About Our Teachers
LARA HICKS
(Cooking Instructor)
Chef Lara Hicks grew up in the Oak Hill area of Morganton and after graduation from Freedom High School continued education at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte NC. After spending about 8 years between school and teaching culinary classes to the refugee community in east charlotte, Lara moved back home and found herself making random meals and cakes for friends of the family.
Not too long after moving home, Lara started an LLC and continued with private chef work through the present time and now holds the title for 3rd Best in Burke for caterer in 2023. She currently resides in Morganton with her sweet boyfriend, who assists with many private events and private classes. When she isn't teaching special cooking classes at the Burke Arts Council each month, Lara loves feeding her community and has a wholesome approach to teaching and creating beautiful food sourced from as many local farms/markets as possible.
Check her out on Facebook!
DIANE ENGER
(Art Instructor)
Diane started her glass journey working in stained glass, switched to fusing and have been fusing glass for over 30 years. After receiving a master’s degree in art, she taught art in the Illinois Public School System, Kindergarten through Junior College, as well as gifted classes for 26 years. Diane chose to retire with her husband to the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. She now finally has the time to be a full-time artist and fused glass teacher.
Glass fusing is a process of combining different glasses and components and heating them in a kiln. By manipulating time and temperature, different depths and surfaces can be created. She says her art is about reflection and contrast; to create visual pieces that give form to her thoughts and observations, using glass and the variety of textures that can be created using it. This combination creates a flow of designs intended to portray her reflections on life – external and internal. She hopes that her work inspires you to take time to reflect…
Check her out on Facebook!
DAN HOYLE
(Art Instructor)
Dan Hoyle is a retired principal in the Burke County Public School System. He has been working with stained glass as a hobby for over forty years. He has taught many classes over the years in stained glass, lamp making, etching, kaleidoscope making, and 3-D projects.
Brittny Charity Valdes
(Music & Art Instructor)
Brittny graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Florida International University (FIU) in 2013 - during and after which she reported for the Miami Herald and Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. By 2016, this first-generation Cuban-American daughter of immigrants, fully pivoted her career; leaving her tropical South Florida nest to travel the country in pursuit of an authentic creative career. Britt picked up the ukulele, paint brush and hula hoop, and created her own art business called Ukes 4 Dreams. U4D originated in Asheville, NC, with a four-part mission: music, art, education and charity. It consisted of playing and making ukulele music; hand-painting and selling playable, custom ukes for people; teaching children and adults how to play the uke; and living out her name Charity, by giving back to marginalized communities through music and art. Over the course of the years - and before settling in Morganton the fall of 2022 - U4D has changed a lot, but the heart of Brittny's art has always remained the same: to use music and art to give H.O.P.E.: Help to Other People Everywhere.
Joey Martin
(Art Instructor)
Joey Allen Martin is a Morganton-local artist with a focus in painting and drawing, exploring themes of absurdism, environmental degradation, and the subconscious. He received his MFA from Western Carolina University in 2025 and a BFA from UNC Greensboro in 2020. Joey’s painting practice has encompassed a range of approaches over the years.
By blending intuitive mark making with figurative imagery, he invites viewers to engage with layered narratives which distill the absurdity of contemporary life. Nature, in its vast scale and intricate beauty, serves as a central inspiration—both as a source of awe and wonderment and as a subject of human hubris. These same conceptual and technical sensibilities inform his teaching practice, where he fosters confidence and creative risk-taking by meeting students with empathy, curiosity, and mindfulness.
Helen Tueffel
(Art Instructor)
Helen was born in Gliwice, Poland on September 11, 1958 to American parents. When she was three years old, she moved to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. She grew up in a 100-year-old home situated on beautiful forested acreage. Almost all her neighbors were dairy farmers. Cows and the discipline of the farming life were all around her. Her family raised ponies and had a large vegetable garden every summer. Art became a special part of Helen’s life when a wonderful art teacher came to teach at Wisconsin Dells High School. It was her first real art exhibit and her first awards.
My artwork is inspired by many things. People I know. Places that strike me. Things that I care about. A high school art teacher was the first to motivate me to put more focus into art, to take it from a hobby to a rich thread that would wind throughout my life. I like new materials, skewed perspectives, and consider myself an art wanderer. Canvas and paint; automotive admixtures and photography; gels and acetate squares; they’ve all made their way into a work. My deepest connection, however, is with pastels and they will always be my grounding medium. The most incredible aspect of a work of art, is in the observation by the viewer and the connection that is made when the art is observed, and understood or felt.
Nora Mosrie
(Art Instructor)
Nora Mosrie is a professional visual and performing artist who is committed to integrating the arts into education and community events. She is dedicated to sharing her passion and enthusiasm for the arts with intergenerational audiences through educational programming, theater, music performances and art exhibits. Nora believes that education through the arts is a powerful tool in building relationships, developing critical thinking skills, transforming lives and fostering positive change.
Visual art, music, acting, and dance are interwoven within Nora’s artistic journey. She has many years of performing experience in a variety of music genres and styles including solo work, ensemble and musical theatre. Nora is both a vocalist and instrumentalist with a primary focus on piano, guitar and the mountain dulcimer. Nora is also a painter, sculptor and costume designer. Nora is the music director for McDowell Children’s Theatre and a music director and costume designer for Tanglewood Youth Productions at Asheville Community Theatre. Nora received an M.A. in Art and Design in addition to a B.A. in Arts Education from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.