Lauren is a white female standing with her hands in her pockets in an all red outfit. She has brown curly hair and is smiling at the camera. There is a pink sheet of paper taped onto a blue background behind her.

Lauren Callis, LPCC, ATR, executive director/instructor

Lauren (she/her/hers) is an art therapist and co-founder + executive director of Curiosity Studio. Her art practice is in painting, fiber arts and collaboration.

Sam has warm, cappuccino colored skin and a blue-green curly mohawk. They are looking contemplatively to the side while wearing a black t-shirt against a deep navy background fading to black at the edges. The image ends at their upper chest.

Sam Taitel, leadership committee

Sam (they/them) is a Mixed, Queer, community weirdo. Decades of martial arts practice have fundamentally informed how they move through and connect with the world. Sam deeply believes that uplifting people's capacities to be sensitive and aware can radically shift how we share this world together; we must notice to care.

Leah Klister, instructor

Leah (she/her) is a licensed art educator and has taught almost all types of media to almost every age! Leah creates art to make sense of profound moments in her life and encourages those she works with to find their own meaning through the creative process. Her current focus on printmaking — both the process and product — is an homage to the difficult and rewarding work of becoming a parent. So little attention is given to the important work that it takes to bear and raise our world's future. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

India Johnson, instructor

India Johnson is an artist who makes books, zines, and textiles. She's interested in the ways these media can spark and sustain social networks. India is invested in collaborative, artist-run projects. She is the co-founder of Late Night Copies Press and the Workshop for Independent Publishing, and part of the organizing team for the Midwest Queer & Trans Zine Fest.

Gabi is seated at a white table at a cafe in a black outfit holding a small cup of coffee. They have dark brown wavy shoulder-length hair and green square-rimmed glasses.

Gabi Estrada, instructor

Gabi (they/them) is a Mexican-American artist and educator based in Minneapolis. Their preferred mediums are in printmaking (relief and screenprinting) and muralism. Gabi creates art rooted in ancestry, identity, and storytelling as a way of preserving and honoring memory. They believe in the power that art has for building community and facilitating healing. Gabi dreams of working with youth and helping them explore, develop, and articulate their senses of self through art.

Nicole Summers, marketing

Nicole (she/her/hers) is a Twin Cities-based graphic designer. As an adaptable, creative thinker, she enjoys visually supporting clients’ existing communication strategies and offering a fresh perspective when it is time for a change. She is fueled by creative explorations and collaborating with clients on things that connect with her values. As a result, her work has become an expression of gratitude. In addition to designing, she cares for two up-and-coming young humans.

Stuff Studio, instructor

StuffStud.io is a Black, Queer, multidisciplinary artist, ancestor in training, and recovering academic. Stuff is informed by Black wisdom that calls us to transform everything we touch—creating progress, mischief, and magic; something holy out of nothing good. Art is more than a collection of words, materials, and technical brush strokes. Our art is the experience of creation itself.

You can also find StuffStud.io developing narrative video games with trans, queer, neurodivergent storylines, and offering a series of community workshops that celebrate collaborative storytelling, honor oral traditions and the sacred art of call-and-response culture embedded in the Black diaspora.

Marie is standing on a bridge leaning against a green railing. She is the color of peanut butter, has short salt and pepper curls, is wearing black sunglasses with turquoise temples that go over the ears, she has on orange circular earrings and a gre

Marie Michael, leadership committee

Marie (she/her/hers) uses somatic awareness and embodied strategies as a foundation for coaching, facilitation, conflict resolution, and racial justice consulting. Much of her work is holding a safe container for deep listening, learning, and truth-telling. As a coach and facilitator, she helps individuals and groups listen to their body’s wisdom and begin to live in greater alignment with their values and desires. Her approach is collaborative and passionate. Marie leads with love, modeling vulnerability, honesty and joy. She sees her work as sacred: the work of healing justice -- supporting the transformation of ourselves, our systems and our communities.

Shug Munic, instructor

Shug (they/them) is an interdisciplinary textile artist in Minneapolis. They use traditional sewing, quilting and soft sculpture techniques to recontextualize themes of comfort, memory, and gender. Through quilting and soft sculpture they investigate the visual properties of what makes a queer object, and how this object can be felt. Shug believes that artmaking is an essential component of connecting with the self & communing with others. Shug facilitates Embodied Material Collective, a group of queer textile artists that reads theory together in the Twin Cities.

Calvin Stalvig, instructor

Nell Pierce, instructor

Nell sees art primarily as a tool for healing and shifting narrative power. As a teaching artist, they've supported people of all ages in schools, community centers, prisons, and other settings to shape personal and collective narratives through visual art and theater. As a community muralist, they've collaborated on over seventy-five murals and live paintings that aim to amplify social justice movements. As a collage artist, they explore how the strategies that support them and their queer community to stay true to themselves are mirrored in other parts of nature.