Anna visscher
Whimsy & Wonder Director
As Creative Director, Anna leads our team in dreaming up, planning, and executing programming. From big events like the annual Lantern Parade to surprise pop-ups, she delights in both the dreams and real-life nuts and bolts of public art creation. As Communications Director, Anna also tells the stories of RAS. From press releases to social media, Bumblewood book stories to web content, she makes sure both the legends and facts of RAS are shared and recorded. It takes whole lot of very serious planning and preparation to pull off a truly random act of silliness, and she loves the creative and logistical parts of her job.
Anna grew up bouncing between cities on both coasts and small towns in rural Montana. She spent her childhood building fairy and borrower houses, writing and illustrating stories about magical creatures, gardening with her mother, and listening to stories read by her father. She spent the rest of her time reading voraciously with a dog nearby. Anna has always felt most happy when consuming, creating, discussing, or scheming art and stories, ideally with a dog nearby.
Having studied photography, human development, and early childhood education in college, Anna enjoyed a winding career path beginning with teaching preschool for Head Start and participating in and curating a wide variety of art exhibits and installations. She spent 9 years as the owner and manager of tart, an art gallery and gift shop in the Emerson Center. She has also worked as creative director for a restaurant group, content creator, and marketing and business consultant.
Anna lives with her husband, educator, writer, and actor Kent Davis, canine house elf Dobby, and mustachioed feline Hercule Purrot in a little house with a big garden inhabited by bugs, birds, bunnies, a shy troll, and a couple of feisty fairies. She still loves making art, gardening, writing, and reading in her spare time. If Anna had a magical power, it would be understanding dog speech. She has a lot of questions.
“We are never too old or too serious to enjoy whimsy and wonder, and I love making random and silly magic happen. There is such joy in sparking laughter, lightness, and creativity in others. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this work.”
