Heather Schulte is an interdisciplinary artist based in Colorado who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003. Her work combines handmade textile materials and techniques with digital fabrication and design processes, analyzing the intersection of personal and public forms of language and communication. Supported by numerous grants and private donations, her community-based projects include Stitching the Situation, a collectively embroidered tapestry documenting experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and The Denver Principles Flagpole Project, in collaboration with PLWHIV and the CO Health Network. Her work has been exhibited throughout Colorado—including RedLine Contemporary, the Arvada Center, and the Denver Art Museum—as well as numerous galleries and contemporary art museums nationally. Press features include the Surface Design Journal, The Denver Post, WIRED magazine, TheBody.com, various newspapers, independent publications, and podcasts. In 2022, she received an Arts and Creative Placemaking award from the University of Florida Center for Arts & Medicine. She was also an artist in residence at PlatteForum in the spring of 2024. Learn more at heatherdschulte.com.
Natalie Sharp (she/they/any) is a Black queer writer, dancer, and performer hailing from Savannah, GA. She completed her MFA in creative writing at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her poetry and nonfiction have previously appeared in various journals in print and online. She lives in Denver, CO with her spouse. You can follow her on Mastodon at nasirwashere@blackqueer.life.
Mags Ado'racion Wallace is a teacher and multi-disciplinary artist. Their primary focus is in learning, community, creativity, and justice. With a diverse background and degree in education, they dedicate a significant portion of their time to leading the future generation towards lives of compassion, success, empathy and responsibility. Still finding their footing in the art world, they hope to explore the relationships of people and technology through artistic mediums.
Ustina Tawadros is the Manager of Individual Giving at the Denver Art Museum. She is passionate about designing experiences that cultivate support, build community, and elevate ideas through philanthropy. She spent many years fundraising to elect political candidates, where she first recognized how vital funding is to shaping change. Motivated by social impact, she has led new development initiatives, launched and pivoted programs to meet evolving needs, and produced compelling events that connect people with arts and culture in meaningful ways.
Amanda Berg Wilson is the Artistic Director of The Catamounts, and a freelance artist specializing in boundary-pushing performance. With The Catamounts, she has conceived and directed several original immersive and site-specific works in collaboration with and/or on commissions from the City of Westminster; Hanzon Studios and the Museum of Outdoor Arts; 3rdLaw Dance/Theater; and Anythink Libraries. She has also worked on several DCPA Off-Center immersive projects, including performing as an original cast member in Sweet & Lucky, directing The Wild Party and Between Us: The Whiskey Tasting, and assistant directing and performing in Theater of the Mind by Mala Gaonkar and David Byrne. Most recently, The Catamounts received a 2025 Best Immersive award from Denver Westword for Impossible Things, which Amanda directed.
Katie Jean Shinkle (she/her) is the author of five books of prose, most recently None of This Is an Invitation. A Lambda Literary fellow, she serves as co-poetry editor of DIAGRAM and teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing program at Sam Houston State University.
Steven Dunn (he/him) is a 2021 Whiting Award winner and the author of Potted Meat and water & power. He was born and raised in West Virginia and teaches in the MFA programs at Regis University and Stetson University.
Mariana Pereira Vieira (b. Brazil 1983) is a multi-media artist and arts educator based in Colorado, USA. She received a BFA in Photography from Georgia Southern University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder. Mariana’s artwork has been featured in exhibitions at the Museo de las Américas, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, the Dairy Center for the Arts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Lenscratch, among others. In 2019, she was awarded the first Denis Roussel Fellowship from the Center for Fine Art Photography. In 2017, she curated the Colorado edition of The States Project for Lenscratch. Her latest project, Touching, received an Honorable Mention Award from the Center for the Humanities and the Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder. Mariana is an Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Arts at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.
Franklin Cruz (they/he) is a queer latin dancer, poet and environmental nerd born in Idaho, raised Texan and polished in Denver. Born from an immigrant family their work has placed them in science museums, as an emcee for dance & poetry competitions, conferences and environmental spaces. A Tedx Mile High performer and Nature of Cities residency, he worked throughout the southwest, Peru, Puerto Rico for universities and environmental leadership camps. Their work encompasses self love, immigration, culture, conservation and more. Franklin always aims to address intersectional liberation, confronting our complicity to privilege and oppression and the lesson of specificity over simplicity.
Instagram: @fcruz_unido
Olivia Abtahi (she/her) is a film director and writer based in Denver, Colorado. Born to an Iranian father and an Argentine mother, she is a melting pot of distinct cultures. Growing up in the DC area, Olivia always had a passion for cinema and storytelling. She is a graduate of NYU Film School and VCU Brandcenter, and has lived in New York, San Francisco, Richmond Virginia, and Dublin, Ireland. She holds a BFA and MaSC.