ABOUT KONA ARTS RETREAT

The Portland Arts Retreat was inspired by art lovers Richard and Dorothy Sikora. Richard was an Ethics professor at UBC in the ’70s and '80s, and Dorothy was a visual artist whose art was featured among notable female artists in Canada. The couple owned a classical record store called Sikora’s Classical Records in Vancouver Canada that was beloved for over forty years. They moved to Portland because of its focus on the environment and its progressive political values. Richard was a friend and colleague of some of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th Century. He co-edited a book with Brian Barry called “Obligations to Future Generations” which was seminal to the field known as generational ethics. Among the philosophers visiting his home were A.J. Ayer, Derek Parfit, and Peter Singer. Dorothy received a Fulbright in the 1950s to study art history and philosophy in France under Merleau-Ponty.

The Sikoras’ only daughter, Anne Sikora, had the idea of the arts retreat to support the creative community of Portland. Anne lived in NYC for thirty years, where she had a psychotherapy practice. Her children, Ashley and Lucy, are on the board of directors and review potential manuscripts with other writers for the arts retreat. Their father is a literary agent in NYC, so this is a family affair.

In this next phase of the arts retreat, the organization has moved its base to the Big Island of Hawaii, specifically addressing the need for artists to come together where there are very few residencies currently. The housing is in a lovely tropical environment with fruit trees and all manner of animal and plant life, only minutes away from beautiful beaches, shopping, and all modern conveniences. The retreat gives artists the opportunity to have privacy and seclusion near great local food, activities for outdoorsy types, and the peace and quiet needed for leading the creative life.

Anne Sikora & Chris Awalt, Co-Directors of Kona Arts Retreat

Anne Sikora, PsyD.

Anne had a psychotherapy practice in NYC for 30 years and raised two children in Brooklyn. Anne worked in publishing in her 20s. She was a journalist writing an arts column for the Whig-Standard, Canada’s oldest privately-owned newspaper. She helped a well-respected editor, John Benedict, who established the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, among others. The Anthology was edited by Henry Louis Gates, who brought marginalized literature to the forefront of the canon. She also helped edit works by Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Rita Dove, and worked at Grove Press where she edited a David Mamet play based on Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." Anne was married to a prominent literary agent and entertained many well-known writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Geoff Dyer, Jeffrey Eugenides, Nam Le, and Steve Toltz.

Chris Awalt, MA

Anne's long-time partner, Chris has been a novelist and professional editor, among many other things. He is also an avid photographer and a man of letters in various forms. He was raised on a horse farm in Odessa, TX, and is a jack-of-all-trades who never finds a problem he can’t fix. He has two daughters, Isabella and Olivia, and two stepdaughters, Ashley and Lucy.

Board of Directors

Board Member

ashley simonoff

Ashley Simonoff grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She is well-versed in the classics and reads Latin. Ashley graduated from the University of Chicago where she studied geophysical sciences. She does volunteer work at a fossil lab at the university and she worked at the Chicago Zoo until recently, when she began graduate studies at Loyola in Library Sciences. She reads voraciously in what little spare time she can manage.

Board Member

Lucy simonoff

Lucy Simonoff graduated from the University of Edinburgh, majoring in Sociology and Psychology. She has a range of experience in freelance audio -- editing podcasts as well as creating content for non-profit organizations. She is also an avid book lover and looks forward to discovering new literary voices and providing them with a place to flourish. Currently, she has a full-time job with a nonprofit organization, assisting disenfranchised youths, as an addiction and housing specialist. Lucy is in a book group and enjoys discussing literature and helping the arts retreat from afar.

Board Member

Yulia Steshenko

Yulia grew up in the Bronx, New York, in a rundown home packed with books. She developed MS at fourteen, became legally blind at sixteen, and stopped being able to read print shortly after, but maintained her love of reading through audiobooks. She graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in psychology. While homebound after college, she tried and failed to become a memoirist. With the help of the Commission for the Blind, she became a Certified Financial Planner to offer pro bono support to New Yorkers with disabilities and is now a Vice President on the board of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York. She still loves listening to and discussing books.

Board Member

Alex dunn

Alex Dunn is a Swedish-British finance and operations professional with a global upbringing and a decade of experience supporting senior leadership across major financial institutions. Born in Sweden and raised in Toronto, she spent most of her adult life in New York, building a career at the intersection of executive support, financial administration, and strategic operations.

Alex began her professional path interning at JPMorgan Chase before moving into high level administrative and financial roles at Merrill Lynch, ultimately advancing to executive support within Goldman Sachs. Across these roles, she developed deep expertise in multi-entity management, compliance, complex scheduling, and operational oversight.

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Board Member

mary ainslie

Mary was born in Toronto and moved to Vancouver in 1987, where she met the Sikora family. In 1993, she became a criminal lawyer and has been working for the prosecution in British Columbia in the appellate courts. For decades she has tried to facilitate and improve the experience for vulnerable witnesses in the criminal justice system. She was an Adjunct Professor at the UBC Faculty of Law for many years and in 2024 was given the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Mary has been married for 30 years, and has a 26-year-old son. Hawaii is Mary's favorite place in the world, and she visits the beautiful islands whenever she can. She is passionate about cinema, a voracious reader and excited to be part of the Kona Arts Retreat community.

Board Member

Justena Kavanagh, LCSW-R

Justena graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She has been a Professor of Psychology at NYU’s graduate school and at a university in Madrid, Spain, where she also had a private practice. Before becoming a therapist, she consulted for Fortune 100 companies and was a journalist for ABC News.

With over 20 years of clinical experience, Justena is constantly honing her craft through training and a variety of experiential modalities. Realizing that the external markers of success, which our society and culture worship, often do not translate to inner contentment, she helps people find and pursue their unique desires and dreams.

A native New Yorker, Justena has lived, worked, and studied throughout the United States and Europe. She loves surfing, kitesurfing and skiing, as well as gentle sunrise and sunset yoga.