The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville proudly announces the 2025 class of Periscope: Rural Artist Development. Now in its fourth year, Periscope RAD is an online training and mentorship program uniquely designed to be a transformative experience empowering rural artists with the entrepreneurial skills to help them thrive. Training sessions are led by expert business advisors and small group work is facilitated by arts professionals. The 2025 Periscope RAD cohort was selected from applications submitted by rural artists from across the state, and the program is generously supported by funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
The 2025 Class of Periscope RAD is, in alphabetical order by last name:
Lynda Best received a degree in art education from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. She taught 4 1/2 years for the Tennessee Arts Commission in Sweetwater City Schools and 5 summers of art enrichment programs in Sweetwater, TN. She remained in public school as a special ed and regular ed inclusion teacher for 30 + years.
Throughout her career, she helped children with murals in Sweetwater and Chattanooga. She taught Art at TMG and worked with several programs for disadvantaged children in Athens, GA at Waterhouse Pavilion and after-school art programs.
She has exhibited across Tennessee in Nashville, at the Oak Ridge Art Museum, the Appalachian Center for Arts and Crafts, the Etowah Train Station, and the Dogwood Arts Festival in Knoxville. She has also exhibited at Western University in North Carolina, Brookgreen Fine Art in South Carolina, in Hot Springs Arkansas, and Atlantic City. She currently has 5 paintings on display at the Hyatt Hotel in Knoxville and is exhibiting at the Knoxville Emporium and Airport show.
Mary Gwyn Bowen is an award-winning artist, published research RN and long-time Botanical art instructor. Her art is about the beauty and drama of nature. Mary Gwyn is particularly inspired by Reelfoot Lake’s unique earthquake formation and the magic of flowers remembered from her grandmother’s West Tennessee gardens. Though oil is Mary Gwyn’s favorite medium, she also does silverpoint drawing, pastel, watercolor and more. Nature photography is a fun sideline for her. As a registered nurse, she researches art’s role in healthcare.
Mary Gwyn holds a nursing degree from Excelsior College, Albany, NY and a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. She has an MA in Art Education from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and a certificate from UF’s Arts in Medicine(AIM) Intensive. She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA).
Stefani Burchfield was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Troy University. Following her education, she resided in various Southeastern and Appalachian regions before settling in Athens, Tennessee. Her artistic journey is deeply influenced by the abundant nature and the vibrant human experiences provided by her surroundings. Stefani Burchfield is a committed advocate for the arts, consistently contributing to the cultural enrichment of her community.
Early on Stefani knew she wanted to paint “big”. She has a love for mural painting and the transformation of small-scale natural wonders into immersive experiences that encourage viewers to pause and appreciate the familiar and the communal. Through her art, Stefani hopes to foster community engagement, inviting collective dialogue on our environment within the public spaces we share. Her work can be found in Princeton, West Virginia and Decatur Tennessee.
John F.
Headshot and bio unavailable.
Jenn B. McCoy lives in Winchester, Tennessee. Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, she is a juried exhibitor at The Artisan Depot, the co-op gallery of the Franklin County Arts Guild, and had work featured in the National Juried Art Show of the Cultural Arts Center in Douglasville, Georgia in 2023. While she originally started studying painting to improve her work in textile media, Jenn’s current practice centers on acrylic and mixed media painting. She often paints birds, flowers, insects, and other natural subjects. Her work tries to evoke a sense of wonder at the small or mundane by playing with size and context and by highlighting ephemeral details that are easily ignored or not ordinarily perceptible.
Patricia Richards has been a crafter and sewer since she was 5. She has always enjoyed doing wearable art, which, since she was a little girl, she has called “useful art.”
Patricia, a textile artist, found solace and passion in free-motion stitching during her recovery from breast cancer. This process, she found, was deeply meditative and calming. She creates designs on paper or fabric, machine thread paints them and then stitches them onto her other projects as focal points.
While Patricia has been self-taught for most of her life, she profoundly appreciates this team’s willingness to help her grow and expand as an artist and support her artistic career. She is excited about her growth and the opportunity to help others in her creative community.
Interpreting the beauty around us into works of art in a way that makes them even more intriguing and engaging to the viewer is the creative process that Dustine Roberts strives to accomplish. Discovering the full potential of the scene is the most exciting aspect of painting, allowing the viewer to feel the emotion is truly a success. Dustine is an impressionistic oil painter residing on a small farm in Charlotte Tennessee. Dustine has always been passionate about fine art but started her art career as a portrait photographer creating images that captured the essence of children and the relationship of the family. She is the recipient of the Kodak Gallery Award, Fuji Masterpiece Award and many Best of Show. While Dustine always loved photography, she found herself wanting to capture the beauty of the landscapes and life, in a more expressive medium. Dustine is now a full-time oil painter who continues to evolve her work.
Pauline Steinbrink is a dynamic mixed-media artist whose creative journey began at age nine with her first camera in hand. While she has explored various forms of photography over the years, it’s black-and-white photography that truly captures her artistic vision. In recent years, Pauline has expanded her practice to include gelli printing, watercolor, collage, pastels, and charcoal, blending these techniques in unique ways she’s mastered through classes and workshops. Inspired by nature and found objects, she’s passionate about repurposing post-consumer materials in her work, reflecting her belief that art is for everyone. For Pauline, everyday items hold endless creative possibilities, proving that art is simply a matter of seeing the world through a different lens.
For more information on Periscope: Rural Artist Development visit www.abcnashville.org/rad.