Grantees & Fellows

Co-Owner, Tri-Phoenix Media

My creative professional journey began as a youth. I am a creative professional and community and cultural advocate. In 2010 My company Tri-Phoenix Group, LLC was created and have since worked on a number of solo and collaborative projects. I use visual art to express my work. I am also a writer/poet/speaker and mixed media artist. I started the business to assist Independent artists and DJ’s with branding, social media, promotions, personal/professional development, artist management and PR. The company was also a platform for me to perform poetry and speaking skills. I have had the pleasure of writing blogs, newsletters and plays. In addition to my work I own and operate an internet radio station, and host a weekly YouTube show.

From small, solo projects to creative collaborations, I’m always looking for the chance to explore new techniques and learn something new that I can apply to my work. When I learn and cultivate something, I want to share with others. I believe in being a service to people. I can serve with artistic expression and skill.

A citizen of the Catawba Indian Nation, Aaron Baumgardner began studying traditional art in 2022 at the Catawba Cultural Center, learning pottery from master potters and elders. Drawing inspiration from his great-great-grandmother, Sallie Rebecca Brown Beck, he continues the 4,000-year-old tradition of Catawba pottery, a vital part of his people’s identity.

Baumgardner is also the first Catawba in over a century to create a river cane basket, a skill learned from Cherokee artist Gabe Crow. He now teaches these traditions to the next generation and collaborates with land conservancies to steward river cane and culturally important plants.

A 2024 South Carolina Arts Commission Emerging Artist, he is also a 2025 Running Strong for American Indian Youth Dreamstarter and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT awardee. Through these projects, Baumgardner teaches basketry, explores sustainable pottery methods, and helps sustain Catawba art as a living, community-rooted practice.

Abigail Gómez is a Latine visual artist, teaching artist, arts advocate, nonprofit founder, and the owner and artist at Pretty Girl Painting, LLC. She earned a BFA from Virginia Tech in 2007. She studied at Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy in 2003. In December 2015 she was awarded an MFA in painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco CA.

Abigail teaches art in the community through Pretty Girl Painting, Fremont Street Nursery, and Arte Libre VA. She is also a Professor of Art and Design at Shenandoah University. At SU she is developing a BA program in Art and Design within an equity framework. She is also a COIL Fellow, Shenandoah Conversations Fellow, recipient of the 22/23 Faculty Development Grant, and leads study abroad trips for students to countries in Latin America.

Recently Abigail founded Arte Libre VA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization that empowers Latinx/e, Black, and Youth of Color through equitable access to quality arts education and programming. At Arte Libre VA, Abigail serves as the Executive Director and Chief Visionary, Maestra Principal. She facilitates and runs the visual arts-based programing offered tuition-free. She manages paid internships for Youth of the Global Majority, as well as the management and training of Teaching Artists and Assistant Teaching Artists, all of whom are paid. Through Arte Libre VA, Abigail has managed and facilitated over 30 collaborative and participatory public art projects and murals in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

Education Manager, The Steel Yard

Adam Chuong is a Teochew American artist and educator whose work explores objects as containers for identity, grief, and care. As a child of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, the act of making heals their relationship to their cultural identity, once estranged by displacement and trauma.

Through the production of Taoist & Buddhist ritual and domestic objects, they seek to gain a deeper understanding of cultural practices and make new meanings from traditional forms. Queerness⁠—the agency to reinvent and rebirth⁠— mediates the recovery of their cultural identity; traditional patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist values are eschewed in favor of calls for softness, care, and intimacy.

Having been estranged from knowledge bearers of Asian culture, access to traditions is often through the lens of white appropriation and reinterpretation. Thus, publishing and circulation of zines is integral to their practice, in order to reclaim, circulate, and archive marginalized knowledges.

Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Crafts&Visual Arts

Adina Zamora is a cultural artisan born in California and raised in Harmon, Dededo, Guam. Of Chamorro heritage, she is the eldest of 21 siblings and grew up helping raise her family. Inspired as a teenager by her Palauan neighbors, Zamora developed a passion for coconut leaf weaving, later learning from Samoan, Yapese, and Chamorro teachers. She creates handmade shell jewelry and hopes to open a shop in Chamorro Village where she can sell her work and teach weaving to all ages—preserving a fading cultural tradition and sharing it with the next generation.

Writer, Performer, Comedian

Adonis Holmes is a Writer, Performer, and Comedian out of Chicago. Adonis graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and has been featured in several sketch shows throughout the city, including Chicago Sketch Fest and the Best of Annoyance sketch show. Adonis was a featured performer and writer for the Second City’s Black Excellence Revue, ‘Dance Like There Are Black People Watching’ and is currently acting as understudy for the Mainstage production of ‘Don’t Quit Your Daydream’. Along with Co-founding and directing of the All-Black improv show ‘Satirical Race Theory’, Adonis is a member of Devil’s Daughter Improv, the Improv trope The Mermaids, a 2022 Bob Curry Fellow, and is the Co-Artistic Director of the iO Theater.

Discipline: Crafts

Aisha is a studio and public artist working primarily in clay and bronze. She discovered clay in a community studio, while working toward a degree in Spanish at Grinnell College in Iowa. After graduating, she spent the next two years teaching third and fourth grades in Atlanta, Georgia, and exploring clay at Callenwolde Fine Arts Center in Georgia, and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Aisha decided to go back to school and received a BFA from Washington State University, and an MFA from University of Nebraska- Lincoln. She is currently working on a large-scale outdoor public art commission with The University of Washington Tacoma and the Washington State Arts Commission. Her studio work is shown nationally with recent work at The Whatcom Museum, The Bascom: Center for the Visual Arts, Crocker Art Museum, Northern Clay Center, Wa Na Wari, Bainbridge Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum at WSU, and at the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Sound Community College.

Discipline: Multidisciplinary

Akilah Martinez (artist name: Glittering World Girl) is an award-winning Diné artist, creative technologist and cultural bearer who focuses on Indigenous language & culture revitalization through video art and XR technology. Akilah holds a BFA from The University of New Mexico.

Akilah’s lifelong goal to use modern media to perpetuate the Navajo language & culture began at the young age of 3, after constantly witnessing her Grandparents (unilingual Diné bizaad speakers) have to watch TV programming only offered in English.

The 2019 Crux XR Immersive Technology Fellowship enabled Akilah to travel between NYC and LA to learn from leading XR technologists, social entrepreneurs and impact investors. Akilah is a recipient of Fulcrum Fund 2022, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT 2022, The Artizen Fund 2023, 2024 New Mexico Women in Tech Emerging Leader Award, is a guest speaker at the MIT XR Reality Hackathon and a current 2024 City of Albuquerque UETF Resiliency Artist in Residence.

Discipline: Media Arts

The founder of Marianas Visuals is a dedicated videographer and filmmaker from the Northern Mariana Islands. Their work is deeply rooted in capturing and preserving the rich cultural heritage of the CNMI through documentaries on traditional practices, local artists, and cultural events.

Primarily self-taught with a 2004 film school certification, they also contribute to cultural and language preservation as a media specialist at the Chamorro Carolinian Language Policy Commission. Beyond cultural documentation, their diverse portfolio includes sports and special events, product commercials, hotel promotions, family portraits, and wildlife photography. Through Marianas Visuals, they actively uplift Pacific traditions and connect with their community by sharing its unique stories and beauty.

Alexandra James, is a Southern Maine-born maker, mover and mother. As an independent artist, she’s engaged with improvisation and interdisciplinary investigation, the interrogation of pedagogy and craft, seeking liberation through the integrity of embodied knowledge and the sharing of practice. In addition to her role as BDF’s Director of Training Programs, Alexandra is a professor of dance at Bates, and artistic director of a youth Hip Hop company. Her work has been presented in Chicago, New York and South Africa, with a teaching practice that carries her nationally. She earned her BFA from the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago in 2009.

Alexandra Olivares is an arts administrator based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her focus is audience research and evaluation, leveraging qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to inform institutional strategy and drive meaningful community engagement. Her expertise is demonstrated through her published work examining motivations for and barriers to arts participation, as well as the role of cultural representation in shaping visitor experiences.

With over a decade of experience in the museum field, she has developed innovative evaluation initiatives to systematically collect and apply visitor feedback, building deeper connections between museums and their audiences. As board president of the North Carolina Museums Council, she leads statewide efforts to strengthen collaboration, advocacy and professional development across North Carolina’s museum community.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Membership and Operations Coordinator, Benvenuti Arts

Alicia Margarita Olivo (theythem) is a Houston-based Mexican American playwright, performer, and weather enjoyer, whose work focuses on the fiery interactions between identity, gender, rage, and memory. Alicia’s plays have been developed and received readings with Stages, Company One Theater, The Workshop Theater, Teatro Chelsea, Telatúlsa, AlterTheater, and The Inkwell Theater. Alicia is the Membership and Operations Coordinator at Benvenuti Arts, an arts consulting company for small and mighty arts orgs. B.A. Wellesley College. Alicia loves talking about comic books, good food, and the weather. @aliciamargaritx / amolivo.com

Amanda King is a classic singer of standards and jazz, celebrated as a true chanteuse with a straight-ahead style steeped in tradition.

Praised by The New York Times critic Stephen Holden as one of the nightclub world’s “exceptional rising talents,” King dives deep into the treasure trove of musical history, honoring the stories, songs, and legends that shaped the rich tapestry of early American popular music and jazz.

Having recently made her international debut, she is currently touring across the United States, captivating audiences with her smooth voice and confident style. Her performances, infused with the sophistication of a bygone era while resonating with contemporary vibrancy, have earned her the affectionate moniker “Las Vegas’ Queen of Swing.”

In 2024, she was featured on “Standards Deluxe,” an album by the Rob Dixon/Steve Allee Quintet. The record spent 18 weeks on the JazzWeek Top 50 chart.

Community Capacity Building Nonprofit Professional

I am a Community Capacity Building nonprofit professional with experience in program design and strategy, ecosystem building, and art programming. I’m passionate about advocating for communities of color, women, queer, and poor working-class folks that have historically been on the margins. I’ve devoted much of my research and expertise to teams that enhance on-the-ground storytelling, arts, and community engagement to strengthen equity amongst large metropolitan areas from the East Coast to Mississippi. With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies & Production and African American studies from Temple University, I have consistently made it my goal to tie in art creation and curation with collaborative problem-solving. I enjoy working with teams of people, mentoring high school students in film and directly servicing underserved communities. I also live for live soul music, roller skating, cycling and film.

With a decade of experience in the design field, Ámbar holds a BFA in Design & Digital Arts from the School of Fine Arts & Design of Puerto Rico (Escuela de Artes Plásticas & Diseño de Puerto Rico), graduating as Summa Cum Laude. Ámbar has been recognized with grants from organizations such as the Luis A. Ferré Foundation (Fundación Luis A Ferré) and Seguros Múltiples of Puerto Rico. She has also earned several awards, including the People’s Choice Award from the Collective Exhibition “El Bizarro” during the Puerto Rico Horror Film Fest. One of her artworks is featured in the Contemporary Puerto Rican Art Collection (Colección de Arte Puertorriqueño Contemporáneo). Her work has been displayed in respected galleries like Exhibixiones del Plata, Lorenzo Homar Gallery (Galería Lorenzo Homar) at the School of Fine Arts & Design of Puerto Rico, and the Museum of the Americas at the Ballajá Barracks (Museo Las Américas, Cuartel de Ballajá). She received the Audience Choice award at the 2021 Circus International Film Festival for her work in Sound Mixing and Film Editing on the short film “Isla Bonita Circus Tour” for the National Circus School of Puerto Rico. For a duration of two years, Ámbar served on the Faculty of the International School of Design & Architecture (Escuela Internacional de Diseño y Arquitectura) within the SUAGM (Sistema Universitario Ana. G. Méndez). Ámbar is also part of The Currier Collective board from the Currier Museum of Art, where she advocates for the recognition of diversity and culture in Manchester, New Hampshire. She currently works at BOLD as a Product Designer focusing on UI/UX and visual branding.

Amy June is the artist, activist and seed keeper behind Bluejacket Handcraft and Good Way Farm in Lawrence, KS. She also serves as Land Relations Specialist at the Land Institute, engaging in the cultural piece of agriculture. She was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area and relocated to Kansas in 2023, making her new home on Kaw, Osage and Kickapoo territories. While rooted heavily in photography, she enjoys a multidisciplinary approach to applied research and craft. Her work is largely informed by her mixed heritage as an enrolled member of the Eastern Shawnee Nation of Oklahoma and queer identity. Her work addresses themes of racial and social justice, Indigenous self-determination and food sovereignty.

Amy Le Ann Richardson is a writer, educator and advocate from Carter County, Kentucky, where she lives and works on her multi-generational family farm. Rooted in Appalachia, her writing explores place, resilience, motherhood and people’s connection to the land. She is the author of three poetry collections—“Make Believe Worlds We Built Together,” “Who You Grow Into” and “Out of Places”—and editor of the forthcoming “Rooted, Resilient, Rising: Women Growing Food across the Mountains.”

Her work has appeared in Still: The Journal, Appalachian Journal, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel and Kentucky Monthly. She holds a bachelor’s in English from Morehead State University and an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University, and has received grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Through teaching and community workshops, Richardson works to expand literary access and amplify women’s voices in Appalachian communities. She leads the Bloodroot Writers Collective, a youth-centered literary initiative fostering creative voice and place-based belonging across eastern Kentucky.

Discipline: Multidisciplinary

I was born and raised on the island of Guam. I’ve been an Elementary ESL teacher for 28 years. My hobby is dot painting Guam landscapes and symbols representing the indigenous Chamorro culture. I desire to promote the Chamorro culture through art and share my love of dot painting and art in general with my students.

Hakeem Furious (Andre Carbonell) is a wordsmith from Jacksonville, Florida, with roots in the Rocky Mountains. He graduated from a Southern performing arts high school as a theater major and developed a passion for words through the spoken word community at Florida A&M University, a historically Black college and university that deepened his understanding, appreciation, and preservation of Black culture and resilience.

Currently, he travels the country performing poetry and comedy, curating shows, and writing curriculum and grants as CEO of the #UltraTerrestrialTour.

Program Manager- Artists of Color Accelerate Fellowship, The 224 EcoSpace

Andre Rochester is a Fine Artist from the Greater Hartford region of Connecticut. He studied illustration at the University of Connecticut: School of Fine Arts and completed his BA in Studio Art at Charter Oak State College. He also earned a MS in Organizational Leadership from Quinnipiac University. His preferred medium is acrylic painting. Andre uses his art to make statements for which words are not enough, highlighting the underlying emotions connected to the subject. It is a combination of portraiture and conceptual works connected by narratives of his personal experiences. At a young age, art became a tool for healing and catalyst for connection. It developed into a way for Andre to let people know they are not alone in this journey through life.

In addition to working as a Fine Art Painter, Muralist, and Teaching Artist, Andre is the Program Manager for the Artists of Color Accelerate Fellowship. He is a board member at Windsor Art Center in Windsor, CT where he is the Curatorial Chair, board member at the Connecticut Arts Alliance, and Board Elector at Wadsworth Atheneum. He has also served on the City of Hartford Commission on Cultural Affairs (2014-2015). Andre also assists emerging artists with portfolio development, curation, and consultation for exhibits. He encourages young artists to develop their craft without losing focus on learning professionalism and business acumen. He believes that with every step forward, we must clear a path for others to join us.