Arts Experiences

Daniel Goldschmidt: Daniel (they/them) Goldschmidt, MM, MT-BC is the owner of Etude LLC, a music therapy practice based in South Minneapolis. Daniel received their Bachelor's in music therapy from the University of Kansas in 2012 and their Master?s in Music Therapy from Colorado State University in 2020. While at CSU they also received a graduate certificate in Gender, Power, and Difference with a focus on white supremacy in healthcare. Daniel has given interdisciplinary keynotes around the US on topics including music cognition (including a TEDx talk), music as a tool for health professionals, and discussing the impacts of race and racism in healthcare. Daniel has provided keynotes, workshops, and bookclubs addressing white supremacy in three countries. ; Isela Xitlali Gomez: Isela Xitlali Gomez R. (she/her/hers) is an essayist, poet, and foodmaker. Isela is a 2015 Winner of the Loft Literary Center's Mentor Series in Creative Nonfiction, a 2017 Beyond the Pure Fellow through Intermedia Arts, and a 2020 fellow of the Loft Literary Center?s Mirrors and Windows program. Her essay, ?It Happened in Fragments,? can be found in ?How Dare We! Write,? an anthology of writers of color on the writing life and process. She is the co-author, with Anais Deal-Marquez, of Your Passport to Mexico, by Capstone Press. She has taught creative writing workshops for high school students. Isela lives in Minneapolis where she makes tortillas and tries to keep her plants alive.; Mary Johnson: Johnson is a Minnesota based artist whose work mixes contemporary sculptural and traditional craft processes. She gathers cast-off materials, transforming and reassembling them intuitively, with consideration of their material history and narrative potential. She has been a visiting professor of sculpture at the College of St. Benedict and St. John?s University and a visiting artist or instructor at Minnesota State University-Mankato, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, the Kansas City Art Institute, and others. She has taught workshops at Franconia Sculpture Park, Western Sculpture Park, Selby Avenue JazzFest, and many community art centers. Johnson also led community public art projects with Hudson-RiverFest, Mora Public Schools, and Tamarack Nature Center. She was the director of education for Public Art Saint Paul and was responsible for accessible and ecologically minded programs and engagement activities at Western Sculpture Park.; Dana Kassel: Dana K. Kassel is Program Director for the McKnight Fellowships for Dancer and Choreographers, based at the Cowles Center for Dance. In the past, she served in an administrative capacity Threads Dance Project, Voices of Sepharad, Corning Dances & Company, Cathy Young Dance and for writer Judith Brin Ingber among others. She was Co-Coordinator of the Minnesota SAGE Awards, an advisory member for DanceMN, and a board member for Young Dance. In recent years Kassel has performed with Laurie Van Wieren, the New Standards Holiday Show, in Rhythmically Speaking, and as part of Choreographers? Evening at the Walker Art Center.
; Mary Magyar: Magyar was born and mostly raised in California. After receiving a BFA in painting at Michigan State University, she worked for Graphicstudio (Tampa, FL). Once this short stint in fabrication finished, she began teaching art. After a move to Virginia, she worked for Charlottesville Public Schools until she stayed home to raise her family. She delved back into community engagement work, developing free art programs and building community outreach through a local nonprofit gallery. In 2014, she and her family moved to Rochester, where she restarted her solo practice and continued her community work. In 2021, she started her nonprofit smallart gallery and mini-art galleries outside, to make showing and viewing art more accessible to all. Magyar completed graduate school with a master?s degree in education in 2022 and received the Beulah Benton Tatum award for her capstone project that is a diverse list of living Minnesota artists, to help art educators teach a more diverse and inclusive curriculum.; Lisa Martinson: A former Higher Education Administrator turned Arts Administrator, Lisa (she/hers) has worked with a plethora of arts organizations around the country, including Miami City Ballet, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Metro Arts: Nashville, American Folk Art Museum, and currently at the Minnesota Orchestra serving as their People and Culture Coordinator (hr with a DEIA lens). Lisa holds a Bachelors in Sociology from South Dakota State U. And a Masters in Adult and Higher Education and Native American Studies from U of South Dakota. As a shadow researcher, she looks for opportunities to expand her understanding of arts and cultural leadership as it relates to current trends focusing on diversity education, identity exploration, and leadership development.