Arts Faculty

Faculty introductions

Ken Maeckelbergh

Dawn Saks

Dawn earned her Masters of Fine Art degree from the University of Illinois in 1987. She earned her BFA from Colorado State University and did supplemental coursework at the New York Studio School and Pratt Institute of Art. Her areas of focus were painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Dawn has exhibited her art work locally as well as nationally: Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Kansas, and North Dakota. She has taught art courses and workshops for a variety of community art organizations and is currently a member of the Women's Caucus for Art. Dawn has experience and interest in serving children and citizens with developmental and mental health challenges. She is an advocate and participant in SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity).

"…Stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places in which… you may really find marvelous ideas." --Leonardo da Vinci. This quote perhaps summarizes Dawn's philosophy that nature is the best art teacher; nature poses mysteries, questions, and insights if one is willing to wander with an open eye and a sketchbook in hand.

Melissa Borman

Melissa studied Art and Film Theory at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. In 1998 she received an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. In addition to teaching Photography at Century, Melissa leads an interdisciplinary, summer school program at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland.

Her work explores the relationship between personal history and place. Raised in the military, Borman's family was always on the move, and this pattern has continued in adulthood. As each subsequent home is transformed from the unknown to the familiar, and then lost to change, the chronology of life is subverted by a chronology of place. Utilizing photographs, video, sound, everyday objects, and installation she creates visual stories that stand astride fiction and autobiography. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Ireland. "A Sea of Trouble Meets the Trees Themselves" was recently on display in North Hennepin Community College's Joseph Gazzuolo Art Gallery and SOO Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis. Her work is represented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery.

melissabormanvisualart.com

Burren College

Neil Johnston

Neil Johnston holds a Bachelor of Arts in painting from the College of Visual Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here at Century, Neil teaches: Art Structures: Design Basics, a foundation-level course focusing on the basics of visual composition and design, Art History, Painting and Drawing.

Neil has twenty years of professional painting experience in a variety of mediums and his paintings are part of corporate collections including Hines International and Medtronic Incorporated. In addition, he is an accomplished muralist and shows his paintings regularly at the Nina Bliese Gallery in Minneapolis, at the Five Two Six Gallery in Saint Paul, and on the internet.

Ken Wenzel

Ken is a painter living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work is representational with a figurative focus. His work has been exhibited and collected regionally and nationally. Shows include; The Bowery Gallery in New York, The Phipps Art Center in Hudson Wisconsin and No Name Gallery at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis Minnesota.

Ken grew up in metropolitan New York. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with honors in 1983 from The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. At SVA he was awarded a President's Scholarship. He then relocated to San Francisco where he had his first teaching experience as an art instructor. Ken completed his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1989. He moved to Minneapolis in the late summer of that year. Ken has lectured and taught drawing at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts since 1990, and for a number of years taught painting and figure drawing classes at several community art centers. From 2003 to 2006 he served as a part-time faculty member in the art department at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He has taught in the art program at Century College in White Bear Lake since Fall Semester 2006.

Laura Andrews