The Team
Board of Directors
Steve Toll, President
Steve Toll
Stephen Toll joined the SVVA/SVOS board in 2019 as Executive Director following the retirement of Mel Thomsen. Steve is a landscape and nature photographer who has exhibited with SVOS since 2014 after a career as a tech company executive and management consultant. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Linda Toll
Linda Toll has her own firm providing general accounting services to small and medium-sized organizations. She received her MBA from San Jose State University in 1980 with a concentration in finance and accounting. A former Controller for an electronics firm, she was a Founding Member of the Montclaire Educational Foundation and was active on local school PTA boards. Linda joined the Silicon Valley Visual Arts, Inc. Advisory Council in May 2015.
Her interests include reading, outdoor activity, and needlework. Linda and her husband, a landscape and nature photographer, enjoy travel. She enjoys visiting and working with the many artists in the area.
Ida Gamban
Ida Gamban has been honored with international and regional photography awards for fine art landscape photography. You can see her work at luminousgalleries.com and idagambanphotography.com
Nancy Woods
Nancy Woods, after graduating from The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland California in 1972, started a Graphics and Sign company in 1978 specializing in small business brand identity through logo design, collateral materials and complete signage.
Nancy served on the Civil Grand Jury in San Mateo County in 1993 for the term of one year heading up the group that inspected the Board of Education and the Board of Human Resources.
In the recent past 8 years, Nancy had an artist studio at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame California. She did all the signage for the Museum and studios inside and out and did all the signage for incoming shows on an ongoing basis. Since its closing in 2020, she now works on her art at her “in-home”
She joined the Silicon Valley Visual Arts group board in 2014 and works in various capacities. Her interests here include educating emerging artists to the various opportunities provided by the Silicon Valley Open Studios organization for them to sell their works and grow as professional artists. She is also working to help “grow” the SVVA’s audience of Art Lovers and introduce more artists to the benefits that SVVA offers to them through the Open Studios programs.
April Maiten
April Maiten, a retired educator, has been active in the arts since high school. Though primarily a Spanish teacher, she has also taught art first as a volunteer in K-8, then professionally as a teacher of 3D Design in high school. She continues to teach mosaics in private classes for adults.
She has always given back to the community. She served as a Los Gatos Parks Commissioner from 1994 – 2002. She was awarded an Excellence in Education award from San Jose in 2000 for years of heading up Art Vistas for the Union School District and for volunteer teaching in K-8, 1994 – 2004.
In 2006, April started Full Spectrum Mosaic Artists of Silicon Valley. Geographically, this group extends from Redwood City through Capitola. Its members range from beginners to professional mosaic artists. She is still very active with this group. April works predominately with glass to create mosaics and fused glass art.
She has been in charge of group sites with Silicon Valley Open Studios since 2013. She joined the Silicon Valley Visual Arts board in 2019.
Roberta Kiphuth
Roberta is President and co-founder of Detati Digital Marketing and Pacific Light Studios. As an agency owner, Roberta has spent the majority of her career working as a branding, design, content and marketing consultant for businesses in the high tech, medical device, solar, start-up and non-profit industries.
She has been a presenter at the Women’s Networking Alliance Marketing Summit, the Small Business Digital Marketing Summit and for the National Association of Women Business Owners and has served on the Sunnyvale Arts Commission, the boards for California Music Center and Sunnyvale Community Services.
She has a B.A in Art, a J.D from Santa Clara School of Law and Certificate for Management Development of Entrepreneurs from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Roberta started Detati Art in 2019 to give adults an opportunity to learn and create art in a safe, supportive environment. Detati Art offers weekend & remote classes as well as private instruction in drawing, painting, mixed media and photography.