Meet our Instructors and Staff

at the National Building Museum Summer Camp

Please check this webpage in the future for a more complete list of Camp instructors and staff.

Carol Barton (Guest Artist, Building Artists) is a book artist, curator, and teacher who has published several editions and has organized both local and national shows of artists' books. Her work is exhibited internationally and is in numerous collections, including the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She served as curator for the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition Science and the Artist's Book.  She has taught at elementary, high school, and university levels, as well as conducted adult workshops at art centers across the United States. She is on the faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she teaches courses in bookbinding and book structures. She has had residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and the Sacatar Foundation in Brazil. Her pop-ups were featured in National Geographic Magazine’s July, 2005, article Zip Code 20812: It’s Only A Paper Moon. Her most recent books, The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volumes 1 and 2, are how-to guides to making pop-up cards and pages.

Ashley Searles (Guest Artist, Building Artists) has been dancing and performing in New York City for the past 12 years and recently relocated to Philadelphia. She received her BFA from  NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award. Her performing credits include works by Twyla Tharp, Mark Taylor, Doug Varone, David Parsons and Carolyn Dorfman among many others. In addition to performing, she served as rehearsal director for Murray Spalding Movement Arts from 1999 – 2004.  Ashley’s choreography explores interdisciplinary collaboration and has been presented by Dance Space Center NYC, JUMP Arts Festival, Long Island University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Hanalei Center, Kauai, Hawaii and the Adrienne Theater, Philadelphia. She currently creates and performs with the New York based Moving Theater, most recently appearing in their production of Its My Party premiering at the Greenwich Music Festival.  She is also an adjunct performing and teaching artist with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and has been featured in performances at The Kennedy Center, The Baltimore Theater Project and the Los Angeles Theater Center.