The artists who are on our roster hold values similar to the organization, that is the commitment to inspiring creativity through quality arts experiences. Roster artists value both process and product in the act of creating a work. They encourage exploration and refinement of ideas, as well as careful craftsmanship. They emphasize the historical and cultural context of art work and use this knowledge as an underpinning for the art project. Finally, they understand the importance of active reflection on art.
VISUAL ARTISTS
Karen AndersonDRAWING/PAINTING • CLAY
Karen Anderson is a retired elementary art educator. She especially enjoys teaching drawing and painting to young children. Her personal artmaking interests range from drawing and painting, to photography, to pottery. She is an avid traveler and outdoor enthusiast.
Gustavo Boada PUPPETRY • MASKMAKING Gustavo Boada is a theater-based multidisciplinary artist with more than 20 years of working in professional theater in Peru, Chile, Puerto Rico, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is well known for his work with traditional dance and performance masks, as well as designing and building puppets, performance structures and set design. While living in Peru, Gustavo had the opportunity to be part of one of the most important Peruvian and Latin American theater groups of the last century,
Yuyachkani. In 1997-1998 he was invited by Peter Schumman to work in Bread and Puppet Theater. In 2003 he founded the NAYLAMP Street and Puppet Theater in North Philadelphia. In 2007 he was invited by Heart of Beast Masque and Puppet Theater to be part of their May Day staff. He has settled in Minneapolis and is working as an artist in the community and schools.
Julie Kastigar Boada PUPPETRY • MASKMAKING ANISHINABE BEADWORKJulie Kastigar Boada is an Anishinabe artist, storyteller, puppeteer and art educator. She has worked regionally and nationally for the past 18 years, both with Heart of the Beast Masque and Puppet Theatre and independently. She has worked with include the L.A. Music Center, The Minnesota History Center, and The Fergus Falls Center for the Arts. Recent work includes A Company of Angels, La Bafana, On the Day You Were Born, Coyote Stories, Retelling the World and May Day. Julie has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Jerome Foundation. Julie has a B.A. in Studio Arts and American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about work that
fosters cultural pride and value.
Marjorie Fedyzyn • VISUAL ARTISTMarjorie cultivated her interest in art and the creative process from working along side her handy father and from her mother who has a wonderful sense of aesthetics. Growing up on Lake Erie, Marjorie loved to collect the gifts from the lake washed upon the shore and would marvel at each precious piece of glass, stone, shell or stick. Constructing installations of driftwood, seaweed, bricks and black slate, and knowing how temporary they were was the foundation for her love of nature and the joy of creating things by hand. Her own personal artmaking as a fiber artist is nestled in the art of wool felting. Marjorie’s goal as a teaching artist no matter what the art material or art form is to inspire and nurture each child’s creative capacity.
Jeanette Dickinson Sculpture • Painting • Illustration • PrintingJeanette Dickinson has varied experience in the visual arts including sculpture, painting, illustrating, and printing. She has also been a member of the Minnesota Japan America Sumi-e Club since 2001. She received BA in art with a focus on sculpture, from the University of Minnesota. Jeanette has works in private collections, and recently illustrated the book, Nature Seeker Workbook. She has worked with children and adults of all ages making art. Her major focus in teaching has been combining art, nature and culture. “It is my belief that bringing art to a community is an expression of how we perceive, respond and record the world around us. We share in a moment of creation our thoughts, feelings and history as an individual and as a society.”
Meg Erke Painting • Collage • Book ArtistMeg Erke is a painter, collage and book artist and art educator. Before working as a professional artist, Meg was a visual arts teacher in middle and high schools. Meg loves taking old discarded things like windows, old books, maps, and fabric and bringing new life to them through art. In addition to working with youth, Meg has developed and implemented art lessons in a variety of mediums for adults with developmental disabilities.
Jennifer Kiel VISUAL ARTIST • ARTS EDUCATORJennifer is a teaching artist with over ten years professional teaching experience in the Minnesota Public School system. In the classroom, Jennifer is known for her ability to connect with and engage students, as well as maintain organization and classroom management. She has experience teaching and working with a wide variety of art mediums – her favorite is clay sculpture. Beyond the public school classroom, Jennifer has travel and teaching experience in thirteen countries including Peru, Cameroon and the Czech Republic. She often draws on those experiences to enrich her lessons and her own artwork.
Shakun MaheshwariPHOTOGRAPHY • GRAPHIC DESIGN • HENNA ART • PAINTING • TEXTILES
Shakun Maheshwari is a visual artist who specializes in photography, graphic design, henna art, painting, and textiles. Her residency work with students meshes her Indian heritage with contemporary life—a blend of folk art and graphic design, traditional styles with modern materials, impermanent with permanent. While she often teaches and demonstrates the traditional techniques of henna, rangoli, and batik, she also enjoys applying the designs and techniques in inventive ways. She has taught students from pre-k through senior high, from special needs to advanced adult artists. Her greatest satisfaction comes from passing on her cultural and artistic knowledge to the next generation.
Marie Olofsdotter BOOK ARTS • POETRY • ILLUSTRATIONMarie Olofstodder is a Swedish-born artist living in Minneapolis. Her books for children have been honored by a Midwest Book Achievement Award, a Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Minnesota Book Award. Marie’s poems have appeared in several online journals and she is the recipient of a Loft Mentor Series Award in Poetry. Her grants include a 2013 MSAB Artist Initiative Grant, and she created the Official 2013 Minnesota State Fair Commemorative Art. Marie’s work as a teaching artist has inspired young and old alike for the last 20 years.
Brittany Reif Wenner MIXED MEDIA
Brittany Reif-Wenner teaches the Start with the Arts pre-school program. She is a graduate of St. Cloud State University with a BFA in painting and print making. Brittany joined ArtStart in 2018 and quickly became a popular teaching artist with her enthusiasm for and skill in teaching art to all ages.
Brittany Reif-Wenner teaches the Start with the Arts pre-school program. She is a graduate of St. Cloud State University with a BFA in painting and print making. Brittany joined ArtStart in 2018 and quickly became a popular teaching artist with her enthusiasm for and skill in teaching art to all ages.
Lisa Himmelstrup CLAY Lisa Himmelstrup is a teacher, art therapist, and clay artist with over 30 years experience in classroom and community settings, including teaching ceramics for 14 years at St. Paul Central High School. She currently teaches at the Northern Clay Center, and creates her own clay work in her home studio for shows and sales.
PERFORMING ARTISTS
Douglas Ewart INSTRUMENT MAKING • MUSIC COMPOSITIONBorn in Jamaica, is a professional musician, composer, and instrument builder. He is an adjunct music professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His appearances in the Twin Cities and Chicago are met with rave reviews by the contemporary music community in which Ewart showcases his musical and instrument construction skill performing/improvising on instruments he builds using a variety of recycled and salvaged materials. Ewart is much sought after artist-in-residence in the schools and has taught in ArtStart’s summer interdisciplinary arts program since its inception in 1992.
Linda Hashimoto JAPANESE DANCE • JAPANESE FOLKARTSLinda Hashimoto is the founder and instructor of Sansei Yonsei Kai Japanese children and
adult dance group. She is very active in the community serving as vice-president of Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee and she serves on the advisory board of the Pan Asian Dance Festival and the St. Paul Foundation Asian Pacific Endowment. She is the cultural performance chair of the Dragon Festival and performs each year with Sansei Yonsei Kai at ArtStart’s EcoArts Fest.
Ghana Mbaye African DRUMMER • PERFORMERGhana was born in Senegal, West Africa. His music is inspired by the spiritual songs and rhythms of the Baye Fall, a unique group within the Muslim religion, characterized spiritually by their dedication to hard work, education and tranquility. Ghana performs with various world music groups around the Twin Cities. Since moving to the United States in 2000, he has committed his life to teaching African drumming, dance, and customs to children in and around the Twin Cities. Learning to play the drum takes a great deal of energy and concentration, both qualities that help students become better learners. Ghana is a dynamic teacher who raises the energy level of the classroom to new heights.
Christopher Yaeger CREATIVE MOVEMENT/DANCE • CHOREOGRAPHYChristopher Yaeger has played a variety of roles in dance and theater since his early school days. As an independent teaching artist, he works in schools and performs on stages across the globe including the Twin Cities, Budapest, Prague, Las Vegas, and Seoul. He is an ACE dance specialist with the Perpich Center for Arts Education. The ACE Dance Program trains teachers to use dance as a distinct area of study, as well as integrate it with other subject areas. He is also the Director of Dance Hall Days Dance Company and is a featured artist on the Young Audiences and Minnesota State Arts Board rosters, as well as ArtStart.
