Friends › Grace-Anne Alfiero
Grace-Anne Alfiero, the Executive Director and Founder of Creative Clay, Inc., Cultural Arts Center has been an advocate for persons with disabilities for over 20 years. She is also a professional interdisciplinary artist working with photography, painting, digital imaging and drawing. Grace-Anne has been described as a community activist and artist who applies her unique creativity to every task she accomplishes. She loves all things art; making art, curating art exhibits for galleries and museums and teaching art!
Working tirelessly to include persons with disabilities into the arts community in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, Grace-Anne started Creative Clay in 1995 at the youthful age of 29. She has recruited the interest of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) with a 30-minute documentary that continues to air nationwide, has assisted 25 agencies in Asia with beginning their own successful arts enterprises, and has lobbied successfully in her state capital to secure reoccurring line item funding. Grace-Anne began her therapeutic counseling and arts management career at Shands Hospital on the University of Florida campus and was previously employed at All Children’s Hospital and a volunteer at both Ronald McDonald Houses in Gainesville and in St. Petersburg, Florida. She holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in Visual Arts from Eckerd College and a B.S. in ChildLife Therapy from the University of Florida. She is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts degree in a distance-learning program at Goddard College in Vermont. Her expected graduation date is February 2010.
Considered an expert in the field of arts management for special populations, Grace-Anne has now made it her life's work to assist non-profit agencies across America and all over the globe with beginning and/or enhancing their arts programs with entrepreneurial project planning.