Darrell McKinney is a Washington-based interdisciplinary artist. His practice explores the intersections across design, art, and architecture. The work speaks to how design can be utilized to explore the complexities of politics, race, and social infrastructure through the interconnectedness of history, people, and places.

He received a Master of Design from the School of the Art institute of Chicago. His work has been featured in exhibitions at EXPO (Chicago), then internationally at Salone Del Mobile (Milan), Spazio Rossana Orlandi, and the Venice Architecture Biennale. He has been featured at the Tacoma Art Museum as the inaugural recipient of The Current, An Artist Award (2022). He was also the recipient of awards such as the Greg Kucera & Larry Yocom Fellowship Award (2022), A Tale of Today Emerging Artist Fellowship for the Richard H. Driehaus Museum (2019), and the Hilltop Lasting Legacy Fellowship (2020).

Vivienne Bessette (b. 1982) is a queer artist of mixed settler and Michif heritage (Red River Treaty 1). They are based on the stolen and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlí̓lwətaʔɬ Nations. Bessette incorporates drawing, painting, woodworking, sculpting, dying, writing, fermenting and building relationships with plants into their practice. They work in and out of the studio, the garden and the kitchen, developing sustainable and alternative modes of food production and utilizing unconventional materials. The strength of entangled and interdependent community is at the stomach of Bessette’s process. Bessette holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University. They have been involved with multiple garden and food-based collectives, including Commons Garden at Sahalli Park Community Garden, Garden Don’t Care, Looking at the Garden Fence, and the project What artists bring to the table for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria with Derya Akay and Kurtis Wilson. Bessette was a Food Coordinator for Slow Waves Small Projects on Mayne Island. They have been published in The Capilano Review (“Pattern of Pears,” 2020 and “Organize Your Building with the Support of the Vancouver Tenants Union with the Belvedere Residents,” 2018).

Sophie Marie is a queer dance artist from Tacoma, WA. Sophie has a degree in Neuroscience and Dance from Bennington College. Sophie’s work focuses on disabled embodiment, folklore and horror. As an avid lover of fairy tales and horror movies, Sophie seeks to create new and weird worlds with her work. They are inspired by nature, myth and monsters.

Ayesha Mohyuddin is a contemporary jewelry artist who explores identity, spirituality, and ways of knowing through body-related objects and performance. Ayesha is interested in capturing the complexities of home, history, and identity through material, ritual, performance, and eating. Her recent work uses food, cooking, and the tools of the kitchen to express the physicality of nostalgia, identity, and history. Ayesha’s work is rooted in Islamic material culture, cooking, and her upbringing in a Bangladeshi Muslim household in rural Tennessee.

Born and raised in Tennessee, Ayesha received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis.

Fin’es Scott is a Seattle-based textile artist that explores themes of Black joy, rest, Afrofuturism, and environmentalism. Her work is the antithesis of Black trauma, which is often exploited in art and media. Her process involves creating artwork by combining traditional craft with modern digital tools.

She studied design in New York City and has been sewing and illustrating for over 20 years.

April Werle (she/her) is a narrative painter, whose works investigate how culture is internalized and negotiated as a mixed-race person. Influenced by her Filipino heritage and multicultural upbringing, Werle’s works explore themes of mixed-race identity, family, and belonging. She reimagines memories and shared family stories, skillfully capturing the nuances of body language, particularly through the expressive use of hands. Her paintings have been exhibited at the Holter Museum of Art, Missoula Art Museum, and The Other Art Fair Los Angeles, and featured in New Visionary Magazine and Kapwa Magazine.

 An advocate for multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue, Werle has been invited to speak about her work, including a keynote speech at Montana State University with the Asian Student Interracial Association. She has received recognition for her contributions, including a WESTAF BIPOC Artist Fund Award, an ARPA Grant, and a Strategic Investment Grant from the Montana Arts Council.