Staff & Faculty

Allison Valchuis is a sculptor and educator with over 15 years’ experience in community arts education. Allison joined the 92Y Art Center staff in 2010. She is a member of the 2015 Community Arts Education Leadership Institute through the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Prior to her 92Y career, Allison worked with the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to help bring design-thinking to the classroom across the country through professional development programs for educators, teen programs, and curriculum development. She also served as an Americorps*VISTA at Rhode Island School of Design’s free teen portfolio prep and outreach program Project Open Door where she organized community partnerships and developed college readiness programs.

As an artist, her work explores process, material, weight, and balance through various ceramic practices, drawing, and a love of good craftsmanship. She received her BFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design and has been awarded residencies and scholarships at RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome, Italy, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME, Ox-Bow, School of Arts and Artists Residencies in Saugatuck, MI, and Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT.

Robert Silverman joined 92nd Street Y as director of the Ceramic Center in August 2007. He oversees a large and diverse program offering more than 20 classes and serving 1,100 students a year. The program encompasses after-school classes for children and teenagers and a variety of day and night classes for adults. Along with program development, Robert’s responsibilities include recruiting and managing a faculty of a dozen working artists and managing the professionally equipped ceramics studios.

Originally trained as a social geographer, Robert began his career as a ceramic artist more than 25 years ago while studying in Japan, where exposure to beautiful handmade objects used in daily life inspired him to pursue a career in the arts. He has exhibited internationally, and his work has been included in shows at The Museum of Art and Design in New York, the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands, the Mint Museum in North Carolina and the Ramada Renaissance Hotel Corporation in Connecticut, among others. Robert came to 92nd Street Y from Louisiana State University, whose graduate ceramics program, under his leadership and that of his co-chair, was ranked among the top five such programs in the country. He has also taught at Arizona State University and the Massachusetts College of Art. He has been awarded a variety of grants and fellowships and his work has been included in gallery and museum shows across the US and in magazines such as Ceramics Monthly, American Craft Magazine and Studio Potter Magazine, as well as in the books The Craft and Art of Clay (Susan Peterson, Prentice Hall, 2004) and Post Modern Ceramics (Mark Del Vecchio, Thames and Hudson, 2001).

Robert holds a B.A. in Social Geography from Clark University, a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and an M.F.A from Alfred University.

Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center.

Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum).

Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX,, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan’s art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels.

Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths.

John-Mario Sevilla, BA, MA, MFA, directs the Dance Education Laboratory at 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and teaches at New York University Steinhardt and Gallatin. John-Mario has danced in the companies of Pilobolus, Rebecca Stenn, From the Horse’s Mouth, Daman Harun, Erin Dudley, Lisa Giobbi, Nikolais and Louis, Shapiro and Smith, Janis Brenner, Anna Sokolow and Bill Cratty. John-Mario also performed with juggler Michael Moschen, film animator Laura Margulies, drag artist Sherry Vine, poet John Unterecker and Navajo sandpainter-healer Walking Thunder. John-Mario’s choreography has appeared in New York City at LaMaMa, NYU Steinhardt, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92YTribeca, Dance Theatre Workshop, Columbia University, ABC No Rio, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Asia Society, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, as well as at universities throughout the country. He was the Director of Education at New York City Ballet. He hails from Maui, is a dance student of Betty Jones and has studied the hula with Kumu Hula June Ka‘ililani Tanoue and Hōkūlani Holt.

Megan Doyle, Director 92Y School of Dance, holds a Masters Degree in Dance Education from NYU and is a graduate of the Dance Education Laboratory. Megan has choreographed for American Girl, Netflix, Disney and Lululemon Atheltica. Megan’s company, Community Dance Project NYC (CDPNYC), has presented works of Musical Theater and Contemporary Jazz throughout the city including at the Ailey Theater, Peridance, Symphony Space, White Wave, Green Space and as a five time presenter with Jazz Choreography Enterprises. CDPNYC is committed to serving the community through dance and works closely with the Harkness Dance Center’s Jr. Performance Team to perform monthly at nursing homes and community centers.

As a performer, Megan has worked extensively for Disney appearing in the How to Dance with Hannah Montana video, voice overs for Lizzy McGuire Merchandising and industrials and concerts with the Jonas Brothers, Emily Osment and Demi Levato. In addition to her commercial work, Megan has had the opportunity to perform with a variety of dance companies, including as a soloist in When Paths Collide with Mad Cap Dance Company at Lincoln Center. Megan is proud to have spent 5 years on tour as Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank. Other favorite touring/regional theatre credits include: Class Dismissed: The Bullying Project, The Sound of Music, Sugar Babies, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Joseph …, and the world premiere of Markings.

Megan has had the privilege of teaching at many different schools and studios including recreational and competitive dance studios throughout the United States, dance conventions including Kids Artistic Review, in the NYC public school system as a teaching artist for Dancewave, The Village Community Middle School and at Merrick Academy Public Charter School. Megan also wrote and developed the dance curriculum for Gymboree Play and Music.

Yana Stotland is director of 92Y’s School of Music, which was established in 1917 and offers group classes, ensembles and private music instruction in a huge variety of musical styles and instruments for adults and children of all ages and ability levels. The music school is part of 92Y’s School of the Arts, which offers more than 500 classes and other educational opportunities in art, music and dance every year.

As a musician, music educator and arts administrator, Yana continually surveys the ever changing landscape of music education to bring current best practices to 92Y’s School of Music. As director, she works closely with individual students and parents to help them choose classes, instruments and lesson plans that will make their musical journeys fulfilling and instill a lifelong love of music. Yana also recruits and retains the school’s outstanding faculty; oversees 92Y’s music scholarship program (for children aged 7-17); and directs the annual High School Guitar Day, a free day of guitar instruction, performances and jam sessions for teens. Since she arrived at 92Y in August 2010, Yana has expanded 92Y’s School of Music offerings, adding new programs and classes, including a Klezmer Ensemble and 92Y Glee for adults, Dalcroze programming for young children and children’s guitar and chamber ensembles.

Prior to joining 92Y, Yana was associate director at American Classical Orchestra, where she played a key role in presenting concerts and events and led marketing and public relations efforts. She was also music director at the Lucy Moses School, one of the largest community music schools in the country, and she served as the executive director of the Dalcroze School of Music (in New York).

Yana has taught music theory at Long Island University (C.W. Post) and piano at the United Nations International School; she has also taught private piano lessons (she started playing when she was 7) for many years. Yana has an M.M. in Music History and a B.M. in Piano Performance from Queens College and is fluent in Russian.