Sarah Barr ’16, Jessica Bai ’16: Episcopal Academy’s newest art exhibit, “Young Alumni,” will kick off the Crawford Campus Center Gallery’s new year this January, with the exhibited alumni including former Episcopal students Sarah Coote ’09, Susanna Franks ’05, Jessica Jahnle ’09, Caroline Pratt ’09, Madeline Saggiomo ’08, Sean Toner ’09, and Lauren Wilkinson ’10. The work of these seven emerging artists and recent alumni will be exhibited for the Episcopal community to admire and enjoy, yet the exhibit also aims to inspire current students to continue developing artistic talent after graduation.
Coote studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she currently majors in painting. She is in the process of building a final portfolio and working on her degree for her project year. “A Real Woman,” her series of exhibited paintings, explores the relationship between women and reality television. This relationship depicts certain roles and stereotypes for women in this industry: wives, mothers, and party girls chief among them. Through her work, Coote’s criticism and empathy for these women intertwine to create her own interpretation of this subject.
Coote’s exhibited work provokes questions about the artist and her relationship with Epsicopal as a graduated student. David Sigel, Head of Visual Arts, still remembers her as a leader, even in front of the then-upperclassmen. Sigel recalls a young woman who brought positivity and a great atmosphere to the studio, who possessed the desire, focus, and tenacity towards her art, and who was always exceptionally self-disciplined.
Sigel said of her, “I think she was always the artist she is today. She was just in the process of getting there. I could see how Episcopal pushed her with interesting critiques and conversations.”
“Like many students,” Sigle continued, I don’t think she was always used to the honesty in which I approached the critiques, and I remember seeing her finally realizing the nature of constructive criticism to better her art and to build her skills. She was one of those artists who had a true calling to get into the studio.”
Coote was curious and hungry to learn and make connections; she was known for bringing in other influences to inspire the class, a quality that can be seen in her current work. She often brought the outside world into her work, showing, for example, videos on YouTube to the class that gave new perspective to the class projects and discussions. In fact, Sigel still uses some of her influences in classes today, including a stop-motion video called “Blue” that depicts wall paintings and cartoons that seem to come alive.
Sean Toner went on what some would call the “normal route,” and didn’t think much about being an artist until late in his high school career, when he found a new passion. Like many students that go through the Upper School’s requirements, Toner took Foundations of Art, 2-D design, and was enrolled into several woodworking classes.
Toner slowly found a new love in woodworking, and this interest still lingered his senior year. He set up an independent study program and was one of the students credited with bringing an architectural program to the school, a curriculum where interested students explore the possible career path of architecture by designing buildings and building models.
However, Toner still focused on the fundamental fine art aspect of being an artist, aspects such as the ability to draw from observation. As part of the first graduating class of the new campus, his student project helped redesign and change Episcopal in its new chapter, the mark of a true innovator. Students today can set up their own independent art studies like Sean Toner did, and can be approved by the art department through a proposal.
Jess Jahnle was a great field hockey player. She was, like many students every year, bent on going to college for sports. But her passion for art made her rethink this decision her junior year, and she decided to go to the Maryland Institute College of Art to develop her other passion: painting
Jahnle’s painting of Italy is exhibited in the Alumni art show. It is a collage of many different scenes and views of Italy that pieced together create the illusion of beautiful, Italian scenery.
Susanna Frank is possibly the least traditional out of the exhibited artists. She is currently in research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and working as a medical assistant in dermatology, and plans to continue in medical school.
An artist at heart, however, she still keeps art in her life through her photography. She started a website devoted to her other non-medical passions. Solifstyle.com, her web magazine, is devoted to fashion and art in New York City. She captures the natural beauty of everyday people found in the streets of The Big Apple through photography, some of which can be found in the show. Susanna also contributes prints to the art show, made through a course in printmaking, one of her favorite classes at Columbia. Combining her favorite subjects, science and art, she created a print inspired by the human heart.
“At EA I was part of a small, amazing group of students that loved art,” Frank explained, referring to her artistic growth during her days at the Upper School. “We were able to express ourselves freely thanks to Mrs. Lombardi, who gave us all total creative control over the Epolitan magazine and during AP art class. Mr. Collins was also very influential; he allowed me and fellow students in photography free range and always had amazing constructive criticism.”
These artists have all had different paths in life diverging from their days in Episcopal’s Upper School, but they all found and maintained a love for art nonetheless. Some have kept art as a lifestyle, some have kept it as a hobby, but they’ve all pursued their passions outside of high school.
“I am a hopeless romantic,” Sigel said when asked about students continuing in the arts and being successful. “I think that anyone who gives it 100% could be great at anything they want to do.” Through “Young Alumni,” Sigel and the rest of the art department hope to prove this idea can be a reality.

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