Our family

Front row: Maddie, Janet, Sarah, Sue
Back row: Tina , Anissa, Winter, Wendy, Rhonda

The diverse skills of ARTS ALIVE!'s family constitutes a mosaic that truly enhances the educational environment. They have backgrounds in theatre arts, creative drama, dance, music, visual arts, art history, psychology, literature, communications, Spanish, early childhood and elementary education. Furthermore, ARTS ALIVE! educates its instructors through an extensive apprenticeship program, formal classroom training and playshops.

Tina Sabuco - Artistic Director and Creator, ARTS ALIVE! INC

Tina Sabuco, Artistic Director and creator of ARTS ALIVE! Inc., holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Drama and Children's Theatre from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Northern Michigan University. She began dancing at age three in her hometown of Escanaba, Michigan, and has never stopped - with 2009 marking her 35th year of teaching!

Since, 1994, Tina has combined her drama and dance backgrounds with music and visual art to offer an integrated arts program for students of all ages and abilities through ARTS ALIVE! Inc. Her teaching methodologies combined with her extensive and varied teaching experiences garner her frequent assignments training other teachers, as well as invitations to keynote early childhood education conferences.

During the fall of 2001 Tina served as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Clear Lake. There, Junior and Senior Education Majors had the opportunity to benefit from Tina's extensive experience in the field, through taking her course, "Arts and the Child."

Tina lives in Garden Oaks with her partner of 20 years, Shellye Arnold, and their family -- Elvis and Seymour - 2 lively longhaired dachshund brothers, Azalea - their ever-expanding tuxedo cat and Clover - their playful cat with a feline sense of humor!

Tina delights in teaching "children" from 1 to 101 and looks forward to continuing to live out her personal motto - "You don't stop playing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop playing!"

Wendy Haardt - Chief Financial Officer

Wendy Haardt joined ARTS ALIVE! as its very first employee in 1996 and in 2005 was named ARTS ALIVE!'s Executive Director! In 2006, everyone at ARTS ALIVE! was delighted to celebrate her 10 year anniversary, where we honored her for her dedication to our company, tremendous "can do" attitude and all of her contributions in front of and behind the scenes over the years. In 2008, Wendy passed the Executive Director torch to Anissa and is now our Chief Financial Officer. Wendy's experience, creativity, colorful personality, and knowledge of Spanish make her a valued member of our ARTS ALIVE! family.

Wendy hails from Eustis, Nebraska and holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Houston as well as a Teaching Certificate from the Houston Independent School District. She has specialized in preschool teaching in the Houston area since 1993. Prior to joining ARTS ALIVE!, Wendy taught in a bi-lingual pre-kindergarten program with HISD in a cooperative effort with Neighborhood Centers. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crocheting, and playing with Vegas, her English Mastiff. But most of all, Wendy enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter.

"My favorite part of this job is the light in the eyes of the children when they see the magic of ARTS ALIVE!"

Anissa Dwiggins - Executive Director

Anissa Dwiggins joined ARTS ALIVE! in December 1998 and just celebrated her 10 year anniversary. On the 10th of December, for her 10th Amazing Anniversary, Anissa was promoted to Executive Director. Now, in addition to teaching her wonderful classes, she is enjoying an even bigger role in the ARTS ALIVE! family! Originally from Victoria, Texas, Anissa has a BA from the University of Houston in Studio Arts, focusing on a wide range of visual arts, including ceramics, painting, drawing, and sculpture. Anissa also earned an all-level teaching certificate from the University of Houston, where she received hands-on teaching training for children of all ages. Over the past 10 years, Anissa has taught thousands of children from newborns to 12 year-olds throughout Houston and surrounding areas.

Since joining ARTS ALIVE!, Anissa's family has grown! She married her wonderful husband, Julio, in April 2002. They now have 2 beautiful children - Marley Sky, born in January 2005 and Stephen-Anthony in April 2008.

Anissa enjoys spending time with her fabulous family and working on their exciting new children's apparel line, Pickle Papaya!!! She also loves traveling, especially to Hawaii and Spain to visit relatives. Her love of education, passion for life, varied interests and desire to help others makes working with children, young and old, truly enjoyable.

"ARTS ALIVE! has brought so much joy to my life. The reward of sharing this with others is priceless."
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Janet Snider - Party Queen & Edutainer

Janet Snider joined ARTS ALIVE! in 1997 and we have been counting our blessings ever since. Originally from Liberty, TX, Janet currently resides in Alvin with her husband, Gene and brings with her more than 25 years of experience as a teacher and nanny.

In her more than eleven years of spreading ARTS ALIVE! magic, Janet has led an amazing 400 parties! Back by popular demand, Janet has returned from her party hiatus. We are thrilled to have our Party Queen back in action!

In addition to creating Country Campout and Playful Picnic, 2 of our 44 themes, Janet also created our Wonderful Wizards party, based on the popular Harry Potter series.

Janet's energy inspires her students, as well as our other Edutainers. Parents and children love her personal approach and all the extra touches she brings to every playshop and class. In addition to dedicating her time to ARTS ALIVE!, Janet enjoys riding her recumbent "zebra" trike, being outdoors, spending time with her family and friends, scrap booking, reading, and collecting miniatures.

"Seeing children's imaginations come alive and being inspired by their play, makes me feel very
blessed and proud to be a part of the ARTS ALIVE! family."

Sue Shefman - Edutainer

Sue Shefman has delighted ARTS ALIVE! students, parents and even her fellow teachers with her wild thematic costumes and fabulous attention-to-detail teaching style since March 1999. Her favorite character is "Hippiclown" - her hippo-themed clown creation. Sue is an avid hippo lover whose house holds over 2000 hippopotami. She is a member of Hippolotofus, an online hippo chat group with over 900 members worldwide that holds a convention in the United States every year. Sue's favorite hippo used to be Harmony the purple hippo-pautomobile.

Harmony has been retired after 12 years of fun, so Sue's newest favorite hippopotamus is Cheerio, the cheerful red auto-potamus with baby roof-riders Shalom and Aloha - - whose names mean "Hello. Goodbye, and Peace." Sue has participated in the Art Car Parade for the past 8 years, however she feels as if she is in a parade every day since Cheerio is the only car that Sue drives!

Because of her interest in the unusual, Sue is a member of the Eye-Opener Committee for the Orange Show for Visionary Art, scouting out unique and different homes and places of business to visit on bus tours.

Sue has a BA in Spanish from Sophie Newcomb College and a Teaching Certificate from the University of Denver.

Her bondless enthusiasm for bubbles has bubbled over into all aspects of her life, from blowing them in every ARTS ALIVE! class to having a small bottle available to anyone who walks in her front door.

"Blowing bubbles is bodacious beyond belief!"

Samhita Sunya - Edutainer

Samhita Sunya, aka Sam, joined ARTS ALIVE! in May 2007. She was born in Wisconsin, and she is, to this day, a committed Packers' fan, aka Cheesehead! Her "cheeseheadedness" aside, Samhita is a sweet 16-year-long resident of Sugar Land - all puns intended!

In 2003, she left for Texas A&M University, and she returned from College Station in May with a B.A. in English Literature. In the fall of 2007, Samhita entered the PhD program at Rice University, where she will continue her career as a lifelong student.

After working with all sorts of kids - in India, at Bryan High School and at the Texas A&M University Writing Center - Samhita decided that ARTS ALIVE! would give her a chance to finally work with kids in her own neighborhood.

"If I ever become a nutty professor, I want to be the fun, positive, energetic kind of nutty,
and not the dry, serious, shriveled-prune sort of nutty. ARTS ALIVE! is basically my anti-shrivel cream!"

Winter Wallace - Edutainer

Winter Wallace, joined ARTS ALIVE! in September 2008. She is a born and bred Houstonian and an animal enthusiast. She may be a city girl now but 15 years of her life were spent on Magnolia Farms in Pearland, Texas, where she, her sister, and her mother raised and cared for every farm animal you can imagine! In 2005 she moved to the "big city" and is loving every minute of it!

While at Magnolia Farms, Winter had the privilege of teaching children of all ages about farm animals and their care. She also assisted her mother with a 2-year respite care program in her home for children and adults with special needs.

Winter graduated from Pearland High School in 2002 and went on to attend the University of Houston for two years. In both high school and college, she was active in dance and Spanish. While at U of H, she enjoyed studying Ballet and African Dance. Presently she enjoys walking her dog, O'dette, and some of her favorite pastimes are singing, sewing, learning to crochet, going to museums, and being with friends.

"The magic of Arts Alive! is an art form in itself. It takes shape before your very eyes and
effortlessly molds doubt into the beautiful form of believing. What could be more enchanting than
watching a child laugh and learn?"
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Maddie – Edutainer
Madeline “Maddie” Wooten joined ARTS ALIVE! in March of 2010. She came to us from Austin, TX where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Learning and Development from the University of Texas.

Maddie has always had a passion for working with children, stemming from her earliest desire to be a teacher. She has worked with children, ages ranging from newborn to elementary-aged in a variety of settings, including nannying, Montessori, and an after-school science enrichment program.

After only a few short months at ARTS ALIVE!, Maddie is now preparing for the next leg of her journey – August brings her move to Korea to continue with her passion of teaching. She will be teaching ESL to kindergarten-age children, just outside of Seoul, South Korea. But she will return…!!!

“The universe brought me to this amazing group of people and for that I am so thankful. Even though my work in Korea is not teaching ARTS ALIVE! classes, I will be using skills I have learned and channeling the ARTS ALIVE! magic to my students – the magic will transcend any language barrier I encounter, it will be my secret weapon.” 
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Sarah –Administrative Assistant
  Sarah Rossmiller is our very own ARTS ALIVE! “Office Lou” – aka our Administrative Assistant. She joined ARTS ALIVE! in October of 2009 and LOVES it here!

Sarah recently earned a Master’s in Professional Counseling at Texas State University – San Marcos and holds a second job as a Rehabilitation Specialist with Menninger Psychiatric Clinic. Sarah greatly enjoys the field of Psychology as well as arts, crafts, reading, music, theater, travel, and cinema.

Sarah is Texas-born, but spent most of her child and teenage years traveling and living in different places, such as Caracus, Venezuela and Abu Dhabi, UAE. However, she considers Houston her home for the time being and appreciates all it has to offer, especially the free stuff – parks, museums, etc.  

“ARTS ALIVE! is a place where I feel truly accepted and loved; it’s a place where hugs and happy-tears flow freely. The people I work with truly create magic, not only for children but also in the lives of each other.”  
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Rhonda - Edutainer

Rhonda Roberts joined the Arts Alive! family in early June 2010 and anxiously awaits the awesome adventure ahead. Having taken a step back from her artistic roots in recent years, she is thrilled to combine education and performance art and looks forward to making some magical mash-ups with other imaginations.

Rhonda graduated with highest honors in May 2007 from the University of Texas in Austin, completing the UTeach Liberal Arts state certification program and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in History. Having taught in Austin, Clear Creek, and Pasadena Independent School Districts before pursuing work in Montessori, Rhonda further attained teaching credentials in Secondary Life Science and Social Studies as well as Early Childhood and Primary General Education.

Rhonda also holds an Associates of Applied Science in Sound Recording from San Jacinto College and enjoys numerous musical endeavors in her spare time, including songwriting, singing, playing ukulele and keyboard, collaborating with other musicians, karaoke, and attending musical performances. She also delights in theatre, travel, video games, dining out with friends, belly dancing, and taking in the majesty of nature.

"I grew up once, but... I got better. ARTS ALIVE! is good medicine."
  
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