About the Folk Arts Center of New England
Staff
The Folk Arts Center of New England is run by the FAC Executive Director, Office Manager, Program Manager, Board of Directors, and coordinators of events and projects.
Contact the Office
- Email members of our office staff directly:
Get to Know Our Staff
Marcie Van Cleave, Executive Director (since 1988)
Marcie first caught the dancing bug after college when she learned how to waltz on a first date. The romance didn’t stick, but a love of dance was born. She first learned how to teach folk dance from her mentor, Marianne Taylor, founder of the Folk Arts Center.
She has spent time teaching at various folk festivals and camps throughout the world including the Jasan Bonuš and Obrok festivals in the Czech Republic and Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, MA.
Katy Bishop, Office Manager (since 2019)
Katy, a native of Nahant, MA, is an avid vintage dancer and historic costume specialist. She and her late husband, Ben, started the Nahant Victorian ball in 1990 and continued the annual summer event for 30 years.
Her dressmaking skills, love of dance, and sense of fun come from her Viennese mother, and her Serbian and Hungarian father from Budapest instilled in her a love of history and a desire to preserve her family’s heritage.
She came to vintage dance for the love of costumes — but stayed for the love of dance. She a costume historian, vintage dressmaker, vintage dancer, was a long-time member of The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers and on the organizing team of their Newport Vintage Dance Week for decades. She is also the mother of three kids who are developing a love of their heritage, dance, and appreciation of the humor in life. Her boys, Nick and David, are known to FAC as "Team Bishop" as they jump in to help the office with videos, website work, and other technical tasks. Her daughter Nora is a talented artist and vintage dancer.