Tiffany Coley

Tiffany is a studio jeweler, metalsmith and arts business educator.  For the past 12 years, Tiffany has been making and selling her jewelry professionally.  Tiffany has sold her work in many stores across the country as well as at major retail shows such as One of a Kind Chicago.  She also participates in locally-curated markets because she enjoys being a maker and supporter in the thriving local art community.   As an educator, Tiffany has conducted jewelry making workshops at local Triangle businesses as well as in her art studio.  Most recently, she has become certified in the REAL curriculum through Triangle Artworks, where she brings art business education to art professionals. She hopes to continue her passion of supporting artists through art business education, mentoring and partnerships.   

Tiffany lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and 2 children.  She creates her work at her studio space in Durham, NC, where she also serves as artist liaison and organizes pop-up artists during monthly art walks on the Golden Belt campus.  Tiffany loves movies, podcasts, music and cheering on her NCSU Wolfpack.  When the weather is nice, you can find her exploring the many greenways and trails in our area.

Emily Wismer

The first time I saw a letterpress shop, I knew I was doomed. Luckily for me, a fascination that began when I was 19 has turned into a career as a printer.

I love working on machines that have their own histories that I feel only add to what I can do with them. I love the smell of the ink and the feel of working with type or polymer and the tactile process and result of feeding paper into a press. Itʼs a medium that is slow, outmoded, exasperating, and also completely compelling and reborn in new methods and collaborations. I see myself as someone who is constantly being taught by the presses as well as other printers and artists what the medium is capable of, and I love the idea that this is an unending learning process.

Iʼm inspired by a vast array of things- poster art of the 1920s, Joseph Cornell, fireworks, mosaic tile, photographs found in thrift stores, and always by many peers working on presses around the world.

Michael Waller

A native of Kinston, NC, Michael received his BFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University in 1997. He has worked professionally as a Foundryman and Metalsmith at Carolina Bronze Foundry and Vega Metals. In 2003, he started WallerFoushee Studios with his wife and sculptor Leah Foushee Waller and began working as a full-time artist. In 2010 he partnered with life long friend and artist Kirk Davis to form Carolina Shuckers hand forged oyster knife company. In addition to creating personal work and historical restoration projects, they have created over a dozen public art projects throughout North Carolina- most notably ‘Major’, the over life-size bronze bull pasturing in downtown Durham, NC. They live in Hillsborough, NC with their two children.

Michael has been involved with Liberty Arts since 2001, working closely with the founding members in the development of the George Watts Hill Pavilion for the Arts. After 12 years of working as Liberty Arts Facilities Manager and Artist in Residence, Michael joined the board of directors in 2013 and served as co-administrator of The Bull City Sculpture Show. 

Clare Wildenborg

Although a native Midwesterner, Clare moved to Durham after spending 17 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Durham was love at first sight – literally. After just days in town, she announced her move across country and within months she was a NC resident. The Iron Pour was her first introduction to Liberty Arts and has since taken classes, attended events, and found friends.

Clare is Senior Associate Director of Development for the Energy and Environment Institutes at Stanford University. She originally joined Stanford’s Office of Development in 2005 at Stanford Law School and later served as the Assistant Director of External Relations for the Multidisciplinary Initiatives during The Stanford Challenge. She earned a BA in English from Loras College in Dubuque, IA and an MA in English from Winona State University in Winona, MN.