Artist, individual artist

I am an islander from a tiny island of Saipan, Called Nrthern Marianas Islands.A US citizen, and an active artist uneer the Office of the Community and Cultural Affairs under Arts Council. I have been doing my variety of cultural ear head lei, bead making, coconut crafts and many recycle materials that i can teach our children.

Patrick Arthur Jackson, a Richmond, VA native now residing in St. Petersburg, FL, is a dynamic creative, producer, director, actor, and teaching artist deeply committed to connection through storytelling. A Morehouse College Drama graduate, he honed his skills at the British American Drama Academy and the Florida Studio Theatre Apprentice Program.
With a Certificate in Leadership from the Nonprofit Leadership Center and prior Fellowship in Advancing Racial Equity on Nonprofit Boards, Patrick serves as the Manager of Education, Outreach, and Program Design at The Woodson African American Museum of Florida. A versatile artist, he has showcased his talents across Southeast arts organizations, including directing acts of faith at American Stage and earning recognition as a 2023 Emerging Artist with Creative Pinellas.
Off-stage, Patrick is the host of The Black Hand Side Podcast, celebrating black culture, connection, and conversation. In addition to serving on the ministerial staff at Today’s Church Tampa Bay, he further engages with the community through The Black Excellence Collective, Actor’s Equity Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Grateful for the gift of storytelling, Patrick, the proud son of Cynthia B. Jackson-Ward and Patrick D. Jackson, envisions its power inspiring change globally.

Discipline: Crafts

Lopez is a prominent painter and muralist whose acrylic paintings are driven by color and convey a multi-faceted array of symbolic, cultural and feminine imagery infused with spiritual vision and incendiary composition, establishing her as a key artist in the Latina/Hispana/Chicana/Mestiza genre. Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, she identifies as an artist of mixed Jicarilla Apache and European heritage.

An active and fulltime artist, she operated studio galleries in Las Vegas, Taos and in Santa Fe, exhibited in Contemporary Spanish Market and had the honor to represent New Mexico as the “official portrait artist, at the White House, in Washington D. C., in 2006, when NM provided the People’s Christmas Tree.

Relocating in 2003 to California, she maintained a public studio/exhibit space in Los Angeles. As a muralist, she produced individual, community and student-assisted murals as a teaching artist. She returned home to New Mexico in September 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Discipline: Visual Arts

Pete “”Pedru”” Perez has been a cultural leader and practitioner in the movement to restore canoe culture in the Mariana Islands for nearly 20 years. He and his wife Emma co-founded the nonprofit 500 Sails where he was its Executive Director and lead canoe builder until retiring in April 2024. The canoes he builds are based on the historic record that describes the Chamorro sailing canoes that were banned and lost during two centuries of Spanish colonial occupation of the Mariana Islands. Canoe building is an art that has its origins over 3500 years ago when the Chamorros settled in the remote Pacific, and they are decorated today using Oceanic motifs and traditional designs that come from Chamorro cave art and jewelry found in ancient graves.

Since 500 Sails completed its first Chamorro “”Flying Proa”” in 2016, Pedru has sailed by canoe between the nearby islands and as far south as as Guam and Yap. His experiences on ocean inform both the design and decoration of the canoes he builds.

Discipline: Visual Arts

Peter manifests safe and creative spaces for ‘Brown Dance’ culture and the arts to thrive and grow equally in the traditional and contemporary expressions. Centering focus on Indigenous identities and voices in a moving dialogue addressing current local issues of urbanization and globalization. Through a NEA – Challenge America grant, Peter continues his journey towards articulating Pōhuli, reindiginization through the creation of his own movement modality and vocabulary reformed into the foundation of a new movement language paradigm for his dance company, Tau Dance Theater, the only professional dance company based in Honolulu directed by a Native Hawaiian. Peter is a 2022 recipient of the Western Arts Alliance, Advancing Indigenous Performances – Native Launchpad, was awarded a three-week Intercultural International Choreographer’s Creation Lab residency at Banff Center for the Creative Arts in Canada, and is round 2 Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists recipient.

Discipline: General Theatre

Discipline: Theatre