Coffee at Ten

Coffee @ Ten with Art Educator, Lin Alessio

As part of Youth Arts Festival, award-winning, former educator, Lin Alessio will explore how art can be used to help children and adults be more aware and sensitive to the world around them. Lin will discuss how art can be used as a tool to increase discussion and understanding between children and adults. She will also look at how cell phones can be used in a new and different way to bring more art and interaction into the lives of children.




About Lin

Lin Alessio is a local business owner, an award-winning former inner city educator, and at one time owned and operated three art galleries with her late husband, Tony. Today, in addition to running Interlochen Perennial Farms, she is the Director of Women’s Development and Village Projects for Red Dirt Road, a social enterprise business based in Cambodia which creates and markets unique fashion accessories. Lin is also the founder and energy behind Stitches of Kindness, a non-profit organization that provides local first responders with handmade quilts sewn by individuals and groups in the community.

Lin spent twenty-five years in the Detroit Public Schools, where she taught Drama, Speech, and Fine Arts Adventure, an interactive program about arts through the ages. Lin became known for her excellence in innovative teaching methods, and was instrumental in developing a teacher training program for Wayne State University which she ran for seventeen years. In 1991, Lin was named a “Detroit Public Schools Teacher of the Year,” and that same year was recognized as a “State of Michigan Teacher of the Year.” Lin retired from both the Detroit Public School and Wayne State University in 1995 and moved to Interlochen with her husband, where they started their own perennial farms business.

The common thread running through Lin’s diverse set of experiences is her belief that art, in its many forms, can be a driving force for positive change in society. Whether she is working with a customer to design a garden as a “living work of art,” or teaching a group of women in a remote village in Cambodia how to use silk to create a custom handbag, she is bringing out the best in people. Through art, individuals and societies are able to discover themselves, their passions, and the humanity which we all share.

This event is free and open to the public.