Jennifer Bryant
CEO, Global Affairs
As the founder of small hands big art, Jennifer heads up all domestic and overseas sales, management, mergers and acquisitions, and government liaison divisions. While highly skilled at collaborative gap analysis and implementing customer-centric buzz word metrics, Jennifer’s fondest childhood memories involve creating art. At six, she learned the power of balancing creative thinking with analytical – if somewhat deviant – long-term strategic planning, scrawling “Jenny is a Pig” on her bedroom door in crayon. Strained sibling relationships continue to this day.
A college art scholarship naturally led to a 17 year career in the securities brokerage industry, where she honed valuable skills implementing out-of-the box enterprise deliverables and harnessing broad-based synergies, testing the weight limit of that little ledge on the corporate ladder that says “Not a Step.” She took the left side of her brain offline and now focuses on the passions that inspire her most: children and art. And writing stuff like this.
Though memories of her vast corporate accomplishments and international award nominations have faded, she can vividly recall her favorite crayon colors, and is confident she can still identify Burnt Sienna in a blind taste test. Ever since pulling all-nighters creating elaborate 3D Amelia Bedelia and Pippy Longstocking book report dioramas to dazzle her elementary school classmates & teachers, she has always thought of herself as an “artist” – obsessively cutting circles & collecting paint chips from Home Depot, and dreaming of one day designing a better, faster way to sort buttons. It is this level of confidence and inventiveness that she hopes to instill in the children who spend time at small hands big art.
A 10 year resident of Charlotte (making her almost a native), Jennifer spends her her spare time trying to make cool stuff and volunteering, & currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Festival in the Park.
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Hannah Naish
SVP, Research & Development
Before assuming responsibility for small hands big art’s global supply management and taking the helm of our corporate Adhesives Division, Hannah’s humble beginnings were spent playing outside in what she and her brother covertly referred to as the “dirt spot”, engineering elaborate architectural structures, making pancakes, and creating a giant mud pit for their dog to enjoy. Her finesse with creative project design can be traced back to her early apprenticeship in her parents’ home office-turned art room, sculpting elaborate clay and wax creatures and making her mark by slapping a big purple handprint on the wall. As a child, Hannah was always encouraged to be creative & innovative and sat inside her closet for hours making a miniature farm out of Sculpey – just like the one she lived on in real life – for her dollhouse family to enjoy.
An accomplished recipient of numerous corporate accolades, her first “ ooooh’s and aaaah’s” date back to a fabulous blue cockatiel she painted in an early watercolor class – the first realization that she was good at something and was special because of it. That kind of inspiration and encouragement is what Hannah strives to create for children every day (when not busy negotiating strategic overseas alliances). She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Wingate University where her emphasis was in sculpture and 3D design. Hannah believes in the therapeutic power of art and a daily Twix bar, and that every child deserves to be given the opportunity to feel like they are good at something, special, and creative.
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Brittany Moore
SVP, Contact Paper Division
Brittany Moore is a native of Rock Hill, South Carolina and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. She is currently working towards her Master of Art Education at Winthrop University and also teaches art at Chester Park School of the Arts. In the summer, she works in the studio and also teaches our offsite art camps & classes.
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While at USC, Brittany majored in Art Education and maintained a certification to teach Kindergarten through Twelfth grade art. Brittany is a strong believer that an education cannot be complete without the elements of art. She believes that art gives us the opportunity to express ourselves in a way that nothing else can, and through art, we learn more about history, math, science, literature, and ourselves. Brittany’s focus in school was on painting; however, she has a love for metal work and jewelry making and is inspired to share her knowledge and love of art with children.
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Brittany’s spare time at the moment is entirely consumed with reading wedding magazines and blogs, busily planning her Spring 2012 wedding!
