Arts Instructors
Cheryl “Sholo” Beverly
Visual Arts
Cheryl "Sholo" Beverly is a mixed media intuitive artist who has made art part of her life for the last twenty years. She has learned embracing her mistakes make for a better understanding of what the universe wants for her art. She likes to consider herself a self taught artist learning through the organic shapes in nature and the energy of the female body and was lucky enough to experience top art schools in Chicago while working several jobs. Sholo rebelled against rules of technique and styles, to develop her own. Sholo is a fashion junkie for textiles and patterns, creating utopia environments with her collage and mixed media art.
Sue Cleary
Visual Arts
Sue Cleary is a multimedia artist whose passion for the arts encompasses a wide range of genres. She grew up with many artistic influences, including her mother, grandfather, aunt and uncle. As an amateur artist , her mother favored watercolor painting.
Sue worked as a touch-up artist for an oil painting import company and volunteered as the visiting "art lady" for several elementary schools in the area. Working as a floral design instructor and lead designer at craft stores and nurseries has allowed Sue to continue to use her creativity as an adult. Additionally, Sue has added other types of painting and jewelry making to her repertoire. Her experience and passion for painting is the perfect fit for Community Education Art classes.
Sarah Clevenger
Peggy Conway
Peggy’s mother taught her to needlepoint when she was in 7th grade and since completing her first project, she has stitched numerous canvases in both painted and counted needlepoint designs. After leaving the corporate world, Peggy has been teaching professionally since 2018. While the only certifications for needlepoint are for the judging side of the industry, she continues to take classes from national teachers and learns something new in every class. Peggy’s experience ranges from teaching students in Lake County grade schools to high school aged students to teaching Community Education classes. Her shop, Little Stitch Shop, is a full-service needlepoint store that specializes in hand painted canvases, specialty threads, books and accessories. They offer finishing services, as well as classes for beginners, project based and private lessons.Peggy’s advice to everyone is to jump right in! Needlepoint is beautiful, rewarding and relaxing all at the same time no matter how simple or complicated the project is.
John Harden
Mary Kuhn
Mary Kuhn is a native of the District 214 community and she received her Managing Brokers License and CAM certification (Certified Apartment Manager) from Harper. Additionally, Mary is on faculty of NAA (National Apartment Association). She has been the instructor for Quilting since 2018 with Community Education, but she has been quilting for over 25 years. Mary was previously an instructor for the CAA (Creative Artists Agency) for many years. She leads her quilting class in a non-structured environment to allow everyone to share personal talents and quilting ideas.
Michael Plantan
Michael Plantan is a graduate of the American Conservatory of Music. He has performed as a soloist and a member of many ensembles throughout the Chicago area for over 30 years. Michael's solo performances include: local concerts, festivals, corporate events, and private parties.
Elena Soultanska
Elena earned her Bachelor’s degree in the Art of Ballet from the National Music Academy in Bulgaria and completed practice and qualification courses from the International Dance Academy in Classical and Modern Dance. She also earned a Gold medal in Salsa and Social Dance from the Bulgarian Professional Dance Association. Additionally, Elena is an AFAA Certified Group Fitness instructor, a certified Zumba instructor and she holds A Teaching Artist Certificate at Dancing with Class.
With experience in Latin Dance (Salsa, Bachata, Cha cha, Merengue), Zumba, Line Dance, PreBallet, Creating movements, Mommy and Me, Hip-hop, Brazilian Samba, Zouk, and Kizomba, Elena has been teaching since 2001. Her extensive experience teaching children and adults and creating choreography makes her the perfect instructor for our classes.
Cheri Uricek
Dennis Walker
Dennis has been a photographer since 1972 starting as an apprentice with Bennett Brothers in Chicago and then working for Fred Fox Studios as the head of their photography department for 40 years. Dennis specializes in all realms of photography such as product, weddings, model composites, family, business meetings and head shots. There are not many areas of photography that he is not familiar with.
While Dennis has been teaching photography since 1979, he joined Community Education in 2013. His love for photography is why sharing his experience and knowledge is successful. Be prepared to learn more than you ever dreamed possible with Dennis.
Zee Wang
Zee Wang has a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science from Tianjin University in China and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Roosevelt University. Her love of crochet and knitting came when she was introduced to it as a little girl. At that time, she would not use any patterns, but learn to make her own projects by looking at other people’s creations. Zee grew up in China, but currently resides in the suburbs and has been teaching with D214 Community Education since 2017.