in New Jersey and Philadelphia, she returned to the arts, and studied digital editing at Mercer County Community College. Her work has been exhibited in New Bern and New Jersey.

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