Autumn T. Thomas (she/her b. 1978) is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in wood sculpture. Her work challenges the boundaries of visual literacy: hundreds of cuts placed into the wood transforms it into soft, twisting forms, mimicking the endurance required to thrive amidst the oppression and marginalization of women of color; each cut represents a time in which Autumn felt cut down by society. Minimal in design, Autumn’s work personifies analogous, brown bodies as whispering forms of subversion, affecting prejudice by way of perception and visual literacy. Autumn is a current artist in residence at Redline Contemporary Art Center in Denver, CO, where she lives and works. She received her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia in 2017 and her BFA in Visual Communication from The School of the Art Institute, Chicago in 2015.
Charlie Miller (he/him) is Executive Director of Off-Center at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He co-founded Off-Center in 2010 as a small theatrical test kitchen and has grown it into a signature line of programming for the DCPA, credited with bringing immersive theatre to Colorado and helping establish Denver as a national hub for immersive art. Through Off-Center, Charlie has created and produced projects for audiences ranging in size from one to one thousand, taking place in public spaces, large arenas, traditional theatres, 16,000 square foot warehouses, bookstores, horse stables, and everything in between. Off-Center’s large-scale immersive and experiential projects, including Sweet & Lucky (2016), The Wild Party (2017), Between Us (2019), The Last Defender (2019), Camp Christmas(2019-2022), and Theater of the Mind (2022) have garnered local and national praise and engaged hundreds of thousands of audience members.
CU Boulder’s Associate Professor Donna Mejia (she/her) is a member of the Theatre & Dance Department, and the Inaugural Chancellor’s Scholar of Health and Wellness for the Crown Wellness Institute. She is also affiliated faculty for Women & Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, the LGBTQIA2S+ Certificate program, and the Center for Teaching & Learning. She is the first tenured faculty globally for Transcultural Fusion Dance (TcFD), a hybrid tradition that dialogs dances of the African and Arab Diasporas with American Hip Hop and Contemporary Dance. Her 40 years of study in yoga, meditation and somatic studies continue to be central in all that she does. Her scholarship, performances, and advocacy work in TcFD created a cascade of decolonization actions and language in the genre, and she was awarded a 2021 Legends of Dance Award by the Carson Dance Library, and the 2022 CU President’s DEI award for faculty. Donna’s scholarship merging the study of cultural retention, colonial imperialism, gender representation, and digital globalization received the 2011 Selma Jean Cohen Fulbright Honor for International Dance Scholarship. This interdisciplinary work and her performances, approached through the vantage point of her multi-heritage identity, have inspired connections to many astonishing people and fields of study, taken her around the world, instigated a life-long devotion to learning, and inspired her efforts towards upliftment through education. Donna’s private projects include directing the philanthropic efforts of The Sovereign Collective, directing the Gather at the Delta Initiative, curating and designing thoughtful public projects, presenting Fumble Forward conflict resolution talks, collaborating with her research partner Dr. Valerie Joseph, designing electronic music, sewing, curating art-infused works and environments, and writing. For more information about her publications, performances, awards, and endeavors, please visit: https://donnainthedance.com/
Tya Alisa Anthony (she/her) (b. 1978) is an interdisciplinary artist and independent curator based in Denver, Colorado. Her work delves into themes of domestic resilience, social justice, human rights, and identity, utilizing sculptural painting, photography, and collage to refocus the narratives of people of color. By highlighting her subjects' social, economic, and natural environments, Anthony reimagines historical narratives, creating autonomous spaces for bodies of color and using core memories as a form of catharsis.
Anthony earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with summa cum laude honors from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. Alongside her artistic endeavors, she serves as the Director of Education & Community at RedLine Contemporary Art Center, is the founder of Mahogany Vū Contemporary Virtual Gallery, and edits Contemporary Thought Magazine, Living Culture: A Mahogany Vū for BIPOC artists of the Diaspora.
Her influence in the art world extends beyond her personal work. She contributes as a journalist to Hyperallergic Magazine, is a TANK Studios alum artist, a RedLine Artist in Residence alum, and an advisory board member for Leon Gallery and the Colorado Photographic Arts Center. She also formerly served on the Board of Tilt West. Anthony’s art has been exhibited nationally and is part of permanent collections at the Denver Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Center for Visual Arts, LEON Gallery, and RedLine Contemporary Art Center.
Todd Edward Herman (he/him) is a visual artist and curator. He is the founding director of East Window, a gallery in Boulder, Colorado devoted to bringing visibility to historically marginalized artists. He also is co-founder of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project in Berkeley, California that centralizes artists with disabilities, artists of color, queer and gender-variant artists.
Todd has been the recipient of many awards for his work including, the San Francisco International Film Festival, The Art Council of Northern Ireland, San Francisco Film Arts Foundation, Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowship, The Arts Commission, Community Foundation and Arts Alliance of Boulder County, and the Emerging Curator Award from The San Francisco Art Commission.
Todd has presented his films and photographs at such venues as The International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, Design Museum of Chicago, Kharkiv Holocaust Museum, Melbourne Museum of Art, Anthology Film Archives, San Francisco Cinematheque, Pacific Film Archives, RedLine Contemporary Art Center, The Dairy Arts Center, Vicki Myhren Gallery, Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities and Leon Gallery.
He currently lives in Boulder Colorado with his family.
“My work questions habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling; investigating how personal and historical forms are constructed rather than fixed. This means finding new ways to generate work that examines how images compose, enforce, or undermine — rather than simply reflect — ideas of history, dominant values, authenticity and authorship.”
—T.E.H.
Devin Urioste’s (he/him) art speaks directly to what it means to use your voice and self expression as a tool to resist oppression and create a platform for those who have not had the opportunity to do so. Using a variety of materials including spray paint, collage, and found objects, his work not only focuses on the creation process but also its ability to facilitate conversations within his community and throughout Denver.
He uses these tools to teach his community how to use their identity as a source of creation as well. Devin has taught his curriculum “Identity, Power, & Art” in multiple spaces including the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and Rino Art District. Devin continues to direct, facilitate, and create programs for the community not only to make art more accessible to those who do not have the resources, but also to give participants the power to discover who they are.