Staff

Teresa Jaynes, Artist-in-Residence

Jaynes is an artist, educator, and activist, who has been a  leader in the cultural community in Philadelphia for over 25 years. Since the early 1990s, Jaynes has created installations and artist books based on her research in libraries and special collections. She received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She has exhibited her work in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Rosenbach Museum & Library, and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. She has received grants and awards from Pew Fellowships in the Arts, NEA, Art Matters, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Independence Foundation. Jaynes has produced three limited edition artist books: A Wag’s Progress, The Last Favour, and The Moon Reader.

Erika Piola, Project Director

Piola is Associate Curator of Prints and Photographs at the Library Company of Philadelphia and Co-Director of VCP at LCP. She received her MA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and began work at the Library Company as a curatorial assistant in 1997. Piola has served as a project manager and curator for a number of Library Company initiatives, including Philadelphia on Stone, 18th-and 19th-Century Ephemera, and African Americana Graphics. She has also presented and published work on American visual culture and commercial lithography, 19th-century ephemera, and the antebellum Philadelphia print market.

Rachel D’Agostino, Co-Curator

D’Agostino is Curator of Printed Books at the Library Company of Philadelphia and Co-Director of VCP at LCP. She received a MA of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School before starting work at the Library Company in 2000.  She has also received an MLS from Clarion University. She has worked extensively with early American imprints, 19th-century ephemera, embossed printing for the visually impaired, and American decorative bindings. She has published, presented, and curated exhibitions on a variety of subjects, including the history of medicine, children’s literature, and American visual culture.

Katherine Allen, Marketing & Outreach Coordinator

Allen is a Philadelphia-based consultant on accessibility. She was a founding team leader in accessibility skills and awareness training at a world-wide technology company and served as a consultant on the Council for Accessibility at the NYU Langone Medical Center. Katherine served as Creative Director at the Nielsen Company, Publication Division, for several years leading teams in corporate projects and marketing. Diagnosed with macular degeneration at a young age, Allen has used accessibility technology as a means to enrich her life and work. She is also a member and creator of the Common Touch Vision Council.