OUR STAFF
Sophia Cosmadopoulos
Co-founder, Gallery Director
Sophia is the Cofounder and Gallery Director of Summertime Gallery. Sophia is a NYC enthusiast, residing in Alphabet City, and a has been a passionate proponent for artists with intellectual disabilities since 2005, working at HAI, Pure Vision Arts, AHRC, YAI Arts and LAND Studio & Gallery in NYC. She is also a freelance writer and has most recently contributed artist interviews to Yale University Press’ Nonconformers: A New History of Self-taught Artists by Lisa Slominski.
Anna Schechter
Co-founder, Studio Director
Anna Schechter is the Cofounder and Studio Director of Summertime Gallery. She lives in her beloved, salty Red Hook and has been working at the intersection of disability and arts since 2006. Anna most recently led the Manhattan-based artist collective YAI Arts, prior to that she worked at Bomb Diggity Arts and Spindleworks in Maine. Anna also has a therapy practice in Brooklyn where she works primarily with couples and families. Anna believes that every day should be the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.
Priscilla Frank
Studio Supervisor and Senior Writer
Priscilla Frank is the Studio Supervisor and Senior Writer at Summertime Gallery. Based in Jackson Heights, she's an artist, writer, and teacher who loves to squeeze the juice out of life and help others do the same. Priscilla is the co-founder of Pussypaws Puppetry and the creator and director of the 2024 erotic puppet musical That Paradise Place, about the love, sex, and fantasy lives of artists with disabilities. She has published two books of e(a)rotic corn cartoons called Corn Smut (2021) and Corn Smut: Cornucopia (2022) with Sunroom Press and Desert Island.
OUR BOARD
Morgan Evans
Morgan is a facilitator, mediator and organizational designer who runs a company called Business Casual where she works with leaders to design effective learning-oriented processes that enable organizations to tackle complex challenges and build intentional, healthy cultures. With an MS in Organizational Change Management, she works with clients to navigate the really sticky, human parts of work – stuff like giving feedback, learning from tough situations, stating explicit expectations and talking openly about things that are hard to say out loud.
Molly Surno
Molly Surno is a visual artist, cultural curator and strategist, who creates compelling programs that bring the avant garde to a greater audience. She blends visual art, film, performance, music, food, and technology through installations and experiences in cultural institutions and beyond. Her projects include Cinema 16, which pairs contemporary musicians with experimental films and has shown at The Met, The Kitchen, MoMA PS1 and more. Surno was also the first Outreach Director for Kickstarter and the Art Director for Elsewhere, where she developed the contemporary arts program Landscape. She writes the popular newsletter push picks which is the voice of her creative studio push projects.
Dean Millien
Dean Millien is a New York City based artist. Dean, also known as the “Tin Man,” incorporates his admiration for toys, cartoons, pop culture and the animal kingdom into his iconic tin foil sculptures. He meticulously creates foil pigs, lambs, aliens, thrones, and his favorite, worms, with incredible likeness and precision. He was an artist in residence at Summertime Gallery where he had a solo exhibition, One in a Millien. Dean taught art to neurodiverse artists at AHRC and was a member of Con Artist Collective and LAND Studio & Gallery.
Nate Langston Palmer
Nate is an American documentary and fine art photographer born and raised in Washington, DC. He received his BFA in photography and imaging from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in 2016. Through his work as an imagemaker, Nate examines the collective understanding of masculinity in the United States, specifically within Black-American communities. Nate is currently based between Brooklyn, NY and Washington, DC.
Jennifer Clowe
Jennifer Clowe is a devoted disability advocate, parent, and fierce supporter of Summertime. Jennifer got her BA in English from Wellesley College. She is excited by the extraordinary creativity of Summertime artists and the thought-provoking work they produce. She is currently amassing a giant collection of Summertime art including a true-to-life tinfoil crocodile head.
