One year ago I was accepted into the Facebook Community Leadership Program (FCLP) as a Fellow in Community Leadership. One of 117 members of 46 countries, selected from over 6000 applicants, I have had the opportunity to grow tremendously with the leadership training, mentorship, and support of Facebook. Learn how my year with FCLP has helped me grow.

I am delighted to represent the Minneapolis Athenaeum as Digital/Virtual Reality Artist-in-Residence for 2018, as well as volunteer Mentor at the Best Buy Teen Tech Lab. Read more about the residencey, Northern Spark Art Festival, working with teens, Urban Edible Plant Walks, and upcoming AR/VR Library Book.

Friends, I'm honored to have been invited to participate on a panel at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum Minneapolis. The title of the session, "Seeking Justice and Making Trouble (Part I): Artists’ Perspectives on the Paradox of Peace" will be moderated by Sun Yung Shin. It will include panelists: J. Wren Supak, Daira Quiñones, Aar Maanta, and myself. The session I will participate in is September, 14th. Please join the forum if you are able. #NobelPeacePrizeForum

I drew a couple flowers and then posted it on Twitter. With an invitation to anyone to add to the VR Garden, I was overwhelmed by the positive reception and contributions! The VR Garden was projected at TEDxMinneapois. I then went to NYC to draw a garden live at the Opening Party for the Jump Into VR Fest. 

A team of artists and public participants created the Community Garden Mural. This is a project installed in Window #117 in Made Here MN's amazing Public Art Showcases, featured in empty building windows in downtown Minneapolis. This project is to create excitement for a future Indoor Edible Garden at Better World Museum, It uses AR/VR Mixed Storytelling and community participation. 

In the last year or so (really since Ignite, MCN2014), I've been especially inspired by the formation and work of Incluseum. I sincerely hope that this post may help contribute to the discussion, as another voice sharing my story and advocating for museum inclusion for all.

Since Spring 2016, I have been directing several artist collaborations with Hattie Ball and Seth Gibson in Interactive Digital Public Art, and projects with Virtual Reality. The three of us work really well together. My style of Leadership is aligned with the methods described in Douglas Hegley's, Agile Museum, shared in a presentation and published paper at Museums and the Web, 2016. 

I was scheduled to present on a panel at MCN2016 in NOLA titled, The Power of Vulnerability in Museums. The panel's discussion is inspired by Brené Brown's The Power of Vulnerability. I would share how I started an ARTLAB in a Domestic Abuse Shelter, and am now in the middle of my first large Public Art collaboration (including directing an Interactive Digital Video and VR Empathy Experience). I would demonstrate how this experience has ignited a dialogue on sexual and domestic violence, I wish to explore in museums.