Artist/Art Instructor Dept. Chair, Saint Croix Central High School

I am from the luscious Island of Dominica in the West Indies but have resided most of my time in St. Croix, USVI and I am a US Citizen.
I am a 29 year public school veteran art instructor. I teach design, painting and sculpture in diverse media. I am certified and have taught on all levels of public education from K-12 to University and adult classes. In 2006 I initiated in the Virgin Islands the Youth Art Month program on St. Croix which has now grown into territory wide student art exhibition.
I have also practiced my craft for the past 29 years. I am a multimedia multi-genre, Multi-form artist. I paint still-lifes, figurative and experimental works. My primary painting medium is oil paint but as an art instructor I have a good handle on most dry and wet media including encaustic medium. In sculpture I prefer to work with found and recycled objects.
As in my own work and so in my instruction I prefer to work sustainably by sometimes using found and discarded materials

Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Arts

Nicholas King is a product of the 1979 Am. Samoa Arts Council’s Summer Youth Program held at the Jean P. Haydon Museum in Fagatogo. “Nick” was 13-years old when the late Mary Pritchard introduced him to Samoan Siapo making. He was selected by Mary and the American Samoa Arts Council to tour with the Arts Council Choir as a Siapo demonstrator. He toured with the group for 5 years. His artwork has developed from using traditional U’a, natural dyes to using modern materials, items, inks, and paints.  King’s true belief is that “our only limit… is our imagination.”

Nicole Henao
Manager of Teen and Family Programs, Seattle Art Museum
Nicole is a Boricua (native Puerto Rican) born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and currently living in Seattle, WA. Nicole studied Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and it was there she discovered her passion for arts education. She has worked as an elementary school visual arts teacher in Puerto Rico and later found her love for working in art museums at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL. At the Norton Museum Nicole worked in developing, producing, and managing public programs for all ages, ranging from Community Festivals, Art After Dark program offerings, Family and Teen Workshops, and Arts Performances, to name a few. She was also a member of the City of West Palm Beach Art Life Advisory Committee, the city’s cohort that selects the city’s public art projects. Nicole has been working at the Seattle Art Museum for the last year managing public programs for youth and families and her passion lies in providing arts access to those furthest away from educational justice.

Discipline: Media Arts

Waqaa, wiinga Quluuqaugua. Mamterrillermiungunga taugaam Soldotna-mi uitatuunga. Hello, my Yup’ik name is Quluqaaq. I was born and raised in Bethel, Alaska, but I now reside in Soldotna. My English name is Nikki, and I am the proud owner of Sew Yup’ik. I come from a long line of remarkable skin sewers and talented women who have been creating garments for generations. My grandmothers are my inspiration and my driving force, motivating me to continually learn and embrace my traditional Yup’ik ways of living.I have been teaching sewing workshops since the summer of 2015, but my sewing journey began much earlier, back in elementary school. My very first skin sewing project was a fur hat, crafted with the guidance of my Yup’ik teachers. Skin sewing and sewing are integral parts of my life and Yup’ik culture, and I am dedicated to continuing the legacies of my three grandmothers. Creating traditional Yup’ik regalia has been a lifelong dream of mine, and I am thrilled to embark on this path.

Nikki Kirk (she/her) is a leadership development and cultural equity practitioner, with diverse experience as a facilitator, curriculum developer, grant administrator, project manager, and advisor. She has lived and worked across the country with arts organizations in the nonprofit, government, and higher education sectors. She currently serves as the Director of Community Impact & Investment with the Indy Arts Council, where she leads a portfolio of grantmaking investments to artists and arts organizations. She centers her work on expanding equitable investments that strengthen the overall impact of thriving arts communities.

Nikki earned a Master’s degree in Arts, Festival, and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she researched the impact of programming at the intersection of arts and social justice. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Linguistics from Pitzer College in southern California, where she affirmed her interests in and the significance of language and identity, human rights, and cross-cultural understanding.

Nikki’s previous work experiences include Americans for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Berklee College of Music, El Sistema USA, and the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning, among others.

Discipline: Photography

Noelani Montas (she/her) is a proud Kanaka Maoli and Dominicana from Southern California. She is currently an MFA candidate in the Hawaiian Theatre Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and received her BFA in Theatre Design & Technology from University of the Arts. Recent credits include: Glitter in the Paʻakai (ʻĀnela) – UHM, Haku Wale (Scenic, Lighting, and Projection Design; Hula) – UHM, Kaisara (Emma Nāwahī) – UHM, Primero Sueño (Scenic & Lighting Design) – Repertorio Español, and La Extinción de los Dinosaurios (Scenic & Lighting Design) – Repertorio Español. She is a recipient of the 2022 Brind School Award for Storytelling in Design, the 2021 Pat Mackay Diversity in Design Award, and was a lighting design mentee in the 2021-2022 Wingspace Mentorship Program Cohort. Upon her graduation from the Hawaiian Theatre Program in December 2024, she will be moving to Seattle, WA, to continue her work with Indigenous arts and performance. E holomua, sigue pa’ lante.

Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Arts

Nofo T. Alofagaimanu proudly from Vailoatai and Tula villages in American Samoa. A traditional weaver in Samoan handicrafts, participated in Pacific Arts Festival for 2 years as a student representing American Samoa as a siapo(tapa) maker, loves braiding hakus(pale) and leis(ulas) for traditional occasions if requested. Taught by her Late grandmother, ASCC instructor Regina Meredith, practices all these skills and knowledge through traditional and visual arts. Her art honors Samoan Culture, women duties in connection with family, church, village as well with her community as a whole. She also shares her gifts in schools, church, women committees and a vision to preserve these Indigenous arts in any form of activities through storytelling, exhibits, performs orator duties through family functions, creativity and cultural healing as well.

Her passion is to let all single artists in American Samoa work together so that we can make a difference to uplift our Pacific traditions with respect, especially speaking our own mother tongue languages. She dedicated her accomplishment for loving to write short children’s stories to her mother Sara Unasa-Teo, her daughters, grandchildren and her husband Aofagaimanu for never ending support. 

Norman A. Branch is a Huntington, WV native. He is the third child and son of the late Norman H. Branch and Lanita C. Hatcher. Norman is a 1995 graduate of Huntington High School and a 2009 graduate of Marshall University with a Regents Bachelor of Art degree and double minor in marketing and social work. Norman is a former multi-cultural scholarship award winner and Marshall University Thundering Herd Football player. He lived in Nashville, TN from 1998 to 2001, where he continued his education and worked with community organizations including; being a member of the AmeriCorps Nashville HealthCorps, working with families and communities in education and health. Working at the Bethlehem Centers of Nashville as a Teacher/Counselor and mentoring youth. Norman is the CEO of Positive People Association, a community development organization that promotes education, health and wellness to at-risk youth and young adults, through interactive multi-media and theater arts. He has produced. Directed. And performed stage plays in WV, Ohio, GA. Norman operates a podcast with his wife called The Biz with NormBeezy and Lady Tiger.

Northern Colorado Intertribal Pow-wow Association, Inc.

Arts and Culture Coordinator, XIA Gallery and Cafe

Npaus Baim is an educator and storyteller, who collects the narratives of Asian Americans. In 2023, she taught A Reflection on Hmong Culture & Language with Public Art St. Paul for the Sidewalk Poetry Workshop series. In 2022, she published the digital zine “Hmong American Experiences during the Pandemic” with Hmong Museum. In 2019 to 2021, she was published in #MinneAsianStories with Coalition of Asian American Leaders, Staring Down the Tiger by Pa Der Vang, and The Summit Avenue Review. Previously, Npaus Baim worked in higher education and taught the course College Writing at the University of Minnesota Duluth as an instructor, as well as a Writers Consultant for the Writing Workshops. Currently, she works at XIA Gallery & Cafe as an Arts & Culture Coordinator to support and celebrate Asian & BIPOC artists. Npaus Baim recently started her youth program, SEA (Southeast Asians) Us Write & Design focused on fostering the creative, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills of Southeast Asian youth. It was funded by Coalition Asian American Leaders’ Sparks Fund Leadership and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota’s Women Innovators Program. Together, Npaus Baim and the youth group published the magazine, “Hmong Palette: Our Uniqueness in Bloom.”