OUR 2025 ARTIST RESIDENTS
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A. E. Wynter
A. E. Wynter is a Black, Jamaican-descended writer, editor, and curator living in Saint Paul, MN. She has received multiple grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and has organized various events throughout the Twin Cities, including readings, writing workshops, and multimedia art exhibits. Wynter was a fiction fellow in the 2021-2022 Loft Mentor Series and a 2023 resident at the Carolyn Moore Writers Residency.
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Abby Sunde
Abby Sunde is an artist who primarily works in 2D media/installations, and glass. Raised on 1837 Ojibwe ceded territory, Sunde is a direct descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe and is of Scandinavian/European-American descent. She is currently pursuing an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design.
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Adam Sussman
Adam L Sussman is a theater-maker and educator whose work explores unresolved, knotty-cultural questions through radical empathy and wild theatricality. Adam holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and teaches at SF State and the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA.
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Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja
Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja is a multidisciplinary artist exploring themes of nature, cultural heritage, and social justice. Specializing in cyanotype, painting, and sculpture, her work reflects a deep connection to ancestral narratives and the environment. Adeola's practice celebrates resilience and fosters dialogue about identity and shared human experiences.
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Annika Speer
Annika Speer is a professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production at the University of California Riverside. She has published her research and creative non-fiction in academic and literary journals and worked as a dramaturgical researcher and script consultant for film.
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Arta Jekabsone
Arta Jekabsone has gained accolades in several international jazz voice competitions. A New York City-based vocalist, her compositions are infused with the folk melodies of her homeland, Latvia. Jēkabsone received the highest form of state recognition in the field of music, the Latvian Music Award “New Artist of the Year". She is an ASCAP Foundation honorable mention in the 2024 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards.
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Audrey Deng
Audrey Deng is an interdisciplinary writer from Texas living in New York. She studied Comparative Literature and creative writing in school and recently rediscovered her love for comics. In the last year, she has self-published two comic zines and was most recently a Resident Cartoonist for the political nonprofit Seed the Vote, an organization dedicated to defeating fascism. In her career, Audrey hopes to write and illustrate stories for children and adults.
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B Kleymeyer
B Kleymeyer (she/her) directs community-driven theatre that encourages our imagination to envision a future world and forges intimacy through witnessing the magic of personal transformation. B holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and her work has been produced by Kelly Strayhorn Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Project Y Theatre, and Single Carrot Theatre.
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Bea Lamar
Bea Lamar is a Lebanese American artist based in Pasadena, California. Born in Beirut, she kindled her passion for art through candlelit sketching with her father. Her immersive installations merge heritage, social advocacy, and environmental awareness, addressing climate change, displacement, and sustainability, deeply bridging science, spirituality, and our interconnected existence.
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Brook LaFloe
Brook LaFloe (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) is an artist-educator and social entrepreneur with passion for revitalizing culture & facilitating the growth of local Indigenous artists & economies. Brook is a culture bearer, beadwork artist, & makes her families Powwow regalia. She enjoys fancy dancing at Powwows, being a sister and aunty, and engaging in anything sports-related including being a youth basketball coach.
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Catie Burrill
Catie Burrill is a fiber artist and sculptor working in Chicago, IL. Her work pulls from a decade of wayfaring across the country in Greyhound buses, non-descript cargo vans and circus trains. She received her BFA in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Charli Brissey
Charli Brissey is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and teacher who works choreographically with various technologies and materials. This primarily includes bodies, cameras, objects, genders, desire, instincts, language, and ecosystems. Brissey’s performance and video work has been presented in various galleries, conferences, film festivals, and performance venues nationally and internationally.
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Drew Paryzer
Drew Paryzer is a playwright and narrative designer. Theatrical work has been developed at Playwrights’ Center, Kennedy Center, Roundabout Theater, Pivot Arts, and Fusebox Festival; immersive work through Meow Wolf, Moment Factory, and more. BA: Sarah Lawrence College. MFA: UT Austin.
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Eiko Mizushima
Eiko Mizushima (She/They) is a Japanese, Okinawan, Irish, mixed-race, mixed media artist, ecologist, occupational therapist (OT), and mental health practitioner living in Mni Sota Makoce, Minneapolis, MN. Her work explores the liminal space between the art, healing, and science of the natural world.
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Gabi Estrada
Gabi Estrada (they/them) is a Mexican-American printmaker and arts educator based in Minneapolis, MN. Their practice is rooted in identity and storytelling, honoring their ancestors and elders. They believe in the power that art has to facilitate healing and community building, which they prioritize in their art and pedagogy.
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Gary Peter
Gary Eldon Peter is the author of Oranges, a linked short story collection, and The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen, a young adult novel. He lives and writes in Saint Paul, MN.
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Hana Worku
Hana Worku is a writer, technologist, and organizer based in the Midwest. Her creative work engages collective memory, stories passed down through time, and questions of who or what is worth remembering. She is currently completing her first book-length project, an intergenerational family memoir.
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Iraisa Ann Reilly
Iraisa Ann Reilly is a writer, actor and educator who is half-Cuban, half-Irish and whole New Jersey. She writes bilingual plays to reflect the communities and spiritual realities that she calls home. MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. BA in Theatre and English, University of Notre Dame.
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Jaspar Lepak
Jaspar Lepak writes feminist folk songs from the heart—poetic, profound and “always evocative” (Mostly Minnesota). Deeply influenced by the many places she has called home (Tucson, Durban, Seattle, Minneapolis), she sweeps across landscapes with an emotional depth that is extraordinary, while her clear, pure voice touches the heart.
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Juan Diego Pérez La Cruz
Juan Diego Pérez La Cruz is an architect, artist, and educator based in Minnesota. His work explores memory, territory, and the body, focusing on themes of migration and identity. As a faculty member at the University of Minnesota, he combines artistic practice with academic inquiry.
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Jun Yang
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Jun is a self-taught artist based in San Francisco. His paintings, murals, and textile sculptures explore childhood trauma, healing, grief, and the Queer immigrant experience. Through interactive fabric sculptures and vibrant activism, Jun highlights resilience, community, and the beauty of POC Queer bodies.
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Kathryn Kysar
Kathryn Kysar is the author of two poetry books, Dark Lake and Pretend the World, and edited the essay anthology Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers. She’s recently published in The Fourth River, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Sequestrum. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and Anoka-Ramsey Community College.
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Khadija Charif
Khadija Charif is a Somali poet, storyteller, and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores identity, memory, and cultural heritage. She merges poetry with visual and auditory mediums, creating immersive narratives that celebrate resilience and belonging. Khadija’s art is rooted in her ancestral connection to nature and her passion for meaningful storytelling.
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Lara Mimosa Montes
Lara Mimosa Montes is a writer, editor, and teaching artist whose practice and experiences span the fields of alternative publishing and experimental writing. As a teaching artist, she gathers writers and artists working across the visual and performing arts under the umbrella of experimental practice. She is a faculty member of the Creative Writing MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She also teaches in XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement Master’s program at NYU.
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Macy Goller
Macy Goller (they/them) is a musician based in LA and raised in Michigan. They release and perform music under the name Macy Moose. They explore themes of childhood, grief, and catharsis through music, textiles, block printing and improv comedy. They are playing a tour from LA to the Midwest with Nick exploring different music communities and modes of connection.
IG - @macymoooose
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Nadia Haar
Nadia Haar is a musician, artist, and costume designer in Elk River, Minnesota. Her current projects showcase skills in watercolor, paper craft, stop-motion animation, and music. She hopes to shine a much needed light on the intersectionality of the mental health healing journey, collective liberation, radical love and hope.
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Nīa MacKnight
Nīa MacKnight is a lens-based artist from Tongva Territory (Los Angeles, California). Her approach to environmental portraiture is informed by the poetics of daily life and the power of ancestral memory. Turning to the paradigms of her Anishinaabe/Húŋkpapȟa Lakhóta/Scottish ancestry, MacKnight explores narratives of self-determination within urban modes of existence.
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Nick LaDue
Nick LaDue (they/she) is an indie folk musician, producer, and sound mixer in Los Angeles. She has released three albums under the artist name, sandalwood, and an EP with the folk rock band, goodtree. She previously went on tour with her band last summer and will be on a solo tour before and after the residency with Macy. When not doing music, she works as a production sound mixer on film sets, as well as sound designing and composing scores for film.
IG - @sandalwood.wav
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Peter Gil-Sheridan
Peter is a Cuban-American playwright whose works include This Space Between Us (Keen Company) and Ritu Comes Home (InterAct). His plays have been developed by Page 73, PlayPenn, Soho Rep, and The Playwrights' Center. He’s a former Jerome Fellow and a faculty member at Vassar College.
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Ritika Ganguly
Ritika Ganguly, Ph.D., is a trans-disciplinary practitioner who works across the sciences, arts, and philanthropy. Ritika’s artistic practice engages with orally transmitted genres of music, poetry, and narration. Her works explore power and hierarchy while creating a space where the stories of ordinary citizens can be told.
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Seitu Jones
Seitu is a 4th generation Minnesota artist, whose family taught him to love himself, love family, love community and love the earth. Working on his own or in collaboration, Jones has created over 30 large-scale public art works. He's been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a Bush Artist Fellowship, a Bush Leadership Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts/Theater Communication Group Designer Fellowship. His artwork and life is based upon the premise of a beloved community.
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Shannon Gibney
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, and activist. She writes across genre and has published many award-winning books. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, Gibney teaches at Minneapolis College, where she was named Educator of the Year in 2023. She lives with her two children in Minneapolis.
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Sharon Picasso
Sharon Picasso (she/her) is a Minneapolis based movement, performance and transdisciplinary creative Artist and Founder/Artistic Director of Picasso Projects and Lupa Studio. Paramount in Sharon's collaborative process is cultivating an inclusive, respectful and sustaining creative environment where value is placed on the wholeness of an individual.
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Todd London & Laszlo Upor
Laszlo Upor is an award-winning Hungarian dramaturg, literary translator, essayist, and university professor. He has translated more than fifty works for the stage by Caryl Churchill, Brian Friel, Tony Kushner, Marina Carr, Harold Pinter, Sam Shepard, and Tom Stoppard, among many others. Laszlo was acting Rector at the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE) from March 2019 until his resignation protesting the Hungarian government’s aggressive takeover of the university.
Todd London spent 18 seasons as Artistic Director of New York's New Dramatists. A longtime faculty member at Yale, NYU, the New School, and the University of Washington (executive director of the School of Drama), he has published two novels and more than a dozen books about the American theater. Todd was the first recipient of TCG’s Visionary Leadership Award for his service to the theater field.