Current Teaching Artists
Cori Adams (she/her) is a bilingual educator who has taught in a Spanish immersion elementary school for over 15 years. With a passion for literacy, art, language, self-expression, and social justice, she works to incorporate these themes into her classroom and daily life. Her focus has been on book-making, including various styles of construction paper books, personalized journals, hard-cover fabric books and more. She is looking forward to expanding her work with youth through workshops, helping kids embrace their creativity, identity and explore new possibilities.
Camilo Aguirre (he/him) is a Colombian artist with a keen interest in documentary formats and graphic storytelling. He explores various mediums such as drawing, printmaking, comics, and animation to tell stories and create image systems that relate symbols and pictures within a sociocultural framework. Camilo has published graphic novels in Colombia, France, and the U.S., with a particular focus on narratives centered on communities and historical reparation. He has also worked as a storyboard artist for Colombian agencies like Bombillo Amarillo and Biota Studios.
Hope Amico (she/they) is a visual artist, writer, and educator who believes we can all benefit from a creative practice. Through classes, collage meetups, and the Keep Writing postcard project, Hope is excited to share ways folks can work together and support each other creatively. Co-founder of the New Orleans Collage Collective, Hope relocated to Portland, Oregon in 2020. They teach online and in-person through MCBA, SFCB, and privately through their own studio, Hope Amico (previously known as gutwrench press).
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.
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
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. Carolina holds a BFA in Visual Arts with a minor in Photography from the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. In 2021, she earned an MFA in Book Arts from The University of Iowa, where she also worked as a book conservation technician and digital book design instructor. In her recent artistic practice, Carolina explores traditional book-related crafts and applies them to her work in visual arts, creative writing, music notation, and performance.
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.
Chris Davenport (he/him) tells stories through handmade paper and artist’s books. As a teaching artist, he has lead courses in Documentary and Conservation Photography, Image and Identity, The Art of Protest, Film and the Environment, Art & Ecology, and Environmental Research & Advocacy at The University of Alabama and Book Arts; and Conceptual Arts, Fundamental Drawing, 2D design, and 4D Design (time-based contemporary art) at The University of Alabama in Birmingham. Chris currently operates Pocket Knife Press and Spitball Paper & Tools in Asheville, NC.
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.
Louise Fisher (she/her) is an Minnesota-based artist working in printmaking and book arts. She holds an MFA from Arizona State University and a BFA from the University of Northern Iowa. Fisher currently resides in the Twin Cities, where she teaches printmaking and drawing in the Art Department at Normandale Community College. Louise has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and her work has been included in private and public collections such as the Zuckerman Museum of Art, the University of North Florida and the Wichita Art Museum. Her most recent accomplishment is being selected for the 2023-2024 MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Residency Program.
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.
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.
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.
India Johnson (she/her) is a Minneapolis-based artist working across craft, artist publishing, and social practice. She is a founding member of LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library, and half of Late Night Copies Press. India teaches book art and humanities courses at the college level, and in community settings like public libraries, art centers, and guilds. She designs workshops that balance her love of craftsmanship with a holistic approach to making. India’s teaching is driven by a systematic approach to hands-on research and materials testing, and a desire to welcome and support adult learners as they experiment with techniques and process. She has an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book.
Leah Klister (she/her) is an artist and educator based in Minneapolis. She has a BA in Studio Art from St. Olaf College and an MA in Art Education from NYU. Leah has taught almost all types of media to 7–12 graders for twelve years. In 2022–2023, Leah was an MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship recipient and was awarded an MRAC Next Step Fund grant in June 2023. In addition, Leah’s work has been shown within Minnesota and in multiple juried shows at the national level, including the Boston Printmakers 2023 North American Print Biennial.
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.
Teté Montero (she/her) is a textile artist and an art educator based in Mexico City. As a disabled, neurodivergent, and BIPOC artist who creates content, Teté explores a diverse range of art topics with a fun and quirky approach, embracing her identity as a self-appointed Renaissance woman. Through her innovative teaching style, Teté aims to inspire others on their creative journey, integrating mindfulness into her educational practices. She creates workshops both online and in person, sharing her passion and expertise across various art forms, particularly textiles, with a diverse audience. In her private studio, Teté crafts intuitive textiles that blend innovative techniques with traditional processes.
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.
Sarah Nguyen (she/her) is a mixed media artist, working primarily with paper. Storytelling is central to her hand cut-fiber panels and paintings. Her work has appeared in numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions and publications. Sarah received her BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
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. Yuka is the host of the Artists’ Books Unshelved video series for the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and has taught numerous adult and youth workshops around the country. Her work has been exhibited internationally and her artists’ 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.
Jennifer Price (she/her) is a Chicago born poet and collage artist rooted in Georgia. As a former public librarian, she is an information generalist who has taught dozens of change-makers in her community on topics ranging from grant proposal writing to entrepreneurship. She has completed two residencies with the Kolaj Institute and is a former Book Arts student at the Penland School of Crafts. Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and she is currently pursuing master’s degrees in Museum Studies and Creative Writing.
Rosemary Rae (she/her) is a creative director/designer, artist, and design educator living in San Diego, California. A graduate of Moore College of Art & Design and Vermont College of Fine Arts, Rosemary currently works as a graphic designer. In addition to designing her unique line of letterpress greeting cards, she also teaches typography, design, bookmaking, and collage. Rosemary also creates collages and artist’s books which have been featured in many juried exhibitions.
Bethany C. Rahn (she/they) is an artist, designer, and educator from Madison, WI. Her interdisciplinary approach to design often explores concepts of identity and addresses concerns within our contemporary society. Rahn received her MFA from Indiana University in 2020. Her work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions across the United States. Rahn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at St. Catherine University and teaches letterpress workshops at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
Rosae M. Reeder (she/her) is a Book Artist / Printmaker and teacher of many things Book Arts and Printmaking. Living, teaching and constantly making in Philadelphia, Rosae 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, 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.
Janet Reynolds (she/her) is a visual artist/educator who taught art to students in Texas for fifteen years. She is currently a professor at the University of Houston Clear Lake. She has also taught workshops at the Printing Museum in Houston. She earned her master’s degree in art education from Boston University. Nature and the environment are often subjects in her artist’s books. She has shown her work nationally and internationally and has pieces in collections at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and University of Denver special collections.
Olga Ricalde (she/her) is an artist who practices paper marbling. Olga studied book arts at Minnesota Center for Book Arts where she earned the Core and Advanced Certificate in Book Arts (2012). Olga learned marbling from several master marblers, including Sally Power and Chena River Marblers, among others. Olga has exhibited her work with Minnesota Marbling Forum, and at Wayzata Public Library and Fresh Eye Gallery. Olga enjoys working on collaborative projects with other artists, including Barb Skoog.
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.
Sarah Stengle (she/her) is a book artist represented by CENTRAL BOOKING in Brooklyn, NY. She worked as a book designer for ten years, seven of them at Princeton University Press. She has taught at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and as a visiting artist with the Glass Book Project at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. She has also taught art electives for children at the Princeton Friends School in Princeton, New Jersey, and book arts for Saint Paul public schools. Her book work is included in numerous collections including the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Yale’s Beinecke Library, and the Art Institute of Chicago. She also loves to sing and sew.
Lucy Roscoe (she/her) is a freelance Illustrator and Lecturer in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. She has taught Illustration and Book Arts to all ages at festivals, in schools and with adults, particularly making use of Collections and Archives when teaching in Higher Education. Specialising in Creative Book Works, she is co-founder of BOOKMARKS, the largest Artists’ Book and Zine fair in Scotland focused on the innovative use of the book form in Education. As an Illustrator she works with a range of clients including Craft Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Duke of Buccleuch, and Raby Estates.
Julia Sarcone-Roach (she/her) is the author and illustrator of several picture books, including SUBWAY STORY, THE ICE CREAM VANISHES, THERE ARE NO BEARS IN THIS BAKERY, and THE BEAR ATE YOUR SANDWICH, which was an Ezra Jack Keats Honor Award winner, a New York Times bestseller, and an excuse to eat many sandwiches. She is also the illustrator of INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS by Lee Bennett Hopkins and the Ezra Jack Keats Honor Award book EXCELLENT ED by Stacy McAnulty. Julia lives in Brooklyn, New York, and runs across a surprising number of wild animals (including many squirrels) but, to date, no bears.
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.
Alexis Schramel (she/her) is an adjunct professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), teaching Art & Ecological Futures, Critical Studies, and 2D Foundations. This fall, she’ll join Upper Iowa University (UIU) as an adjunct professor in the Arts Department. She has taught community classes and Summer Camp at Franconia Sculpture Park and directs youth public art projects in Elkader, Iowa. Alexis holds an MFA from MCAD and a BA in psychology and studio art from UIU. Her research on therapeutic artmaking in long-term care was published in the International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education in 2023.
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.
Nikkolas Smith (he/him) is an Artivist, children’s book creator, and Hollywood film illustrator. He is the author/illustrator of several picture books: the USA TODAY Bestselling The Artivist, the NAACP Image Award nominated The Golden Girls of Rio, and My Hair Is Poofy And That’s Okay. Nikkolas is the illustrator of the #1 NYT Bestseller The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, I Am Ruby Bridges, Black Panther Wakanda Forever: The Courage To Dream and the award winning That Flag. As an illustrator of color, Nikkolas is focused on creating captivating art that can spark important conversations in today’s world and inspire meaningful change towards social justice and equity. Many of his viral and globally published sketches are included in his book Sunday Sketch: The Art of Nikkolas. Born in Houston, Texas, Nikkolas lives in Los Angeles, California.
Delia Touché (she/they) is an Indigenous artist from Spirit Lake Nation. They have exhibited nationally and internationally. Delia has their work in permanent art collections at the University of North Dakota, St. Olaf College, Walker Art Center, Minnesota Historical Society, Northwestern University and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. They hold a Master of Fine Arts in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art where they received the Gilbert Fellowship. Delia’s work acknowledges the complex relationship they have with their Indigenous culture. Delia’s practice is influenced by familial archive, Dakota and Assiniboine cultural framework, nuances, gallows humor, Indigenous diaspora and pop culture.
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.