OUR STORY
Founded by Patty Palmer in 2008, Deep Space Sparkle has grown from an art blog to a company that supports adults in their efforts to teach art to kids.
Based in Santa Barbara, California, our team of 10 supports a weekly podcast, Art Made Easy, a thriving membership site for art teachers, The Sparklers’ Club, and an active blog devoted to providing art projects for teachers and families.
Patty Palmer
CEO, Founder DEEP SPACE SPARKLE
Patty is the CEO and Founder at Deep Space Sparkle. Patty founded Deep Space Sparkle while working as an elementary art teacher in Goleta, California.
Sharing project ideas and tips on what her students were doing in the art room on her blog, inspired teachers from around the world. Now Deep Space Sparkle helps teachers teach art to kids in art rooms, classrooms, kitchens and studios.
Patty is the author of Draw, Paint, Sparkle Creative Projects from an Elementary Art Teacher (Roost Books 2018)
Neil Cutcliffe
Mister Sparkle
Neil is the CFO and CTO of Deep Space Sparkle. He keeps all ships running smoothly and even tolerates glitter.
In his former life, Neil worked as a computer engineer and manager before devoting his days to DSS.
Neil and Patty have been married for 25 years.
Shannon Cain Reyes
Sparkler Happiness & Community Manager
Shannon is our resident customer happiness guru. She takes care of all our customers and members and makes all things happen inside Team Sparkle.
She manages our private Facebook groups and makes sure everyone is up-to-date with Sparkle news.
She lives in Santa Barbara, California with her husband and two boys.
Amy Crossley
Graphic Design
Amy puts the sparkle into our graphics in our website, social media and marketing materials.
Amy lives in Barrie, Ontario (yay! Fellow Canadian!) with her husband and their 2 active, boys ( and yes, they play hockey!)
Ashley Christian
Web Content
Ashley meshes technical and creativity effortlessly by uploading & managing the content for The Sparklers Club & Deep Space Sparkle.
She’s also a video editing magician and loves piecing together b-roll bits.
Fun fact: Ashley is a former student of Patty!
Amy Clay
Lesson Development and Design
Amy creates our lesson plans and art resources all with our Core Value of The Sparkly Standard of Excellence top of mind. She is the creative genius behind our mixed-media projects and art history curriculum.
Amy is a former elementary school art teacher with a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. She lives with her husband in South Dakota and is expecting her first child in November.
Heather Sparks
Lesson Development and Design
Heather hails from Georgia and has worked as an art teacher for 13 years before joining the Deep Space Sparkle creative content team.
Heather is a master innovator and loves designing lessons that offer a unique perspectives on traditional subjects.
Emma Deardorff
Video and Photography
Emma brings our art projects and creative content to life with her beautiful photography and graphics. She manages our social media content and keeps the office humming with her musical selections and creative energy.
2018 TEAM RETREAT
Team Sparkle believes in growing through learning and pushing past comfort zones. This was put to the test at this year’s team retreat.
We headed for Figueroa Mountain in the Santa Barbara back country to experience solitude, relaxation, brainstorming, harrowing drives up steep mountain faces, ostriches, roosters and gale force winds.
But we had wine and the most delicious food from Dolce catering.
We are a growing company of online resources for art teachers. We're looking to grow our team in the areas of social media, community support, product design and education.
In person and virtual positions opportunities available. We are located in Goleta, California.
EXPLORE CAREERS
