2022-23 School Year
This summer, Matt Neylon will transition from Director of Visual & Performing Arts into a new role focused on supporting staff wellness, retention, and recruitment efforts. It’s not an easy time to be a teacher and with 53% of teachers across the country considering leaving the profession and Matt is excited to partner with Kristy Lundstrom and the MV community to create a culture of wellness, purpose, and belonging for faculty. Since Matt joined the School in 2015, the Arts Department has grown in tandem with the School and now includes nearly 20 faculty and 150+ events each season across four divisions. As a result, the leadership of the program will be decentralized to allow for greater quality and expanded bandwidth. Thank you, Matt, for all of your dedication to the Mount Vernon Arts program! The growth and success of the program under your leadership has been truly extraordinary!!
Shay Jones will become the Lower Campus Director of Arts and focus on building capacity for faculty to integrate creative strategies, physical development, literacy, and wellness into all classes. For five years, Shay has demonstrated mastery of Early Childhood education. She has built a Performing Arts model that integrates music with movement and theatre fundamentals using innovative pedagogies such as mindfulness, yoga, literature, visual art, and many other techniques to deliver a well-rounded creative education that meets students’ mental, physical, and emotional needs. In this new role, Shay will continue to teach performing arts for Kindergarten & Grade 1 as well as coordinating arts opportunities and events for Preschool through Lower School, work with parent volunteers, and manage day-to-day logistics of the program, and coach teachers to integrate the amazing work she developed here at Mount Vernon.
Kalen Curtis has joined the team as Upper Campus Director of Arts and will focus on arts programming, event planning, communication, staff support, and partner with Mount Vernon Arts Alliance to coordinate volunteer opportunities. Additionally, Kalen will partner with Mount Vernon Ventures to help build capacity and strategy for Mount Vernon Online as we build out our global campus. Kalen joins us as after spending 10+ years with Savannah College of Art & Design where she led various admission teams around the world and oversaw the team responsible for growing the population of incoming international students to SCAD from Canada, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Oceania. She holds degrees in Photography & Higher Education Administration. She is thrilled to be joining the MV Family and will have a huge impact on our programs.