Theda Sandiford is an award winning self-taught fiber and installation artist hailing from St Croix USVI.

Drawing inspiration from the profound impact of racial trauma, Theda melds various fibers with an array of found materials through the art of free form weaving, coiling, knotting, and jewelry-making techniques. Her meticulously gathered materials, combined with community contributions, serve as a testament to collective memory, transforming into “social fabric.” This intertwines contemporary issues and personal narratives, fostering a rich tapestry of interconnected stories.

At the core of Theda’s creative process lies community art-making. She orchestrates multi-disciplinary experiences that unite individuals, sound, and artistry to cultivate a sanctuary for exploring themes of equity and inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being.

Theda’s artistic footprint extends globally, in venues such as World of Threads, Expo Chicago, Untitled Art Fair, SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW, Governor’s Island NYC, New Jersey Arts Annual, and American Contemporary Craft: National Juried Exhibition. Her work has received acclaim in Excellence in Fibers VI and Fiber VIII from Fiber Art Now, earning her the 2020 Jersey City Arts Visual Artist Award, the 2021 Fellowship in Craft from the NJ State Council on the Arts, and the 2022 Jersey City Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship.

Tiare Ribeaux is a Kanaka Maoli filmmaker, artist, and creative producer based in Honolulu. Her work takes a decolonial approach to storytelling, using non-linear narratives inspired by elemental cycles to explore themes of transformation and healing. Ribeaux centers her stories on the deep connection between bodies, land, and water systems, integrating magical realism into her films. She employs speculative fiction and fantasy to reimagine present realities and envision future trajectories of land reclamation, restoration, queerness, and belonging.

Her work extends beyond film festivals, featuring in galleries and museums as multi-channel immersive installations and live cinematic performances. Ribeaux has showcased her projects nationally and internationally and is a recipient of numerous accolades, including the Creative Capital Award, the NDN Radical Imagination Grant, and the Sundance Native Lab Fellowship.

Commercial Support Coordinator, Kenan Advantage Group

My name is Timothy L. Johnson and I am the Commercial Support Coordinator at the Kenan Advantage Group with social media, marketing, communication, management and customer service experience with a technical degree in Radio & Television Broadcasting, an Associate degree of Arts and a Bachelor degree of Communication.

Discipline: Visual Arts

Tony A. Diego
Losfaz50@gmail.com

I am a local artist that has live and worked in Colorado for nearly 50 years. I have facilitated and directed youth Art and restitution programs in Denver and rural Colorado. My passions are art, travel, culture, and long hours listening to amazing music while working in my studio. I practice, and live a life that promotes connections and respect of our mother earth and the ancestors who have come before us and left a loving and healing legacy.

I am also passionate about facilitating art classes with youth and their families. Witnessing how art can literally brighten a room and experiencing firsthand the connection art inspires has been incredibly uplifting and rewarding to me in so many ways. Over the years I have curated art exhibits at several galleries in Colorado, organized and developed City Beautification projects in small rural towns such as Trinidad Colorado all while feeling the connection to community these projects promote. Colora

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Trent Segura is a researcher, writer, and artist based out of Denver and Saguache, Colorado. He works as an independent graphic designer and is a member of artist collective M12 Studio. He is also a colcha embroidery artist and co-coordinates the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project. Colcha embroidery is a textile practice that came to Colorado’s San Luis Valley from Northern New Mexico in the 19th Century and has been shaped by revival movements into a pictorial art that often illustrates local architecture, landscapes, community traditions, personal narratives, and folklore.

Segura is heavily inspired by the work of his great aunt Tiva Trujillo who lived and worked in Saguache. He learned colcha embroidery from artist Delores Worley who was a member of the stitching circle La Costura de Saguache with Tiva. He has also received instruction from NEA Heritage Fellow Josephine Lobato.

Triza Cox is a producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, and actress who is currently Director of Outreach and Engagement for Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre and Artistic Director of The Drama Lady Theatre Group. She has worked as Associate Artistic Director of Theatre for Change at Imagination Stage and was the recipient of the 2022 South Carolina Art Commission Screenwriting Fellowship. She serves as an Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild, is an Associate member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is an Actors’ Equity Association member. Her research and creative work center on playmaking using Jungian archetypes, motifs, and symbols of the collective unconscious. Much of Triza’s work has been producing and directing professional tours of classic plays to Title I Schools and other efforts to democratize arts access. Triza holds an MFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Louisville and has trained with Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the Mandala Center for Change as a Theatre of the Oppressed Facilitator. Directing credits include Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Miss Julie, The Stone Host, and more. Her original plays include A Last Supper, Meritocracy, Melodies in E, God in the Midst of it All, and Lil’ Bard.