New Roster Artist

Sarah Abdel-Jelil is a Mauritanian-American filmmaker, dancer, musician, and multimedia artist based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota), USA. Inspired by her nomadic upbringing in a multicultural, interfaith household across eight different countries, her work explores the relational nature of home, movement, and liminal spaces as well as the tether between human and the more-than-human [...]

Silvana Agostoni is a Minneapolis-based photographer and multimedia artist with more than 20 years of practice in photography, digital imaging, graphic design, animation, and interactive media. She holds an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and has designed interactive museum experiences—touchscreens, augmented reality, video mapping—for audiences of all ages [...]

Peter Ace is magic. He’s been entertaining people all over the US for more than 25 years. He delights audiences by demonstrating the impossible with illusions, sleight of hand, and comedy. Peter Ace can present a show on stage, teach beginner workshops, or perform expert sleight of hand magic — sometimes all in the same [...]

Triple Fiddle joins three powerhouse Minnesotan fiddlers together to form Triple Fiddle: a collaboration of sensational fiddle harmonies and lusciously layered vocals. Showcasing their technical prowess, thoughtful arrangements, and playful exploration of fiddle traditions and techniques, Triple Fiddle shares their three-part fiddle and vocal harmonies on stages across the Midwest. Drawing from honkytonk, western swing, [...]

“Fiddles for Littles” (Rachel Calvert and Maura Dunst) brings joyful music instruction and performance to kids! We believe that children’s music activities should be fun, engaging, and inclusive. Our workshops will be a high-quality, fun, and engaging experience for children and their grownups. Ms. Rachel is a vocalist and violin/fiddle teacher based in North Minneapolis. [...]

Amanda Breininger has been active as a teaching artist in the Twin Cities for over 20 years, primarily working with early childhood and early elementary-age children. She is driven to discover more about and share with others the power of play and the rich benefits of living musically. Her work has led her to partner [...]

Sara Dovre Wudali is an award-winning writer, editor, and arts educator living in Saint Paul. She is a founding member of the poetry collective The Poetry Bus, which tours across Minnesota, bringing poetry into everyday spaces. She is a mentor with the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop and the poet-in-residence at Café Marguerite. Sara believes that [...]

Screenshot Mary Evans is an interdisciplinary contemporary artist and educator working across sculpture, textiles, painting, drawing, experimental video, and multimedia installation. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Practice from the University of Oregon and a BFA in Printmaking from The Evergreen State College. Her studio practice is rooted in material exploration and an interest in [...]

Rocky Casillas Aguirre is a bilingual visual artist, cartoonist, muralist, and children’s book author and illustrator whose work combines humor, imagination, and storytelling to explore mindfulness and mental health. Rocky is the founder of Rokaturas, a MN-based arts and entertainment studio centered on destigmatizing mental health through books, animations, galleries, and workshops. He is best [...]

Jess has been exploring art her entire life and was introduced to her first fire art form, cast metal, as a teenager. She has since grown her love of creating with heat, spark, and flame to include enamel, blacksmithing, jewelry arts, welding, and encaustic painting. She creates work ranging from jewelry to public art scale, [...]

Gita Ghei is a multi-ethnic sculptor specializing in public art and teaching. Her father was from India and her mother from Red Wing. She identifies as a second-generation immigrant and woman of color. She has lived in the North End neighborhood in St. Paul for 23 years and has a studio in SE Minneapolis. After [...]

Edna Stevens is a choreographer, performer, and teaching artist who has taken her craft locally, nationally, and internationally. She has performed and offered instructional dance presentations in Korea, Japan, and Nigeria, and led Gospel devotions in Senegal. She taught at three secondary schools in Nigeria and two in The Gambia. Edna got her start in [...]

Thomasina Petrus is a 25-year equity actor and professional jazz vocalist, a company member at Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, and Park Square Theatre, and has performed with the Twin Cities’ most beloved artists. Mentors and friends, James “Cornbread” Harris, Sr., Javetta Steele, T. Mycheal Rambo, Stokley, Walter Chancellor, Austene Cleopatra Van, and Prince, have encouraged [...]

2025–27 Teaching Artist Fellow* Simmia Nelson is a music producer, sound designer, and teaching artist who helps young people explore emotion and identity through creative technology. He guides students in transforming their feelings and experiences into original art using music production, photography, and digital storytelling. His teaching practice is collaborative, student-centered, and rooted in building [...]

Evie Digirolamo is a theatre maker who specializes in new plays made from scratch. Her work is highly physical, using partner acrobatics and aerial arts, highly collaborative, and highly innovative, using multiple art forms (poetry, music, puppetry, and more) to tell a story.  Evie invested 12 years as a principal teaching artist with Upstream Arts, [...]

Alsa and Morgan are married actors, improvisers, and educators with 15 years of mental health and play work between them. They are passionate about using imaginative play to drive the momentum of social change and amplify strategically undervalued voices. They believe that a playful and flexible spirit builds capacity for transformation, both personally and communally. [...]

In 2008, Esther left the practice of law to live more creatively. When she was introduced to the Zentangle® method of pattern drawing, a non-representational, contemplative way of drawing complex patterns, her life changed. She’d been drawing patterns since she was a child, but it wasn’t until she experienced the Zentangle method that she felt [...]

Jinjer Markley is an artist, illustrator, and color nerd in Minneapolis, MN. Her formal training is in science: She has an M.M.s in Plant Biology. She also formally studied science teaching and formerly taught middle school science. Her interest in math and science leaks into everything she does, including her abstract watercolor painting. Working with [...]

Duo Mythos is a unit with Momoko Tanno (singer/actor) and Asako Hirabayashi (composer/harpsichordist). Momoko Tanno has appeared on many stages of the Twin Cities and beyond as a singer/actor including in the production of Don Juan Giovanni with Theatre de la Jeune Lune which won a Regional Tony Award, and Asako Hirabayashi is a McKnight [...]

Andy Jacobs is an interdisciplinary artist who works with the mediums of fibers/textiles, sculpture, drawing, and installation. Her work contemplates biodegradability, cyclicality, and explores the field of intrinsic relations found in ecology. As a self-taught weaver, she has developed a style of tapestry weaving that pushes against the rectilinear grid of the loom, and weaves [...]

Through public art collaborations across Minnesota, Moira Villiard (pronounced “Miri”) is a multidisciplinary artist of Ojibwe, European, and Lenape heritage who uses art to uplift underrepresented narratives, explore the nuance of society’s historical community intersections, and promote community healing spaces. She is proficient in a variety of artistic mediums and genres, including public art, painting, [...]

Karlyn Coleman is an award-winning writer, teacher, and teaching artist based in Minneapolis. She is the author of nine YA novels under the pen name K.R. Coleman and two picture books, Where Are All the Minnesotans? and The Great Get-Together. Her short fiction has appeared in journals including Sycamore Review, Water~Stone Review, and McSweeney’s Internet [...]

Joe Colihan is a skilled musician with versatile abilities. He specializes in guitar, bass, keys, and vocals. Though Joe particularly enjoys blues and standards, he enjoys the full spectrum of music covers. Joe Colihan for years has played at many senior living facilities in the NE Metro, as well as residences for developmentally disabled individuals. [...]

Mike “Biig Miic” Brooks, a Chicago native, is a multi-faceted artist who utilizes his artistry to teach, mentor, and inspire the masses. An innovator who developed the curriculum for his class Hiptronic that he taught for two years at Maranatha Christian Academy. He honed his teaching skills throughout his nine years at Urban Ventures as [...]