Constance Grayson
Exec. Director
Constance Grayson is both an artist and a practicing attorney having practiced many years in family law dealing with issues involving children. In Kids Place Lex, she is able to combine her legal experience with her art in creating an opportunity to demonstrate how involvement in the arts can have a lifelong positive impact on youth.
Hope Soch
Director of Art Education
Hope Soch is an art educator as well as being a professional artist herself. She has over 30 years experience teaching art in elementary schools. Her passion lies in encouraging youth to explore their creativity and develop their potential through art.
Michelle Newby Armstrong
Guest Artist/Instructor
Michelle Newby Armstrong is an art educator who has taught art in the Fayette County School system for over 31 years. Michelle is one of the guest artist instructors for our Passport to Art series. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of art techniques and art history with the young artists at KidsPlaceLex.
Debbie Blair
Guest Artist/Instructor
After winding down a long, meaningful career in the Thoroughbred industry, Lexington resident Debbie Blair turned her considerable energy to her other passion -- art. A self-taught artist, her work reflects her life experiences. She has traveled internationally for work and play, drawing on those experiences for inspiration for her art.
Denise Cline
Denise Cline is a lifelong dancer from Nicholasville, Kentucky. She began dancing and performing at the age of two at Barbara Ann School of Dance and started teaching at just 15 with Diana Evans School of Dance. After years of teaching, Denise later founded her own dance school in Nicholasville, called Caroline’s School of Dance. Over the years, she has taught a variety of classes, including line dance, tap, jazz, and ballet. Dance is her passion, and she continues to perform and teach to this day, she also loves directing, producing, and acting with KCAL Old Time Radio theater group.
Roger Garrison
Roger has 37 years experience teaching children including serving as the Brookside Elementary Music Teacher in Nicholasville, KY for 27 years . He also has 33 total years of music ministry, currently at Hillcrest Baptist Church, Lexington. He was also the music Instructor for the Lexington Ballet MadCamp from 2012 through 2019.
Enrique Gonzalez
Guest Artist/Instructor
From the Venezuelan Amazonian Rainforest, he draws inspiration from the world around him, translating everyday beauty onto canvas with his modern impressionist style. Known for his equine art, Enrique's portfolio also includes landscapes, portraits, and much more. His art has been displayed in many prominent galleries around Lexington. Enrique is also a muralist. A believer in the importance of community involvement, he volunteers his time and donates art to many local organizations and charities to fundraise. Enrique is also a local musician and the lead singer of No Rulez Banda and the Big Maracas. He is based in Lexington, KY.
Mercedes Harn
Guest Artist/Instructor
Mercedes Harn is originally from Lima, Perú. She has been living in the United States for the last 15 years. She has a Master degree in Mass Communication and a Master in Education. She has displayed work at Fusion Gallery and the Passion of Latino Art 2, at the Lyric Theater and at the Latino Blend.
Marty Henton
Guest Artist/Instructor
Marty is a retired art educator and arts administrator. She has served on the board of directors of Very Special Arts Kentucky, the Bell Court Neighborhood Association and the Kentucky Art Educators Association.
Chris Huestis
Guest Artist/Instructor
Chris Huestis has exhibited his artwork nationally. He participates in Lexington's Art on The Town in Tandy Park and has participated in many local art venues. He currently teaches Art at BCTC.
Mollie McClure
Mollie fell in love with storytelling while listening to tall tales and family stories told around her grandmother’s kitchen table. Her fascination with stories and storytelling has continued throughout her life, from the time she was old enough (finally!) to check books out of her local library, through high school, then while at the University of Kentucky, where she studied writing with renowned author James Baker Hall, eventually earning an Undergraduate and Master's degree in English. After graduating, Ms. McClure taught high school English and Creative Writing, wrote feature articles for the Lexington Herald Leader and Kentucky Monthly magazine, and ran a successful marketing business for 25 years. She has three adult children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, all of whom she loves dearly. She recently completed her first novel Talking to the Moon, and is working to achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a full-time storyteller/author.
Brenda McCray
Brenda is a former elementary teacher with a master’s degree in Reading & Writing Preschool-12. Upon leaving the classroom about 16 years ago to teach independently, she began working with individuals with dyslexia and other learning differences. Brenda has served as a board member of the International Dyslexia Association Kentucky Branch and provides dyslexia simulations around the state to spread awareness. She loves helping kids reach their goals. Her favorite hobbies are reading, playing piano and organ, and enjoying a game of pickleball.
Georgana Boots Riddell
In all truthfulness, my connection with storytelling, or to be more precise storytelling's connection with me, has been a lifelong kinship. My earliest memories are of a time, a place and a people whose cultural origins breathed life into the word "storyteller". It wasn't until I was in my late 40's, when I found my way to The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill that the storyteller emerged in me. It was there that The Old Woman of the Woods first appeared. It was as if she had been waiting patiently for me to find the old brown dress, weathered straw hat and checkered apron in the closet. As her spirit settled comfortably into the very marrow of my bones, I realized she had been there all along. The goal of the storyteller is to weave a web of imagery that captures the listener, refusing to release them until the tale is told. There is no more satisfying experience for a storyteller than to accomplish that goal. For the past twenty five years, it has been my honor, my joy and a privilege to share this experience with my listeners.
Georgana Boots Riddell
The Old Woman of the Woods