Current Teaching Artists
Camilo Aguirre (he/him) is a Colombian visual artist who makes comics, animations, and prints. Camilo finds relationships between personal anecdotes and historical narratives to highlight the participation of every person in the social fabric. Aguirre earned his MFA in Visual Studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2020). Camilo curated the Suitcase Gallery at MCAD and implemented projects like Distant Letters (2018-2019), in which he exchanged images that were shown simultaneously in different countries through printmaking. Camilo has also participated in the Mobile Printing Unit project at MCAD and made a graphic novel titled What Remains (2020).
Hope Amico (she/her) is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in Portland, OR. Through classes, zines, and the Keep Writing postcard project, she is excited to share ways we can support each other creatively. Previously known as gutwrench press, she has led classes online and in person through the San Francisco Center for the Book, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, Blackbird Letterpress, Ladies of Letterpress Conference, and privately through her own studio.
Robyn Awend (she/her) is a practicing artist who uses her Jewish identity as a focal point of her work. She holds a BFA from the University of Arizona and an MFA from the University of Dallas, and is a founding member of Form+Content Gallery in Minneapolis. For fifteen years, Awend has made significant impact in the local Jewish arts community and most recently served as the Twin Cities Jewish Cultural Arts Director of the Sabes Jewish Community Center and the St. Paul JCC, where she curated, directed, and organized exhibitions and programs that explore the intersection of Judaism and art.
Hannah O’Hare Bennett (she/her) is an artist, papermaker, and educator based in Madison, WI. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Design Studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Between those degrees, she worked as a farmer, Peace Corps Volunteer, and produce manager; manual labor informs her art. Her residencies have included Women’s Studio Workshop (NY), StudioWorks at the Tides Institute (ME), The Morgan Conservatory, and The Textile Arts Center in Manhattan. She has taught widely, and her work has been shown across the country.
Brien Beidler (he/him) is a toolmaker and bookbinder. In his book work, Brien is inspired by historic leather bindings in their ability to harmonize fine craft, quirky but elegant aesthetics, and evidence of the hands that made them. Beginning with this tradition as a baseline, Brien’s bindings seek ways to create new compositions from these historic precedents. Brien also creates a limited assortment of specialized hand tools for bookbinding and its related trades.
Michelle Blodgett (she/her) has been teaching and creating experiences for over 20 years. An Iowa native, Michelle received her BA in Arts Management with a minor in Education from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA and her MA in Human Development with a focus on Creativity from Saint Mary’s University. She has developed programs and exhibits and taught at the following institutions: Witter Art Gallery, former College of Visual Arts, Hawaii Children’s Discovery Museum, and Minnesota Children’s Museum. Michelle enjoys sharing her passion for paper marbling and has been marbling since 2015. https://www.artoverchips.com
Kevin Brown (he/him) was trained as a (digital) Linotype operator, the last of a centuries’ old tradition of dedicated typesetters. His company, Smart Set, has provided pre-press, print production, design, scanning, and digital printing services for 35 years. His decades-long experience in producing film and plates informs his fascination with all things pre-press, from halftone screens to dot gain, stochastic screening to diffusion dithers, with the goal of making technical aspects serve creative goals. He has a degree in Mass Communication / Environmental Interpretation from Bemidji State University.
Laura Brown (she/her) makes prints, artist’s books, installations and social practice projects. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas. She has participated in residencies at Kala Art Institute, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work appears in collections at Yale University, Library of Congress, and others. Her work has been shown widely, most recently at the Soap Factory and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She teaches at Minnesota Center for Book Arts and is an active member of Proof Public, a collective that aims to amplify marginalized voices through letterpress printing.
Mary Bruno (she/her) of Bruno Press had an unplanned journey of inheriting a letterpress print shop in rural Minnesota from her father when he passed away suddenly in 2003. Mary’s experience has always been unconventional, which brings a level of understanding in which humor and empathy lead the way. Bruno has worked with carving linoleum to create fine art prints, designing a line of irreverent greeting cards, and creating all sorts of posters for nearly two decades. Reduction linoleum artwork is a passion of hers and she lives to share it with others while preserving the craft of letterpress.
Savannah Bustillo (she/her) is a printmaker and book artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Often through language games, her work takes small, discarded objects, sounds, and movements that seem silent and insignificant and reemphasizes them. Recently this practice has turned to the visuality of sound, as Bustillo creates recordings of popularized American stories and turns them into images that the viewer must decode. She has helped teach workshops and demos in printmaking and book arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Women’s Studio Workshop, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts, where she actively teaches book arts and was selected as a finalist for the 2022 MCBA Prize.
Parry Cadwallader (he/him) is a marbler and bookbinder based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
María Carolina Ceballos (she/her) is a Colombian book artist with interdisciplinary focus. She has exhibited her work in various cities in Colombia, the United States, and Japan. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano, and a Minor in Photography from the same university. She recently graduated from the MFA in Book Arts at The University of Iowa, where she also worked as a book conservation technician and digital book design instructor. In her recent artistic practice, she has been exploring traditional book related crafts and applying them to a body of work with visual arts disciplines, creative writing, and music notation and performance.
Hannah Chalew (she/her) is an artist, educator, and environmental activist from New Orleans. She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2009 and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016. Chalew has exhibited widely around New Orleans and across the United States. Her work has been featured in two creative atlases by Rebecca Solnit, and various publications including Hyperallergic, Garden & Gun, BOMB, LA Times, The Boston Globe, and more. She is the 2022 South Arts Southern Prize winner. Chalew teaches workshops out of her studio and as a visiting artist at schools, universities, and art centers around the country.
Elaine G. Chu (she/her) has taught students of all ages in person and online. Her work has been featured in Greencraft and Somerset Studio magazines as well as 1,000 Artists’ Books. She co-authored Wood Paper Scissors, a how-to crafts book. Elaine received a BA in music at Yale University and a BFA in graphic design at University of the Arts. View more art at EGChuHandcrafted.etsy.com and on Instagram: @egchu1.
Hellen Colman (she/her) is a Chicago-based printmaker and photographer primarily working on artists’ books. She makes work that spans several media, striving to construct alternative languages to express the sentiment. She is also a mathematician. Originally from Montevideo, Uruguay, she received her PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Hellen also holds a Certificate in Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she also received her printmaking and photography training. She is a Professor at the City Colleges of Chicago.
Rich Dana (he/him) is an artist, zine-maker, and founder of Obsolete Press. He is an adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science, and is the author of “Cheap Copies!: The Obsolete Press Guide to DIY Mimeography, Hectography and Spirit Duplication.”
Claudia Danielson (she/her) is a photographer and printmaker whose artistic practice remains dedicated to analog methods with a special interest in historical processes. Claudia is a teaching assistant at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has received grants through the Minnesota State Arts Board as well as the MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Mentorship. Claudia’s recent projects explore themes of conservation and stewardship as she seeks quiet dramas within and at the edges of the landscape to illuminate the cost of human sovereignty as it relates to our delicate biosphere.
Amanda D’Amico (she/her) is a book artist working under the imprint Tiny Revolutionary Press. She is the Master Printer at the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, and teaches at the University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She serves on the boards of the College Book Art Association, the Philadelphia Center for the Book, and The Soapbox: Community Print Shop and Zine Library. She is an artist member of the Impractical Laborers in Service of the Speculative Arts. Her artist’s books have been collected and exhibited nationally.
Ben Etten (he/him) is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (MA in Art) where he fell in love with printmaking because it offers something for everyone: a lot of creative flexibility, but also room to dive into really technical processes if you are so inclined. Whether the images are bold and simple or highly detailed and complex, Ben believes that everyone has something valid to say visually, and he wants to help people realize their artistic vision. In whatever free time he has, Ben is also the artist behind Minneapolis-based Pessimistic Press.
Ellen L. Ferrari (she/her, BA Carleton College) is a former Youth Programs Coordinator for MCBA and Family Programs Coordinator at the Minnesota Historical Society. She ran Art with Ellen—an art school for children 12 months to kindergarten—for many years, and now teaches preschool and family classes at MCBA, Textile Center, Wet Paint, and other local art centers. Ellen holds a BA from Carleton College.
Heather RJ Fletcher (she/her), who has roots as a designer and artist, began in illustration with a deep understanding of color. Since 2013 Heather has studied book arts (bookmaking, letterpress, papermaking, calligraphy, etc.) and specialized in decorative handmade papers. Her areas of expertise are marbling and bookmaking. In 2019, Heather authored a book, Making Marbled Paper, which is available at your favorite bookstore.
Carly Frei (she/her) created her business, Fiction Reshaped, by turning old books into works of art from her studio in St. Paul, MN. Carly has always been conscious of her environmental impact, and this is one of the reasons she wanted to reuse vintage books. She started collecting beautiful old books that would otherwise be thrown away and extending their lives to give them new purpose. Book art adds warm touches to your home decor and makes great gifts for family and friends. She creates folded book art, flower bouquets, magnets, greeting cards, and literary prints using recycled book pages.
grace (ge) gilbert (they/them) is a writer, hybrid artist, and visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh. they are the author of three short collections, most recently TODAY IS AN UNHOLY SUITE (Barrelhouse 2023). they teach workshops and intensives at various major art institutions, including but not limited to the Poetry Foundation and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, toward the goal of making the hybrid arts accessible to all.
Suzanne Glémot (she/her) is an artist and bookbinder living in Iowa City, IA. She earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Center for the Book where she studied bookbinding, letterpress printing, and library preservation. She makes artist books, boxes, and prints that explore how memory is connected to place and language. Her works are held in private and public collections around the country.
Anna Haglin (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Moorhead, Minnesota. She attended Smith College in Massachusetts and earned her MA and MFA in printmaking at the University of Iowa. She completed a two-year apprenticeship in bookbinding at Arion Press in San Francisco and a studio assistantship at the Women’s Studio Workshop. She was awarded a residency at MCBA in 2012 and is currently Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Minnesota State University Moorhead. She has taught courses in foil imaging, foraging/herbarium-making, and papermaking with invasive plants.
Karen Hanmer‘s (she/her) artist-made books are physical manifestations of personal essays intertwining history, culture, politics, science, and technology. She utilizes both traditional and contemporary book structures, and the work is often playful in content or format. Hanmer’s work is included in collections ranging from The British Library and the Library of Congress to Stanford University and Graceland. She offers workshops and private instruction focusing on a solid foundation in traditional binding skills.
Skyler Hawkins (he/him) is a book artist and farmer based in the Twin Cities. His work in book arts focuses on functional, traditional book designs using both adhesive and non-adhesive techniques. His interest in bookbinding was sparked during a yearlong internship at North House Folk School. Since then he’s been studying, producing custom books, and teaching across the state of Minnesota. In warmer months he can be found growing vegetables in the heart of the Twin Cities, testing out his book designs and putting them to good use while taking notes on the many crops he cares for.
Sophia Hotzler (she/her) is a papermaker, photographer, and crafter living in Minneapolis. She was first introduced to the skill of papermaking while attending the University of Manitoba, where she graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors. She teaches paper classes at the Avon Hills Folk School and co-hosts a handmade paper exchange program based in Minneapolis. When she’s not in the vat pulling sheets, she can be found printing digital photographs and making journals with her handmade paper.
Frank Hurley (he/him) is the Bookbinder and Preservation Specialist at the Hennepin County Library.
Rebecca Hranj (she/they) combines her backgrounds in education, libraries, and research to explore how books and narrative shape our world. She makes journals, rebinds and repairs books, builds preservation enclosures, marbles paper, and tinkers with photography and graphic design. Among many other things she is currently working on transforming a Doctor Who quotation into a PhD program acceptance via book arts. It’s slow going.
Laurel Jedamus (she/her) loves teaching, especially book arts! She has taught book arts workshops in the Twin Cities, including many at MCBA, since 2014, most recently at MCBA in March 2020. Her professional experience includes years of book repair and making custom enclosures at the U of M Libraries. She earned her Core Certificate in Book Arts from MCBA in 2014 and is currently pursuing the Advanced Certificate in Book Arts.
India Johnson (she/her) is an artist who makes books and non-books (What’s a non-book? Perhaps a book-adjacent sculpture, installation, or participatory project.) India has designed site-specific pieces for churches and libraries throughout the Midwest. Her writing about books has been published by Image, on the Book Art Theory Blog, and included in SONNET(S) (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020).
Dana King (she/they) works with words and images, objects and movement. Dana is in their second year in the MFA program at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, where she will be teaching an undergraduate class. Dana’s formal background is in photography. She has more than 20 years of experience in multiple processes and has been a teaching assistant for diverse photo classes. Following Keith Smith and Ulises Carrión, Dana views artists’ books as works in which form, content, and haptic properties come together to create a four-dimensional experience.
James Kleiner (he/him) received a BFA in Print Paper Book in 2011 from MCAD. Kleiner was a Journeyman at Cave Paper from 2012 to 2020, making production and custom handmade paper, dyeing and pigmenting paper, and restoring equipment. He received a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC) in 2015 to travel, research, and construct double-face laid moulds and deckles for hand papermaking. In 2019 Kleiner and Anna Haglin received a grant from Springboard for the Arts for The Paper Plains Project, a mobile papermaking tool to connect communities across Minnesota with interactive experiences in papermaking and native prairie planting.
Heather Kohlmeier (she/her) currently teaches papermaking and indigo dyeing in the design studies department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she is completing her graduate work. Her forthcoming article on the history and contemporary use of indigo by papermakers will appear in the summer 2023 edition of Hand Papermaking magazine. Heather’s sculptural work, making use of layers of translucent abaca, explores ideas of strength and fragility in the natural world, and will be exhibited at the CommonWealth Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin in May 2023.
Monica Edwards Larson (she/her) is the proprietress of Sister Black Press, a private letterpress and book arts studio, established in 2000 in Minneapolis, MN. She received a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from Arizona State University and has taught printmaking, graphic design, and book arts to students of all ages. She also operates Sister Black (Bike) Press, a mobile printing press that she pedals around the Twin Cities’ bike trails and streets, stopping to print at events in local parks, bike shops, bookstores, and libraries.
Michelle Lee Lagerroos (she/her) has been teaching printmaking workshops to adults at MCBA and MCAD since 2012. She has a background in publishing, works as a wrangler of two young children by day and a book designer/screen printer/printmaking instructor by night, and is the screen printer behind Angry Peanut Press. While her work has been shown locally at places such as the State Fair Fine Arts show, Altered Esthetics, and MCBA, she also loves simply making screen prints and giving them to people.
Mary Leikvold (she/her) teaches printmaking and book arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Mary is active in the arts community in the Twin Cities and the state. She has been involved in organizing, jurying, and curating exhibitions at MCBA, MCAD, and the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. She has worked with community groups facilitating workshops and retreats centered around drawing, painting and writing. Mary has a BFA from the University of Minnesota.
Erin Maurelli (she/her) is a Twin Cities-based educator and artist. Printmaking, letterpress, and book arts are central to her personal work. She received a Master Printer Certificate from Tamarind Institute for Lithography in 2002. Maurelli received her MFA in printmaking from the University of Iowa, with an additional Book Arts Certificate from the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book. Maurelli is a great technician, and aims to help students improve their technique as well as explore their creativity.
Heidi Melo (she/her) is a community artist currently based out of St. Croix County in Wisconsin who comes from an international background involving growing up in Europe for most of her life and coming from an American-Brazilian-Latvian family. She received her BA in Community Art from Wheaton College in Illinois and loves to explore the relational aspect of artmaking through murals, graphic design, and placemaking. Her mixed-media practice especially surrounds storytelling, her Christian faith, and what making place means as a sojourner.
Bill Myers (he/him) has been involved with MCBA ever since he took his first wood engraving course in 1991. He is now an engraver and letterpress printer, and especially enjoys working with wood type. A former mechanic, he repairs and restores printing presses, and was the lead restorer for the Hoe Washington Style hand press at MCBA. He was a 1997 Jerome Book Arts Fellow. He served on the MCBA Board, and was Chair during the creation of Open Book. In 2012 he retired from a career as Professor of Philosophy at St. Catherine University to devote more time to printing.
Kirsten Olson (she/her) has been teaching screen printing and book arts workshops to adults and kids at MCBA and other venues around the Twin Cities since 2012. Kirsten has a background in publishing and is the screen printer behind Pizza Squirrel Studio, a space where she collaborates with kids to create wearable and shareable art. Her studio is named after a neighborhood squirrel who loves to spend his days munching pizza slices in her yard. Cheers to you, little guy!
Bridget O’Malley (she/her) is a master papermaker. She worked from 1994–2017 as designer and production manager at Cave Paper Inc., a handmade paper mill specializing in natural-dyed flax papers. In addition to teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, O’Malley offers book, paper, and print workshops around the country. She studied papermaking with Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa Center for the Book’s research and production paper facilities. While there, she completed a five-year papermaking apprenticeship. Her artwork focuses on forms found in nature, bringing those to life through the interplay of print, paper, and sculpture.
Susan Niz (she/her) was selected to spend time in a small, advanced workshop with Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown at the Lighthouse Lit Fest in Denver in 2022. She received the 2021 Loft Literary Center Excellence in Teaching Fellowship. Susan’s poetry chapbooks are Beyond this Amniotic Dream (Beard Poetry, 2016) and Left-Handed Like a Lightning Whelk (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her writing and photography have been published in 20 literary journals. Her novel, Kara, Lost, was a finalist in Literary Fiction for a Midwest Book Award. She recently returned to Minnesota after spending a few years in Austin, Texas.
Radha Pandey (she/her) is a papermaker and letterpress printer. She earned her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She practices European, Eastern and Indo-Islamic Papermaking techniques and teaches book arts classes in India, Europe and the US. Her book Anatomia Botanica won the MICA Book Award in 2014, and received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. In 2018, her book Deep Time won the Joshua Heller Memorial Award. Her artist’s books are held in over 40 collections internationally, including the Library of Congress and Yale University.
Rachel Payne (she/her) of Saga Bookbinding is a bookbinder, librarian, and archivist based in the Twin Cities, MN. She holds an MLIS and graduated from the North Bennet Street School’s Bookbinding program. She has been repairing and making books for 10 years. She taught her first book repair workshop in 2016 and her first book arts workshop in 2018.
Yuka Petz (she/her) straddles multiple disciplines, including book arts, graphic design, and 3D paper works. She received an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has taught numerous adult and youth workshops and is a guest host for the Artist’s Books Unshelved video series. Yuka recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest from New Orleans, where she co-founded SIFT and The Artist Book Collection at Paper Machine. Her work has been exhibited internationally and across the US, and her artist’s books are in several special collections.
Veronica Pham(she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and papermaker. She is currently an MFA candidate in design studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her work uses the medium of papermaking and fiber to tell generationally lost stories around the ideas of process, culture, identity, and place. Veronica continues to conduct fieldwork in Vietnam, learning from traditional and contemporary papermakers. She is an ambassador for Vietnamese traditional papermaking techniques and finds joy in teaching papermaking and sustainability through community workshops. Veronica received her BFA in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lives and works in the Midwestern region of the United States.
Molly Poganski (she/her) is a letterpress printer and graphic designer originally from Louisville, Kentucky. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design from Indiana University and has thirteen years of printing and design experience. She works as MCBA’s Studio Technician and also as a letterpress printer at Bench Pressed. Molly also volunteers with Proof Public, an organization working to amplify marginalized voices through print, and runs Dandy Horse Press, a hobby print shop, from her basement in South Minneapolis.
Bethany C. Rahn (she/they) is an artist, designer, and educator from Madison, Wisconsin. Her interdisciplinary studio practice integrates letterpress, printmaking, fibers, photography, digital fabrication, and sculptural techniques. Rahn received her MFA from Indiana University in graphic design. She was first introduced to letterpress in 2009 which led her to begin volunteering at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI. In 2012, Rahn interned at Hatch Show Print and was hired on as a letterpress printer and designer from 2013–2014. Rahn teaches in St. Paul, MN, as an Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at St. Catherine University.
Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder (she/her) (Coyote Bones Press) is a book artist based in San Antonio, Texas. She produces limited-edition artist’s books under the imprint of Coyote Bones Press, and teaches at various institutions. She holds an MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing from Mills College. Her artwork incorporates sculptural structures and found objects, combining traditional and contemporary bookbinding and printing techniques. Schroeder’s work is held in prominent collections including Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Harvard, Stanford, RISD, and The British Library. Schroeder was the Artist in Residence at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts from 2019–2021, and winner of the 2022 MCBA Prize.
Andrea Shaker’s (she/her) creative work is interdisciplinary, spanning photography, moving image, experimental film, and written and spoken word. As an Arab American, she explores the spaces between home and homeland and migration and diaspora. Her work, albeit oftentimes quiet, has an urgency by which she seeks to (re)construct and (re)imagine bayt (home) in the face of dispersals, erasures, and fragmentations. She earned her BA from Georgetown University and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is a professor of art at the College of St. Benedict | St. John’s University. She lives with her family on Dakota and Annishaabe lands in Minnesota.
Lynn Salmon-Easter (she/her) is a Reiki practitioner and artist living and working in Minneapolis. She finds deep purpose in guiding individuals home to their bodies and hearts through energy work and art practices. Lynn continues to witness the practice of slow stitching as a magical way to awaken mindfulness and awareness. She vows to bring this experience to life for others through her art and classes.
Erica Spitzer Rasmussen (she/her) is an artist who creates handmade paper garments and small editions of hand-bound books. Her current work explores issues of identity and family stories. Rasmussen is a recipient of the 2018 Minnesota Book Artist Award and various grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Other professional highlights include a papermaking residency in Vienna, Austria, a solo exhibition in Mexico City, Mexico, and bookbinding residencies in Venice, Italy. Her work has been featured in such magazines as American Craft and Hand Papermaking. Rasmussen teaches studio arts as a full professor at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Rosae M. Reeder (she/her) is a book artist/printmaker and teacher of many things book arts and printmaking. She lives, teaches, and constantly makes things in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA from the Book Arts/Printmaking program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her work combines various alternative photographic processes, digital collage, traditional printmaking media such as letterpress, lithography, and monotype, along with book structure. The imagery and content of her work is that of reference and reflection: a moment remembered, a time almost forgotten, a thought process evolved. Her work has been exhibited in many centers for the book and multiple galleries across the country and internationally.
Kerri Sandve (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from St. Paul, MN working under the imprint Carbon Copy Co. Press. She creates artist’s books, zines, screen prints, sculptural paper works, and collages. Her work centers on memory, personal archive, and human-landscape relationships. These often highlight connections to the land and to each other, loss, and the non-linearity of time. Her work resides in multiple collections across the US, including the Walker Art Center and the Newberry Library, Chicago, IL. Sandve holds a BFA in Print, Paper, Book Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Anika Schneider (she/her) is a narrative figure painter and printmaker who draws on lived experiences, memory, and family photography. Anika received her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. For her undergraduate studies, she received a Bachelors of Science with a double major in Environmental Studies and Studio Art from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. Anika’s work has been exhibited nationally at galleries such as Soo Visual Arts Center, Rosalux Gallery, Circle Gallery, Visarts, Dumbarton Concert Gallery, Gallery B St. Paul, and Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture. Anika currently lives and works in Minneapolis where she enjoys giving a home to second hand furniture and hiking with her dog Wolly.
Shawn Sheehy (he/him) has been teaching book arts courses and workshops on the national level for 20 years, including stops at MCBA, Center for Book Arts, Penland, Arrowmont, FOBA, Pyramid Atlantic, San Francisco Center for the Book, and PBI. His broadsides and artist’s book editions have been collected by Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, UCLA, and Harvard. He has created two trade pop-up books: Welcome to the Neighborhood (2015) and Beyond the Sixth Extinction (2018). Both were published by Candlewick Press and won numerous awards. He holds a Book Arts MFA from Columbia College Chicago.
Ellen Sheffield (she/her) is a visual artist, poet, and teacher based in Gambier, Ohio and the California Bay Area. Her works on paper and artist’s books play with image and text intersections to create unexpected readings. Collaborations with poets, found text, and visual scores are some of the ways she engages with themes of place, memory, and language perception. The Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Ella Strong Denison Library at Scripps College, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and many others have collected her artist’s books. She recently finished 14 years of teaching Book Arts at Kenyon College.
Kathleen Sheridan (she/her) is a former Spanish teacher who turned her passion (since fourth grade!) into a business. Kathleen teaches all types of origami: animals, boxes, useful items, and modulars to beginner and advanced origami students. She actively learns the latest models by attending national and international origami conventions. Kathleen is the host of Origami Connect, a program that provides live, monthly, online origami sessions. She serves on the Board of Directors for OrigamiUSA.
Azania Tripp (she/her) began facilitating mindful community jewelry-making workshops in 2019 with the support of an Individual Arts Grant from the Central Minnesota Arts Board. In 2021, she received the Spark Leadership Grant from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, which is geared toward BIPOC communities in rural and urban Minnesota. Azania has provided workshops for NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Form) St. Cloud Chapter, Higher Ground Church for Christ in St. Cloud, Walrus Art Gallery Minnesota, and virtually. As an artist with a social work background, she provides a high engagement experience for workshop participants.
Jill Weese (she/her, M.Ed.) is a book artist and educator. Jill has a special interest in bringing book arts to new audiences. She has been teaching book arts to children and adults at MCBA as well as schools, libraries, and art centers across the state of Minnesota for over 20 years. Retired after 10 years as MCBA’s Director of Youth and Community Programming, Jill continues to teach, make books, and work in The Shop at MCBA as a Visitor Services and Shop Associate. Jill is a licensed teacher and holds MCBA’s Core and Advanced Book Arts Certificates.
Stephanie Wolff (she/her) works with paper, text, textile, and the book form, often on themes of weather, science, history, and rural life. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and Germany and is in many collections, public and private. She has been awarded a creative research fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society and was Artist-in-Residence at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. Stephanie’s years as a book conservator provided her with knowledge in the history, construction, and repair of a wide range of materials. She enjoys teaching to share her knowledge of bookbinding, conservation, and fine arts. @stephaniewolffstudio
Jason Yoh (he/him) is a Minnetonka-based artist and printer with a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Since 2005, he has worked in numerous letterpress studios in New York and Minnesota and has been involved at MCBA since 2013.