About Us

ShapeShifter Art School and Gallery in Memphis, TN, is open to anyone (18 and up) interested in enriching their art knowledge and skills, regardless of previous experience. Our mission is to build a vibrant, creative art community where teachers and students feel empowered to challenge conventional thinking, embrace originality, and co-create a transformative learning experience. ShapeShifter Gallery provides an exhibition space celebrating creative exploration and acceptance, bringing collectors and artists together to build a community and to support a vibrant art culture in the Memphis area. ShapeShifter is a space and community dedicated to creativity through lifelong learning.

Meet Our Team

Elizabeth Alley

Interim Director, Co-Founder and Teacher

Elizabeth Alley, a painter and sketcher from Memphis, explores vulnerable landscapes through on-location sketching to create painting and drawing installations. She received a BFA from University of Memphis, and has shown her work locally and regionally at Crosstown Arts, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, the Nashville International Airport, and Wavelength Gallery in Chattanooga. In 2025, she participated in the Arctic Circle residency, and worked with four artist friends to open ShapeShifter Art School and Gallery.

Melissa Dunn

Co-Founder and Teacher

Melissa Dunn’s studio is in her house in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was born and has lived most of her life. She spent her early years immersed in the city’s music scene, splitting her time between playing with bands and making visual art. Although she still plays guitar and sings, today music is mostly an inward-facing part of her studio life, with an audience of sketchbooks, drawings, and paintings, which she refers to as her “highly energized objects.” Her abstract-based work is the landing pad where stream of consciousness and the world meet, telling stories that shapes and color carry, either over a lifetime or through a passing thought. In addition to her studio practice, Dunn is a teaching-artist to children and adults. She has taught at Flicker Street Studio, studioELL and Carpenter Art Garden. In 2021, she was awarded a public art commission for the Memphis International Airport. She is represented by Sheet Cake Gallery.

Pam McDonnell

Co-Founder and Teacher

Pam McDonnell was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1969 and has resided in Memphis, Tennessee since 1996. Her alma mater is the University of Memphis where she completed her BFA in 2005 and her MFA in 2023. She uses sculpture, painting and hand-built stoneware to tell the story of “the body as a container” for the psychic products we develop. Her work uses religious tropes and language to highlight the sacred nature of the psyche and the process by which trauma is alchemized into joy. She grounds her research in theories developed by depth psychologist Carl Jung and the many post-Jungian analysts who have expanded on his original idea “that the psyche speaks to us through symbol, story and myth.” She has been exhibiting her work in the Memphis area since 2014 and has pieces in the public collections of West Cancer Center, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Church Health Center and Iberia Bank.

Nikii Ritchey

Co-Founder and Gallery Director

Nikii is an artist, curator, studio manager, instructor, and designer who has called Memphis home for almost 30 years. Most recently, she became a licensed professional counselor. She has been creating things with her hands all her life and began working with wire in 2010. Wire sculpture gives her a way to express herself that truly feels authentic. She often incorporates fabric, rust, and embroidery into her sculptures. Over the past few years, her work has reflected the physical, emotional, and mental torture women inflict on their bodies in an attempt to fit the “beauty standard” so pervasive in our culture.

Jaylyn Crowe

Program Coordinator

Jaylyn Crowe is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is grounded in ceramics. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Memphis, graduating summa cum laude. No matter what form her art takes, she sees every work as an opportunity to experiment, explore, and meditate. Generally her work has focused on preserving her family, upbringing, and childhood memories, though she is now excited to explore how her relationship to nature and her family is evolving. She was featured in several collegiate shows and even a solo show she designed by herself. Jaylyn is also very active in local festivals and markets where she sells her ceramic vessels and sculptures. Moving forward, she wishes to grow her community and learn more about where she sees herself in this universe.

Eva Langsdon

Webmaster

Eva Langsdon is a Memphis born multidisciplinary artist. Ancient history and art forms, metaphysical inquiry, the natural environment, and her southern and Lebanese roots inform her artistic practice. She received her BFA from Ringling College of Art Design in 2011 and currently lives in midtown, Memphis where she paints from her home studio.

Shaping the Shaper

ShapeShifter didn’t appear overnight. She arrived slowly - like a muse testing our patience - through countless conversations, sketches, and moments of doubt. Before she could begin shaping artists, she had to shape us...

Over years of dreaming and debate, our five founders met in studios, kitchens, and backyards, asking what an art school could be if built on curiosity instead of hierarchy, on collaboration instead of competition. We were building something larger than ourselves, and we could feel her taking form.

ShapeShifter revealed herself in fragments: in the late-night phone calls, in the laughter that followed frustration, in the quiet knowing that this idea had a pulse of its own. When plans dissolved, she whispered new ones. When we tried to contain her, she slipped beyond our outlines.

We learned to listen more than lead - to serve what ShapeShifter wanted to become. She taught us that creation is never a straight line, but a living practice of attention, surrender, and imagination.

Today, as she opens her doors, we see the shape she asked for: a school and gallery alive with energy, risk, and belonging - always shifting, always becoming.

Welcome to Shapeshifter. We invite you to be a creative innovator and build community with us!

Our School Mission

Our mission is to build a vibrant, creative art community where teachers and students feel empowered to challenge conventional thinking, embrace originality, and co-create a transformative learning experience.

Our Gallery Mission

ShapeShifter Gallery provides an exhibition space that celebrates creative exploration and acceptance. We bring collectors and artists together to build a community and to support a vibrant art culture in the Memphis area.

What We intend to Cultivate: Our Manifesto

At the heart of everything we do lies an unyielding Curiosity - a passion for lifelong learning that drives us to explore, experiment, and embrace new perspectives. We celebrate boldness in creativity, welcoming mistakes as seeds for growth and innovation.

We stand firm on the foundation of Integrity, committing ourselves to honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct. We take full accountability for our actions and foster a fair, inclusive environment where respect and social responsibility guide every decision, ensuring our impact benefits not only our community but the world.

Through Collaboration, we cultivate open communication and honor every voice, building strong, respectful relationships that prioritize the student experience and empower teachers and team members alike. Together, everyone is both a teacher and a learner.

We are driven by Purpose - a profound desire to infuse meaning into our art, teaching, and community. Guided by a clear culture and social consciousness, we strive to make a lasting, positive impact on the art world and beyond.

Embracing Innovation and Risk-Taking - we celebrate originality and challenge the status quo. With a spirit of inquiry, we boldly push boundaries, embrace change and view failure not as defeat but as a vital step toward discovery and excellence.

This is who we are. This is what we believe. Together, we create, inspire, and transform.