Meet Our Visual Art Teachers
ROBERT BARA-POPA
My name is Robert Bara-Popa. I am a local multi-faceted artist in the Reading/Wyomissing area. I specialize in the disciplines of photography, writing, and directing. I live to create and inspire people through beautiful portraiture, works of fiction, and through plays and film. I believe staying true to oneself as they pursue the vision and message they seek to deliver. I am a wedding and portrait photographer by trade. I capture beautiful moments in time to tell a story. Stories about love, maternity, the excitement of graduation, or someone’s own expression. I create my portraits through care and passion. I consider all aspects of an image. The framing, the outfit, the colors, the pose, the expression. All of these elements come together to create a work of art that I believe speaks volumes such that words could not. Through my personal endeavors and artistic journey, I’ve met and collaborated with so many beautiful and talented people. I’ve been the stage director on two separate plays for Barrio Alegria and have participated in acting with them since 2017. Since January of 2024 I’ve played characters on two separate productions for the Reading Theater Project. I’ve most recently acted as multiple characters in the play reading of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis for the Greater Reading Alliance of Community Theaters. The projects I am working on currently are a short film by the title of Crossroads in collaboration with a creative filmmaker, as well as a book project I’ve finished and am currently revising by the title of Dark Exposure.
FRED GURMAN
Fred attended SUNY at Albany where he studied theater lighting, set design and visual arts. After college, he worked as a technical illustrator for a number of electronics and aircraft manufacturing companies on Long Island, NY and then as cartographer for the Suffolk County Planning Dept. Fred has a passion for drawing using both wet and dry media. His specialty is in silverpoint drawing and pen and ink. He is a current member and past president of the Berks Art Alliance.
SHAWNA HANSBERRY
Mrs. Shawna Hansberry has been teaching visual art classes with Yocum Institute for Arts Education since September 2012. She teaches Elementary Art K-6 at Northern Lebanon School District. Mrs. Hansberry completed her undergraduate studies at Kutztown University and holds a Master's of Art in Education from the Art of Education University. Hansberry's gifts include the ability to reach students through an individualized approach that hone's student interests. Offering classes such as Minecraft vs. Roblox brings students out of the virtual world and into the world of building based on those interests. Japanese animation is also an interest that draws students into the classroom. Her passion for teaching the visual arts is a gift from the Lord. Artsonia is a platform she uses to display student projects. It is a free digital portfolio that can be shared with anyone designated.
Erin Oliver is a visual artist and educator currently living in Myerstown, PA. Erin creates immersive sculptural installations with ephemeral materials, and her multi-disciplinary practice moves between drawing, painting, and sculpture. In addition to professional experience exhibiting her artwork and gaining support through several grants and residency fellowships, Erin has an extensive teaching background. She has taught Drawing and Sculpture courses to undergraduate students, worked as a K-12 art teacher for many years, and has taught workshops and classes independently at art centers and art museums. Erin holds an MFA from the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL and a BS in Art Education from Temple University's Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA.
NADIA POCHAN
A modern day Renaissance woman, Nadia's expansive approach to the arts has her playing the parts of designer, musician, painter, performer and teacher. She does not put a restraint on her creativity, immersing herself in the many facets of the art world. An internationally shown and selling artist, Nadia Pochan graduated from The School of Visual Arts in NYC with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. While there she studied Printmaking, Painting, and Ceramics. She has engaged in numerous artistic endeavors including Set Design, Puppetry, Sign Painting, Mural Making, Teaching and International Artist Residencies. Having also worked as an event coordinator for numerous organizations including the Berks County Earth Day Committee, Riverview Nursery, and the Summer Bandshell Concert series, Nadia continues to apply her talents to better the community. Always vibrant and polychromatic, her work has a sprightly yet calming quality. While Nadia’s first love is oil painting, she is always inspired by her art classes and can’t help but explore new materials, media and possibilities. She also created a small business and brand called Astral Attic Art. The brand encompasses her textile craft as well as prints, and jewelry. From 2010 to present Nadia has been coordinating special events, developing programs for arts, crafts, and children's educational activities, as well as teaching private music lessons. Since 2016 she has worked at the Yocum Institute’s integrative arts preschool and facility as a music and art teacher. She has recently taken on a new role at Yocum as Art Director, and looks forward to growing the department and possibly teaching you or your child art in the future.
Daniella Yacono is best known for her abstracted and figurative oil paintings as well as evocative charcoal works on paper. The work translates the nature of relationships, current events, as well as the mystery and fragility of the natural world into rich imagery. History, memory, and myth begin to blend into one pictorial narrative in these drawings and paintings. Born in Pennsylvania, she recently returned to the city of Reading after 15 years in the Eastern Sierra Mountains of California. While in CA she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art Education at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Her artistic work ranges in size and medium, but share common themes of figuration, abstraction, texture, and subdued color. She currently lives and works in Reading, Pennsylvania and has taught a wide variety of art making classes at Yocum Institute for Arts Education, Reading Public Library, and The Goggleworks.