Since December 2009, John and Chris have strategically assembled an experienced and highly respected core board of directors, who have overseen and helped to guide the project from its conception. The board is continuing to be developed with a focus on the organization’s strategic pre-operational needs. The continued leadership and work of the board on behalf of 3S is a critical component to the organization’s success.
MJ Blanchette
MJ is a landscape painter living and working in Kittery Point, Maine. Shortly after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she founded Luma Design, a boutique design/communications firm specializing in corporate identity and image-building. As president and founder, the firm’s initial focus in the healthcare industry naturally led to tenures on a number of boards including Fidelity Health Alliance, Catholic Medical Center, Optima Health, Hillcrest Terrace, and the Easter Seals Society of New Hampshire. The firm later focused on the burgeoning high-tech sector until MJ sold the business and moved to the Seacoast in order to pursue a full-time painting career. Since then, MJ’s work has been shown in numerous galleries from New York City throughout New England, including the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. An active supporter of ecological endeavors and former board member of the Kittery Land Trust, MJ balances her enthusiasm for organic gardening, permaculture, and wildlife preservation with her commitments to support and develop her community.
Evan Karatzas
Evan is an accomplished creative and interaction design professional, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Founder and Director of Experience Design at Proximity Lab, an award-winning interaction design studio based in Portsmouth, NH. Evan’s career spans over 20 years of software development and creative leadership. He has designed and produced interactive solutions for top tier clients including Adobe, Bose, PBS and Bill Nye the Science Guy and has received a number of industry awards including a 2003 MITX Best in Show Award for Creative Concept and a 2010 MITX Award in Environmental Consciousness. His work and writing have been published in Stephen Wilson’s Art + Science Now, The Language of Dynamic Media and Communication Arts. Evan is actively involved with a number of non-profit and philanthropic initiatives. He is a member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of New Hampshire, a member of the Board of Directors at 3S Artspace, was a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for over 15 years and has led grassroots projects for Friends of Boston’s Homeless and the NH Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Janaki Lennie
Janaki Lennie is a visual artist whose paintings and drawings explore our often ambivalent relationship to the natural environment. Her unique perspective has evolved through observation of her immediate surroundings as well as through experiences gained while travelling internationally and participating in activities including flying gliders and sea kayaking. Lennie was born in Melbourne and grew up in suburban Perth, Western Australia. She moved to Houston Texas in 1994, and, after a spell in Newfoundland, Canada, found her home in Portsmouth NH in 2009. She earned a BFA from Curtin University, Western Australia and an MFA from the University of Houston. She has had solo exhibitions in Australia, Canada, Germany and the US and is represented in museums and corporate and private collections in the US, Australia and Canada. She has completed several large scale painting commissions and has received a number of art awards including fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship, Telecom Australia Open Drawing Prize, Art in Embassies Program, Creative Capital Professional Development Fellowship. Prior to arriving in the US, Janaki lived and worked for 16 years in a voluntary capacity at the Beacon Yoga Centre in Western Australia where she was a founding member. The Yoga Centre is a residential non-profit organization based in a 40 room historic building on 2 acres in the heart of the port town of Fremantle with high profile local community interaction. In Houston she served on the programming committee of Lawndale Art Centre from 1999 to 2002, and was reviews editor and writer for ArtLies, a Texas based quarterly journal, during 2002 and 2003.
Steven McHenry
Steve is principal architect and founder of McHenry Architecture. With over 25 years of professional experience Steve leads McHenry Architecture with high quality design standards throughout a broad range of applications including Commercial, Historic Infill, Medical, Educational and Residential architecture. Steve has a degree in Architecture from the Boston Architectural College and is a LEED Accredited Professional. The firm has received a New Hampshire AIA annual award, a national award from Commercial Renovation Magazine and five Annual Awards for Design Excellence from Portsmouth Advocates. Prior to his career as an architect, Steve received a degree in American History from Rutgers University, served as a caseworker for the American Red Cross while in the US Army in Vietnam and spent seven years as a woodcarver and cabinetmaker, co-founding The Wood Works, a co-operative custom woodworking shop. Non-professional interests have included small craft boat-building, coaching Little League baseball, kayaking and restoration of homes in Maine and France. Steve is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the US Green Building Council, the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition he is the current chairman of ArtSpeak, Portsmouth’s Cultural Commission and a member of the board of trustees of 3S Artspace.
Elisa Winter Holben
Elisa is currently Design Director/ Principal of Winter Holben Design. She has over ten years of experience in design strategy, branding, identity development, wayfinding, environmental graphics, visual merchandising, and product design. Elisa leads the strategy and design of highly collaborative projects in which the full range of branding and architectural elements come together to create an integrated environment.
Prior to founding Winter Holben Design, she was Creative Director at PWCampbell and also BrandPartners leading notable and award-winning design projects for Bank of America, National City Bank/PNC Bank, Wachovia/Wells Fargo, Sun Trust Bank, and numerous other financial institutions of varying scope and scale. Elisa’s previous work also includes identity development, wayfinding programs and environmental graphics for museums, hospitals, hospitality and other institutions.
Ned Savoie
Ned Savoie is the Creative Director and principal of Harbour Light Strategic Marketing and Savvy Software. He’s been intimately involved in marketing, photography, design and art for over 25 years. His company has given often to the Seacoast community, including work with non-profits like The Music Hall, Pro Portsmouth, Kittery Land Trust, NHSPCA, Ogunquit Playhouse, The Great Bay Stewards, Strawbery Banke, Prescott Park Arts Festival, Art-Speak, Sexual Assault Support Services, NH Center for Non-Profits, Seacoast Rep., Bridgton Academy, National Federation of Humane Societies, The Japan-America Society of New Hampshire, Kittery Foreside District Committee, and many others. His companies specialize in creating implements of success for companies around the block and around the country.
Deborah Thompson
Deb Thompson has owned Nahcotta Gallery, located in downtown Portsmouth, NH, for over ten years. She currently serves on the board of 3S Artspace, and has been actively involved in various other arts organizations, including serving on the executive committee of Art-Speak, the City of Portsmouth’s Cultural Commission, participating in the founding of Art ‘Round Town, the collective of downtown Portsmouth galleries, and co-producing Overnight Art, Art-Speak’s biennial temporary public art exhibit.