Accessible Arts

Laurine Chang: Chang (she/they) is a Twin Cities grown, second-generation Hmong American spoken word poet and performance artist, writer, and truth teller. They have over a decade of privilege to have served in nonprofit and community art spaces managing and piloting many projects, collaborations, and programs. Chang believes that there is a collective responsibility in leaving a place better than how one found it. We all do better when we all do better.; Lauren Dao: Dao is currently the communications coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Transportation research lab, providing communications and marketing to support the research of MnDOT and its partners. Dao graduated from Bethel University with a self-designed degree in corporate branding. She has a long history of volunteerism, but most notably, served as a mentor for a visual arts mentorship program for high school students in her hometown of Saint Cloud. She has worked in government, private industry, and nonprofits in branding where she combined her love for communications and aesthetics. She also served as yearbook adviser at her former high school.; Josey Gruba: Gruba is the current band director at Benilde-St. Margaret?s school in Saint Louis Park. Prior to moving to the metro area, she taught grades five-twelve band and elementary general music for three years in rural Minnesota. During her time in a rural, low SES school, Gruba was able to help find and apply for arts grants on the school?s behalf to ensure that all students who wished to participate in the arts had access to working instruments and other musical materials. Gruba graduated summa cum laude from Concordia College in Moorhead in 2019 with a bachelor of music degree in music education.; Sheila Packa: Packa is a poet and writer who has published five books of poems. She edited Migrations, an anthology of 75 Lake Superior area writers (Wildwood River, 2012). Her work has been published in several literary journals and anthologies. She has received several awards, including two Loft McKnight Fellowships (in poetry and prose). She earned a MFA in creative writing from Goddard College (Plainfield, VT) in 1995. Packa taught in the English department at Lake Superior Community College from 2002-2019 and served as Duluth's poet laureate from 2010-2012. She has promoted poetry in several events, for example, creating placemats for the Empty Bowl fundraiser for a food bank featuring poems drawn from poets in the community. Packa has continued to teach writing and poetry in the community.; Katherine Pease: Pease originally came to Minnesota from Oregon for college and is a proud graduate of St. Catherine University, with a BA in English and studio art. After working in a variety of fields, including extensive time spent supporting persons living with physical and developmental disabilities, Pease?s passion for social justice led her to making the decision to serve with the AmeriCorps and relocate to northern Minnesota. Pease now serves in a variety of roles for multiple nonprofits in Duluth and the Twin Cities.; Naomi Smith: Smith is the senior graphic designer at Essentia Health. She was previously in sales at the Sivertson Gallery; a member of the Sister City project with Petrozavodsk, Russia; and a member of the SCBWI (Society of Children?s Books Writers and Illustrators). She graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a BA in graphic design and has worked with local photographers and artists on various projects. Smith was awarded the Howard W. Lions/Alice Tweed Touhy-Award, the Chancellor?s Purchase Award, and the Mitchel and Sheissel Memorial Summer Scholarship.; Emery Thul: Thul is a student at Hamline University, where he is pursuing degrees in music and neuroscience. In high school, he worked at the Pablo Performing Arts Center in Eau Claire, WI. He plays viola in the Hamline orchestra and chamber music groups and Macalester?s Asian Music Ensemble. He enjoys the many musical offerings of the Twin Cities as an audience member in his free time.