Meet Our People
Damon McLeese
Executive Director
Damon specializes in unlocking the creative power of people and organizations regardless of their background, bridging the gap between creativity and community in corporate settings, classrooms, and within individual artists. Damon has been the Executive Director of the nonprofit Access Gallery since 1998.
Damon was the recipient of the 2014 Mayor's Award for Innovation in the Arts and was a speaker at the 2016 TEDx Mile High “Make and Believe” event. In 2017, Damon received the prestigious Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts, and in 2019, he was named the Bonfils Stanton Arts and Society Awardee.
Damon’s work forces us to look at ability and creativity differently. His past work includes photography for people who are blind, teaching Street Art to people with Alzheimer's and Dementia, and hiring students with disabilities to create corporate art.
Cris Ciani
Associate Director/Client Services
Cris Ciani has been with Access Gallery in various roles since the early 2000s. In 2017 she was promoted to Associate Director. She enjoys helping those that are living with a disability by creatively using her skills in education, nonprofit management, and public relations.
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Before joining Access Gallery, Cris was the Executive Director of Jeffco Volunteer Caregivers, an organization that provides services for seniors and people with disabilities so that they can continue living independently in their homes. Born and raised in Colorado, attended Columbine High School before double majoring in Speech Communication and Nonprofit Management at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. She has received several awards for her work including the Lucille Weiss Memorial Award for Education. Cris was also recognized for completion of the Aesthetic Education Institute of Colorado at the University of Denver’s education academic program. She served for a year in the AmeriCorps Vista volunteer program.
Amy Siegel
Director of Creative Services
With over 30 years of experience in the corporate realm of design, Amy happily transitioned into the nonprofit world in January 2020 to work for Access Gallery, where she directs Access Gallery’s Creative Services Department, building relationships with corporate, nonprofit, and government clients, and providing art direction to our talented team of artists. At Access Gallery, Amy also leads the graphic design cohort and provides creative vision for marketing and branding.
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She was previously a Senior Graphic Designer for Gensler, a global design firm focused on improving the human experience through the power of design. In 2017, Amy received the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Colorado Fellow award, which recognizes designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their local or regional design community. Outside of her work at Access Gallery, Amy works in paper collage, mixed medium, encaustic and encaustic monotypes on a hot box.
Kari Hess
Director of Operations
After a career in art education, Kari has turned her focus towards arts administration in order to build inclusive and accessible arts beyond the classroom walls. Her objective is to facilitate spaces in which people feel empowered, supported, and safe to explore their own creative endeavors. With a BS in Art Education and an MA in Arts and Culture Management, she found a great fit as Access Gallery's Director of Operations.
Kari's personal art practice is based in a multitude of media, including pen, ink, watercolor, charcoal, ceramics, and paper cutting. She explores the complex relationships between the self, the environment, and the psyche throughout her work.
Megan Harrigan
Studio Manager
Megan is professionally dedicated to the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion and access through arts and education. She is pleased to join the Access Gallery community, having previously worked at a kindred progressive art studio in Illinois where she gained experience with: program management, studio management, archiving, and professional development for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Megan is also a former professor of Digital Media and Design at College of Lake County in Illinois where she highlighted equitable and diverse representation of industry innovators and career paths in her curriculum to increase richness in education and advancement of opportunity. She has a BS degree in photography with a double-minor in art and journalism, as well as AAS degree in digital media and design.
Megan is a visual artist whose artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the Chicago area, using primarily mixed media and photography to examine American socio-political constructs that drive inequity. www.mharrigan.com
Andre Rodriguez
Digital Studio Manager
Andre Rodriguez educates artists in becoming more proficient in graphic design, video editing, and other digital arts, including 3D modeling and printing. Stemming from an interest in empowering underrepresented youth, Andre began working with Access Gallery in 2019, at the dawn of the digital art lab, and has been growing with the organization ever since. Outside of digital art, Andre has designed and created numerous murals and street art projects both for Access Gallery and in collaboration with other local artists.
Michael Agyepong
Studio Assistant
Michael was born and raised in Colorado and studied at the University of Denver, achieving a bachelors in studio art. Michael is currently a studio assistant at Access Gallery and volunteers with nonprofit arts organizations around the Denver Metro Area.
Dez Merworth
Studio Assistant
Dez is an Amazigh-American artist who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD). She has exhibited work in galleries across the Denver metro area including Juicebox Gallery, Recreative Denver, TaxiAIR, and the Dairy Arts Center. She is also a founding member of the New Genres Collective, a collaborative coalescence of artists who work with improvisation, performance, and installation to navigate new modes of creation. They have performed in local and national venues including the Denver Art Museum and Currents New Media Festival.
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Dez previously worked with RedLine Gallery through their ArtCorps mentoring program and, in addition to Access Gallery, she instructs in the Digital Creative Art Lab at Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities.
Board Members
Carolina Cara
President
Jeff Russell
Joann Asakawa Huntz
Allison Galgiani
Treasurer
Donna Baker-Breningstall
Ryan Adams
Nicky Alden
Secretary
Aliki McCain
Immediate Past President
Megan Bateman