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 making her thumb as green as possible.

Davinia Roberts, leadership committee

A visual communicator and creative consultant with experience driving Fortune 50 and small business teams to creative solutions based on strategy and innovation. Leads by connecting thoughts, ideas and people to creating their business needs. (she/her/hers)

Heather Albinson, instructor/collaborator

Heather is a former children’s bookseller, artist, and a storyteller, whose delight in picture books and graphic novels runs deep. She is on a journey to figure out how to integrate story into her own creative practice using both words and pictures. One of her favorite things is (still) helping people find books from their childhood that they almost forgot about, or are convinced must have been a dream. She lives with her wife, Lisa, and their dog and cats in Northeast Minneapolis.

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.

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, studio manager/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.

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.

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.

Jordyn Brennan, instructor

Jordyn (she/her) is an artist and educator whose practice centers on themes of care and connection. She is especially interested in how care, exhibited in a variety of forms, both strengthens our relationships and extends our lifespan and quality of living. Along with her visual practice, Jordyn is an adjunct faculty at Upper Iowa University. Additionally, Jordyn collaborates with businesses and cities across the United States to create site specific murals.

Picture a smiling mixed-race indigenous woman with brown eyes, dark brown/black curled hair and pink eye shadow wearing a royal purple blazer and a colorful button up shirt with swirls of hot pink, black, orange, and blue.

Sam St. John, studio apprentice

Sam St. John (she/her) is an Indigenous multimedia artist and painter. Her art is grounded in storytelling, resilience, authenticity and vulnerability. Sam believes that creating art, in any form, is a means of self-healing. She paints with expressive bright colors as a means of storytelling. Sam uses her art to start conversations about mental health, identity, queerness, race, healing, and trauma in hopes to inspire others.

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.

Soph Munic, instructor

Soph (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. Soph believes that artmaking is an essential component of connecting with the self & communing with others. Soph facilitates Embodied Material Collective, a group of queer textile artists that reads theory together in the Twin Cities.

Pauline Moll, R-DMT, instructor

Pauline (she/her, ella) is a trauma-informed, liberatory teaching artist and dance/movement therapist. Her background is in the performance arts including theater, dance, and spoken word poetry. Pauline has facilitated artistic spaces locally and internationally with people of all ages in English and Spanish. Her work explores grief, practices utopia, and nurtures community in diaspora. Let's make something together!