MRAC is pleased to announce our Arts Impact for Individuals grantees for FY2025. From all seven metro counties, the following artists, creatives, collaborators, conveners, and organizers are bringing a wide variety of art opportunities to the region!
Anoka County
Leslie Barkman
Presenting Bamboo Art Heritage to educate residents on the history and significance of bamboo art, fostering cultural appreciation and diversity, with workshops to create their own pieces.
Amber Pierce
Junk journaling and paper-making workshops allowing participants sensory rich, self-exploration utilizing sustainable elements, including natural, recycled, found, and personal materials.
Carver County
Anne Krocak
Provide a 12-week series of art experiences in multiple mediums for adults with mental health issues, ending with a traveling art show in Carver County Libraries.
Dakota County
Raquel Diaz Goutierez
Creating inclusive and accessible creative workshops for marginalized communities that connect to art’s ability to cultivate a stronger sense of self-worth.
Bobby Hamilton
Dance performance highlighting the power of self-expression and the healing found in embracing your true authentic self for LGBTQ+ and other audiences.
Coua Lee
Bringing a stop-motion, sand art children’s film to young students in Minneapolis Public School districts to promote creative learning and exposure to arts.
Joseph Lennartson
Creating coming-of-age graphic novel of two Native American youths, fostering positive representation and thought-provoking messages for all readers.
Suchitra Sairam
De-mystifying and de-exotifying Bharatanatyam dance through demonstration, performance, audience participation and Q&A components.
Hennepin County
Vanessa Agnes
Convening a group of Black and Brown artists for weekend of workshops using various creative disciplines to imagine, embody, and build liberated futures.
Korma Aguh
Creating a supportive space for new and 3rd trimester moms for seeking movement, expression, and connection through African dance.
Drew Arrieta
Leading the creation of a photography magazine featuring underrepresented Minnesota artists exploring radical imagination, repair, decolonization, and interdependence through visual storytelling.
Connor Berkompas
Producing a new dance-theatre work exploring community and communal movement, premiering at the Southern Theater.
Martha Bird
Presenting basketry classes at Vail Communities to benefit people living with mental illness, culminating in a community celebration and reception.
Eshay Brantley
Presenting a choreopoem that focuses on the narratives of three Black individuals as they navigate personal journeys of self-discovery around mental health and well-being.
Benjamin Caswell
Providing rehearsal and performance opportunities for emerging choral conductors from underrepresented communities.
Alex Church
Producing Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?, connecting audiences to and supporting a local organization that improves the lives of marginalized women in Minneapolis.
Moon Clemetson
Hosting a series of day-long events that each weave a nest for grief, compassion, and empowerment through participatory song and group healing practices.
Elizabeth Coleman
An artist residency presenting free summer clay camps for youth who live in Seward Towers East and West in Minneapolis.
Basil Considine
Creating eight intimate video performances, with personal stories in the form of music + theater miniatures from singer-actors who self-identify as marginalized in the industry.
Mikha Dominguez
Creating an immersive photo series that reimagines traditional Catholic figures as queer icons, blending faith and identity to challenge norms and celebrate the resilience of LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Nicole Donoso
Organizing a workshop for Colombian Youth to learn skills in storytelling and documentary filmmaking.
Kurt Engh
Producing four performances of a short-play incubator for a 10-person cohort of emerging writers, directors, actors, and theater artists to experiment with new ideas.
Tara Fahey
Engaging community members in building lanterns and creating a public art parade celebrating communities along the Midtown Greenway.
Namir Fearce
Facilitating and supporting the multimedia cultural and arts production of the Hi Cotton Ball’s 2025 iteration.
Ray Gorlin
Teaching workshops on the art of political cartooning with visual satire and hyperbole to question authority and draw attention to corruption, political violence, and social ills.
Yohannes Hagos
Presenting three two-hour art-making workshops, allowing participants to support a local Ethiopian artist and learn about the contributions of their community to the arts.
Paul Herwig
Exploring the origins of political extremism through theater combining projection art and live performance to be presented at Tek Box.
Nyasa Henderson Meany
Supporting a podcast committed to a community-based approach to research grounded in long-term relationships with the earth, through art, and with one another.
Ange Hwang
Programming to explore the resilience of Asian American students to overcome bullying through animation, storytelling, and origami.
Chanthanome Insisiengmay
Creating and performing new songs in Lao, Thai, and American English at local events in Minnesota, including Lao Community New Year celebrations.
Neeka Jackson
Creating inclusive textile workshops that nurture and empower BIPOC, LGBTQIA2+, and youth communities with creativity, support, and meaningful connections through art.
Dehkontee Jayee
Empowering African refugee mothers to explore and reconcile their identities by using painting, collage, and visual arts to tell stories of motherhood across cultures.
Deborah Jiang-Stein
Hosting writing workshops for people in recovery who have cognitive impairments to help build resilience and to experience the freedom of storytelling through writing and discussion.
Tahiel Jimenez Medina
Creating a short documentary about the joy and wonder of Latine immigrant children in Minnesota.
Ocean Jurney
Presenting a participatory public archive of local histories of resistance.
Z Kaplan
Bringing traditionally gate-kept Jewish craft workshops to diasporic community in service of home-building and supporting those at the margins in becoming agents in their own traditions.
Zoë Koenig
Premiering a new dance work in October 2025 at the Southern Theater in collaboration with composer Nora Nygard and local dancers.
Ashi Lhamo
Hosting Lhakar Gorshey of Minnesota, a series of weekly Tibetan dance technique lessons, including gorshey, the circle dance that expresses non-violence and resistance towards colonization.
Peng Liu-Nelson
Connecting Chinese teachers with Indigenous land practices through quarterly community walks and writing workshops, fostering cultural identity, storytelling, and ethical land relationships.
Natasha Malmberg
Facilitating four workshops on the ancient art form of suminagashi, fostering a traditional Japanese paper marbling community in Minnesota.
Sascha Matuszak
Exploring ways Powderhorn Park serves as a center for cultural exchange between the many communities that call southside Minneapolis home.
Shea Maze
Facilitating an introduction to pottery for a group of BIPOC young adults, with the goal of helping participants create family heirlooms.
Kathy McCurdy
Supporting dance performances at care facilities for our elders by elders, including education, musical demonstrations, and interactions between dancers and the audience.
Mikah Meyer
Performing a world-premiere one-man show about a gay man setting a world record by visiting America’s 400+ national parks in celebration of the 250th anniversary in 2026.
Lara Mimosa Montes
Leading a book club and writing group that reads and discusses literature in translation.
Tamara Nadel
Creating original recordings of vocal tracks to be used in Bharatanatyam dance instruction.
Ryan Gerald Nelson
Developing a deeper understanding of his Bdewákaŋtuŋwaŋ and Wahpétuŋwaŋ Dakota ancestry through a reflective body of artworks, all documented within a companion artist book.
Joseph Newman
Composing handbell music written by and created for the queer community, creating opportunities for queer community-building centered around the arts.
Rebecca Nichloson
Presenting the play Mara, Queen of the World with post-performance discussion on narratives of the enslaved, Black queerness, and Black pasts, presents, and futures.
Sachiko “La Chayí” Nishiuchi
Offering free Flamenco dances, music demonstrations, and lectures at public libraries in the Twin Cities.
Valerie Oliveiro
Creating and collaborating on a dance performance with grounding in the queer, multispecies, migrant, and immigrant relationship to belongings and untethered landlessness.
Mark Odumuyiwa
Producing the second issue of Something to Say, a magazine dedicated to amplifying underrepresented artists with an accompanying exhibition showcasing diverse works.
A. Pavan
Presenting two lecture-demonstrations on Hindustani (North Indian classical) percussion, covering the breadth of the art of Tabla drumming for diverse audiences.
Pooja Pavan
Presenting two concerts of rarely heard folk music from the Northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, each with a lecture and demonstration.
Juan Diego Perez La Cruz
Creating an installation and performative project that explores memory and preservation through projected and materialized shadows, completing family portraits of migrant individuals.
Mary Prescott
Creating and presenting an original, evening-length Asianfuturist music performance.
Kat Purcell
Developing a play script and expanding the project’s creative team via studio work and open rehearsals.
Rae
Hosting creative retreats for QTBIPOC community organizers who need the opportunity to step away from their responsibilities to reconnect with their creative voices.
Sebastian Rivera Cintron
Creating artistic renderings of East Side Community Investment Cooperative’s bylaws and engaging community members through art to build community power and resist displacement.
Em Rosenberg
Creating and presenting a healing solo performance that detangles the complex relationship between sexual violence and gender desires.
Patricia Ryan
Presenting two musical concerts on the theme of displacement performed by Trio Zenia and local LGBTQIA2+ artists in historically black communities and unconventional venues in Ramsey County.
Anne Sawyer
Presenting an arts residency for children based on Sawyer’s book, The Pollinator’s Gift, with two visits from the University of MN’s Bee Squad and free copies of the book for youth participants.
Yasmeenah Sideak-Jama
Producing live art performance that explores the relationship between a partygoer and the dancefloor, celebrating the dynamic interplay of identity and the transformative energy of nightlife.
Isabel Smith
Supporting traditional Vietnamese dance performances for the community at the Tết Show 2026, including purchasing costumes, dance props, and making room reservations.
Chris Stedman
Developing a new nonfiction audio series that unearths stories of LGBTQIA2+ mutual aid in Minnesota, utilizing histories and narratives collected via a story hotline.
Jenny Tam
Producing and hosting community discussion of a Southeast Asian short film on grief led by a majority cast and crew of color.
Elliot Thursday
Supporting the Queer Portrait Project, an artistic collaboration with the Twin Cities LGBTQIA2+ community, pairing participants’ narratives with hand-drawn portraits.
Amy Vaughn
Supporting late-in-life queer women(+) through creative expression, providing space for belonging, discovery, and healing, with no/low-cost tuition-free options for accessibility.
Mohamed Wardere
Composing traditional and modern Somali music for Somali singers and musicians.
Sam Weisberg
Developing a new theatrical work based on Ukrainian author Nikolai Amosov’s 1970 novel Notes From the Future.
Amanda Wirig
Displaying the work of seven artists in two-month slots at 119 North Weatherly contemporary online art gallery.
Shun Yong
Collecting the stories of 20 immigrants, capturing their portraits and hand photographs, and collaborating with a book artist to make 1000 copies of zines to distribute the metro.
Lan Youngdale
Providing access to the history and characteristics of Chinese dance through workshops for metro area dancers, ethnically Chinese individuals, and other community members.
Jake Yuzna
Holding a series of queer cinema film and media-making workshops, culminating in an exhibition and screening of works by local LGBTQIA2+ artists.
Patience Zalanga
Exploring the challenges of first- and second-generation African artists, highlighting cultural pressures, family expectations, and their resilience in pursuing creativity.
José Antonio Zayas Cabán
Collecting stories from unhoused individuals and transforming them into a musical composition, with a final performance and exhibition to foster engagement and understanding.
Ramsey County
Kira Bunkholt
Developing and producing a short film about navigating mental illness and survival through therapy, spirituality, humor, and self-reflection.
Aria Dominguez
Presenting two public literary events at New City Center for Healing Justice, each with three local poets giving readings, followed by a shared conversation and audience Q&A.
Elizabeth Flinsch
Developing and presenting a new experimental dance piece inspired by the lakes in the metro area and performed at lakeside parks with live musical accompaniment.
Ritika Ganguly
Convening intergenerational community workshops that explore group resonance and singing in slow tempo, based on a compositional methodology in traditional oral storytelling.
Matt Jenson
Creating an interactive puppet show for autistic children, written by an autistic author and featuring autistic characters, and presenting the show at six community performances.
Louis Kaufman
Providing DIY puppet and mask workshops made for and by residents of the east side of Saint Paul telling their stories and culminating in a public performance.
Ellie Kidder
Providing inclusive programs, workshops, and consultations to ensure Deaf artists and communities have accessible and enriching opportunities in the arts.
Brook LaFloe
Reclaiming togetherness, time, and shared space with Indigenous People’s Weekend, celebrating the contributions of American Indian musical artists and dancers to Minnesota and society.
Nang Lee
Providing opportunities for children to engage with and appreciate their cultural heritage through various artistic expressions, particularly dance.
Sean Lim
Hosting a twenty-session workshop series to collectively design and cocreate hand-painted banners advancing the narrative messaging needs of social justice groups across the Twin Cities.
Nishi Peters
Creating a workshop series for 5–6 people who identify as BIPOC and persons with disabilities to collaborate on a sci-fi or fantasy story based on their lives, culminating in a bookstore reading.
Skye Reddy
Filming and work-in-process screening of documentary film exploring lost histories and ancestral identities through the telling of Bengali cultural ghost stories.
Natalia Salinas
Completing a film project and presenting a community screening with a multidisciplinary approach that explores themes of Latinx/a/o identity and grief.
Cia Sautter
Offering four dance and movement workshops for relaxation, release, and personal growth, each based on seasonal themes relating to wellness.
Ollie Schminkey
Providing a national poetry slam tournament supporting Minnesota poets and bringing community members together through the art of spoken word.
Walken Schweigert
Composing, creating, and presenting an original body of electro/orchestral work inspired by Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch.
Marciano Silva dos Santos
Bringing Afro-Brazilian dance and cultural heritage to a rural Minnesotan community, promoting cultural exchange and physical activity.
Ken Takata
Producing and recording new musical settings for Shakespeare, addressing the disproportionate lack of roles and speeches for women in Shakespeare’s work.
D. Jinza Thayer
Developing vocal dance in collaboration with Rush Dorsett and sharing it with the local BIPOC dance community for healing, fullness of expression, and creative inspiration.
Mai Moua Thao
Supporting a short film about Lucy as she navigates family and cultural tensions after her nudes are leaked, and rebels against a shaman ritual to seek self-acceptance and freedom.
Kelly Tokay
Offering six-week, no-cost, after-school art classes at Willow Lane Elementary, which is 69% minority students and 65% free and reduced lunch.
Joseph Tran
Mentoring a new generation of breakers to diversify their skill sets by using the dance form in unconventional contexts and learning choreograph techniques for theater stages.
Nakita Vang
Hosting a three-day retreat focused on dance, conversations, connection, and healing through intentional movement, facilitated conversation, and rest.
Rory Wakemup
Creating two tipis and a youth-focused painting workshop prior to their installment on National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person Awareness Day.
Ju-Chang Wang
Bring Chinese cultural arts and dance technicques to Chinese language students throughout the Twin Cities metro area.
Wolff Waters
Supporting a grassroots, Black-owned collective that gives Black community members a space to learn and grow as a DJ at no cost.
Briauna Williams
Curating a pop-up gallery with art making workshops that celebrate West African/Nigerian/Black culture.
Scott County
Dahn Gim
Providing an open-source platform for international artists residing in the US, offering resources, networking, and a launch event to showcase contributing artists’ work.
Tapan Sharma
Supporting a progressive and provocative variety sketch show whose screenings include educational pitch, performance, and Q&As with diverse Minnesota communities.
Washington County
Taoheed Bayo
Supporting a cultural symposium that serves as a convergence of creativity in Minneapolis.
Niphone Phommaras
Teaching Dok Champa dance to new students, preserving Lao arts, dance, and cultural heritage.