Accessible Arts

Haley Bice: Bice is a health educator for the Minnesota Department of Health where she uses her arts background to create materials that provide information to parents of children with special health needs. She has a master's degree in business design and arts leadership, with undergraduate degrees in art history and graphic design. She is a Rochester native and serves on the board of Art on the Ave in Slatterly Park, where she coordinates vendors for an annual festival and manages the nonprofit's social media accounts. She also has a freelance social media management and graphic design business.; Elizabeth Burns: Burns is the author of TILT (Sourcebooks, Penguin) and a poet with work in local, national, and international journals, magazines, and newspapers. She is the winner of two Academy of American Poets awards, the Foley Award, Gertrude Stein Award for New Poetry, and others. A graduate of Barnard College and SUNY Buffalo poetics program, she now lives in Saint Louis Park and works at an environmental nonprofit.; Judith Gay: Gay earned a certificate in nonprofit governance from the University of St. Thomas in 2002. She served on several nonprofit boards and is presently serving as secretary for the Annandale Improvement Club, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Gay was the director of a youth broadcast camp pilot using the resources of KVSC Radio at St Cloud State University, with boys and girls of the St. Cloud Southside Boys and Girls Club. Gay won a Women in the Director's Chair award from the Guthrie Theater in 1998 for the American Sojourn women's history radio program. She wrote, was the voice talent, produced, and distributed that program to fourteen stations, including one in Japan, where the instructor used it to teach English. Gay earned a master?s degree in business administrative management from the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, attending night school while working full-time at Anna Marie's Alliance, a nonprofit in Saint Cloud. Gay believes the performing arts can level the economic divide among young talent, with access being a crucial factor. As no other medium can, the arts impact community strength by reaching the audience and players' emotions. Gay believes the arts clearly depict humanity's truth and hopes.; Roseanne Pereira: Pereira is a graduate of Yale University and the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared in a variety of print, online, and on-air outlets including Catapult, Minnesota Public Radio, and The Shanghai Literary Review. She served as a Kroc fellow at NPR and an Upper Midwest Human Rights Fellow at the Center for Victims of Torture. Pereira has been a two-time fellow at the Writers by Writers Tomales Bay workshop and a writer in residence at Hedgebrook.; Riza Shahid: Shahid is the founder of the creative company Art of Xanadu that tells stories through music, film, and fashion. From 2020-2021, Shahid was one of the founders of a mutual aid group called the People's Protection Coalition that sourced food, clothes, and useful resources for the homeless community within the Twin Cities. They've been part of multiple art based events from the Art Shanty Projects, Soul of the Southside, and more. Mainly known for their work within the creative scene, Shahid also has a side that?s devoted to building community.