Who We Are

Mission Statement

Firefly Environmental Arts Project is a collaborative arts project in Litchfield, Dutchess, and Berkshire Counties that nurtures student creativity and stewardship through the inspiration of nature.

Vision Statement

The vision for Firefly is to be a unique collaborative site within our regional tri-state “community” for students to reflect on the beauty of the natural world using various art forms and the written word to showcase their reflections and to voice their concerns. Their inspiration would be drawn from nature and from professionals in the arts, as well as environmentalists. Ultimately, we see it as a means of offering hope and empowerment…through imagination, belief, and action.

“As poet Amanda Gorman so aptly put it: ‘For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.’ Firefly Environmental Arts Project wants to encourage students to “be the light” as they confront the issues of our environment.”

Deb Schlee - Firefly Project Coordinator

Deb Schlee - FireFly Co-Founder- majored in Art History at Harvard and formerly organized and co-led student art trips abroad. She is passionate about environmental issues and photography. Her photography focuses on the beauty of nature and rural living.

Advisory Committee Members

  • John Brett

    Administrator at the Art Garage, Housatonic Valley Regional High School; Chairman of the Sharon Audubon Advisory Board; Board of Selectman, Sharon, CT; Hospice volunteer for SVNA/ Foothills, Advisory Board member of the Little Guild in Cornwall.

  • Joy Brown

    Internationally renowned sculptor, potter, and muralist who has exhibited her works in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. Her figures and three-dimensional wall installations are represented in prominent private and public collections, including parks, sculpture gardens, and urban public spaces around the world. The first exhibition of her monumental bronzes in the United States was a nine-month show on Broadway in NYC in 2017-18.

  • Tim Good

    Owner, The Good Gallery Kent; Owner, The Good Portfolio; Expert in Art and Brand Licensing

  • E.Barrie Kavasch

    author, herbalist, ethnobotanist, mycologist, and food historian of Cherokee, Creek, and Powhatan descent. Kavasch’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and many other publications, and she has been a guest lecturer at the New York Botanical Garden, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

  • Carl Raab

    Co-Founder

    played a significant role in the conceptual phase of the Firefly project and will be a valuable and trusted advisor on the Advisory Committee. He is a former science educator and educational consultant in NYC. Carl is an author who currently lives in both NYC and Kent. Carl is an avid swimmer and an accomplished gardener who opens up his gardens in Kent for viewing to area Garden Clubs.

  • Leigh Schmitt

    is currently a teacher and administrator at the Millbrook School in Millbrook, New York. Leigh teaches science, serves as Director of Stewardship and Sustainability, and coordinates the school’s community service program. Additionally, Leigh coaches cross-country, and outdoor skills, and juggles advising and dorm life. Before Millbrook, Leigh taught and conducted research at The Island School and Center for Sustainable Development on the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. While on Eleuthera, Leigh’s research focused on sustainable agriculture and he wrote a book called Wild Bahamas.   

  • Peter Steiner

    was a professor of German at Dickinson College.  He has been a New Yorker cartoonist for the last forty-five years.  He has had exhibitions of his paintings  in many local venues as well as in New York and Washington, DC.  He began writing novels late in life and is the author of nine novels.

  • James West

    James "Jim" West has been writing since 1998, inspired by the love for his hometown, Kent, Connecticut. He graduated from Stephen's College, Columbia, Missouri with a BA degree and has published two books; Swift The River House, a collection of original poetry and aphorisms, and two children's bedtime stories, Dream Time and Where Katy Lives, just published.

  • Pam White

    Connecticut-based painter and photographer