Bioneers 2026 Artists and Performers
For Bioneers’ 37th conference, we are excited for art to play a vital, celebratory, and transformational role at the conference. Check out this year’s contributing performers and artists. Check out all the specific and general networking opportunities for Artists and Creatives at Bioneers!
2026 Artists
Strange Exchange
Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. At our booth at the Divisadero Farmer’s Market in San Francisco we facilitate the reshuffling of small items, commonly classified as ‘clutter’, such as, eyeglass cases, unused greeting cards, art supplies & grocery bags – items that still have function and hold value but are no longer needed by the owner. The problem is these types of items don’t have an obvious and effective pathway to reuse, nor do they have the monetary value to warrant a sale. SE’s reshuffling hub solves this by establishing a convenient, easily accessible place for these items to be donated and exchanged. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate – meaning people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To date, over 6,700 lbs of items have been reshuffled! Come participate in the non-monetary economy and experience the thrill of reshuffling. Perhaps we’ll inspire you to start a Strange Exchange of your own. More details and a full list of items SE will be accepting at Bioneers at strangeexchangesf.org.
The Gathering Tree
As The Gathering Tree, Brian Wood & Emily Lorena create intimate, lyrically driven music that lives at the crossroads of folk, soul, and subtle hip-hop rhythm. Their sound is spacious and warm, anchored by Brian’s acoustic guitar work and storytelling instincts, and carried along by Emily’s harmonies; earthy, intuitive, and emotionally precise. Together, their songs invite stillness and attention.
Brian brings over two decades of experience as a songwriter and performer, with a history of international touring and appearances at major festivals. Emily’s path weaves through music, ecology, and education, and that sensibility shapes the duo’s shared creative voice. What began as harmony has evolved into a deeply collaborative songwriting partnership rooted in a commitment to foster connection and inspire positive change.
Beyond the stage, Brian and Emily are actively engaged in work with the natural world through ecological landscaping, land stewardship, regenerative design, and creative projects that honor place. This relationship with land is not separate from their music; it informs it. Their songs reflect cycles, interdependence, and the quiet intelligence of living systems.
Whether performing in candlelit living rooms, outdoor gatherings, or cultural summits, The Gathering Tree offers music as a meeting place where people, story, and landscape are invited to reconnect.
Mia Pixley
Austin, Texas native Mia Pixley, Ph.D. (she/her) is a psychologist, composer, performer, conservationist, mother, and water lover. Mia enjoys exploring the resonance between ourselves, the natural world, and the underworld. She has performed on GRAMMY award winning records and alongside GRAMMY nominated artists (Fantastic Negrito, Will Ackerman, Barbara Higbie). Mia has also opened for Valerie June, Hauschka, and Holly Near. Delighting in interdisciplinary exploration and discovery of all kinds, Mia recently released her second full-length album, Love. Dark. Bloom., an exploration of the fertile beauty of darkness — an attempt to free the dark from its long-held association with evil.
Nikbo
Nikbo (she/they) is a Third Culture artist and songwriter. Born in Morocco, and raised in Malawi, Canada, and Kazakhstan before settling in the Bay Area, Nikbo weaves sounds and stories from the Filipino diaspora to create music from the in-between. She recently released a collaborative project with her family and ancestors about grief, dreaming, and healing.
Claire Calderón
Claire Calderón is an Oakland-based musician, writer, and reader with a fondness for stories from the fringes. She has an MFA in creative writing from Mills College and has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and elsewhere. Claire is at work on her debut novel, Tomato Skin, a speculative biography about her Chilean bisabuela’s life in the shadows. Claire is a singer and songwriter grounded in community. She is the lead vocalist of the Latin indie folk-pop band, Coraza, a group with a thing for instrument switching, genre bending, and evocative bilingual lyrics.
People’s Circus Theatre
People’s Circus Theatre (PCT) is a growing performing arts organization based in San Francisco. Founded in 2023, People’s Circus Theatre strives to deliver poignant, thought-provoking, and memorable experiences that win new audiences back to the wonder of live performance, through a unique blend of theatre, dance, and circus arts. PCT knows that the fusion of circus arts and storytelling has a unique power to touch audiences mentally, emotionally, and viscerally. PCT’s mission is to create high-quality circus theatre productions that center the artist and the audience. People’s Circus Theatre puts artists first by employing locally, investing in the development of the next generation, and prioritizing artists’ mental, physical, and emotional well-being. PCT is committed to making shows accessible to contemporary Bay Area audiences with relevant content and affordable ticket prices. People’s Circus Theatre is known for their holiday production “Reindeer Games” and their adaptation of “The Nightingale.” PCT will be premiering their new show, “The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel” on May 1 & 2 at Dance Mission as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival.
Bad Art Club
Bad Art Club is a San Francisco-based art collective elevating collective joy through radical self-expression, celebration of imperfection, and amplification of our shared humanity. Each week, members gather to create large-scale collaborative art across all mediums using recycled and donated materials in a safe, analog, sober environment where everyone is encouraged to be themselves and do their worst.
Beyond weekly community gatherings, Bad Art Club offers team-building workshops, pop-ups, extended retreats, and private events—all designed to foster wellness and liberation through creative connection.
Founder Jules Costa is a certified Transformational Facilitator who designs and guides art-centered experiences through a trauma-informed, deeply attuned lens. With no professional art training, she embraces her role as the “”Bad Art Teacher,”” creating spaces where everyone feels safe and free to express themselves authentically, offer their gifts generously, collaborate harmoniously, and celebrate life in unity.
Susan Goldie
Susan Goldie is a mixed-media artist whose work examines environmental damage, repair, and human responsibility within ecological systems. Her practice includes wall works and art-to-wear pieces made using sustainable methods, with cloth serving as a site where harm, care, and renewal are made explicit. Her practice is grounded in a belief that repair ultimately arises from alignment with forces larger than ourselves.
Her work is built through hand-based textile processes, including stitching, collage, and hand dyeing—particularly shibori. With a background in fashion sewing, she intentionally binds, alters, stains, and repairs materials to reflect cycles of stress and regeneration found in the natural world. Sustainability and reuse are foundational choices.
Shaped by time spent hiking and closely observing fragile ecosystems, Goldie’s work asks viewers to confront their own role in environmental damage and repair. The work frames repair as a deliberate act – requiring attention, restraint, and trust in a larger ordering principle that makes renewal possible.
Ash Rex Something
Ash Rex is a multidisciplinary performing artist who has been gracing stages across the globe since 2010. While on stage Ash is a contortionist, dancer, and clown, while off stage she is a teacher, producer, director, and choreographer. Creator of the contortion dance technique Slither, Ash also leads the troupe The Slither Sirens. In addition, she produces two shows annually as the creative visionary and driving force behind Circus Something, an avant-garde ritual circus theater company.
Natalie Walsh
Natalie is a multi-disciplinary designer, maker, and artist based in San Francisco.
Her professional work centers on the intersection of design, climate, and education. She co-leads Climate Designers, a global organization that empowers designers to learn, connect, and act on climate through their work. She also works with climate focused clients on strategy, brand, and product design.
When she isn’t on the computer, her happy place is at the sewing machine or in a shop. Her artistic work is currently centered on the use of natural materials, upcycling, waste reduction, circular design, and artivism. After becoming known for festival inspired costumes, she is now on a mission to eliminate petrochemicals from her practice and to use her pieces as a means to explore and educate on circular and regenerative design principles.
Amanda Hayami
Amanda Hayami is an emerging sustainable fashion designer with a background in hairstyling, music, and English literature. She taps into her creative flow by hammering out the smaller details. Through layers of repetition, reused materials, and unconventional experiences, she shapes waste into digestible fashion statements.
Sophia Chen
Sophia Xirou Chen was born in Taishan China and immigrated to Oakland California at the age of 2. Growing up, Sophia loved taking drawing lessons, doing arts & crafts, playing dress up, and sketching in fashion books.
During COVID-19 quarantine, Sophia was taught by her grandmother how to sew on an industrial machine. From then on, Sophia loved sewing. She found an art medium she connected with deeply.
After quarantine, she started a small business doing alterations and making custom pouches and tote-bags. She also created the first ever Fashion Design Club at her high-school which is still active.
Sophia is now a Junior at UC Berkeley studying Theater Costume Design. At Berkeley, she is the Design Director at FAST (Fashion & Student Trends), participates in semesterly runway shows and theater productions, and works as a costume assistant at the Zellerbach Playhouse.
After UC Berkeley, Sophia intends to go into Bridal Couture Wear.
Neeka Salmasi (aka nēkajun)
Nēkajun is an Iranian American musician, storyteller, and farmer. Her music maps fractured lands; tracing rivers that have run dry, forests silenced of their birdsong, and earth scarred byborders and misuse of power. She sings of lands haunted by loss, yet charged with the resilience of people who still struggle to defend them. Every melody becomes a call to action, every lyric a map for reclaiming what has been lost, and every performance a space where memory, music, and movement converge.
On stage, nēkajun blurs the boundary between concert and classroom. Through song and story, she brings forward the lived histories too often silenced: Iranian farmers facing the weight of sanctions, Indigenous communities protecting their lands, and all those fighting to defend life on earth. She seeks to make music that educates, unites, and energizes our movements.
Palace of Trash
Palace of Trash is a collective of queer, intergenerational, BIPOC players that have brought ritual therapy to the stage since 2017. Descended from the genderfuckery of the Cockettes and the Grand Guignol Absurdist theater of the Thrillpeddlers of San Francisco’s Hypnodrome, Palace of Trash began as a practice of continuing to create art when one has lost their stage. Our shows blend theater, clowns, singers, drag, body stunt artists and kinksters to craft stories that celebrate the human experience. We craft our sets and props from cardboard and trash, giving glittering new life to the curbside leavings of our neighbors. Each show addresses a specific theme, creating space for the cast and our audience to process deeply, communally and for One Night Only. These shows are a big, beautiful mess full of intention and inspiration. If you have the stomach for it, or even if you don’t, you’ll never forget a Palace of Trash show. And when things go wrong? Well, as we often remind each other, “We’re Palace of Trash, not Palace of Perfect.
Taína Asili
Taína Asili is a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and activist carrying on the tradition of her Puerto Rican ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. She is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. For over 25 years she has offered energetic performances at diverse venues nationwide – from iconic stages such as Lincoln Center, to renowned festivals like San Francisco Pride, to historic events like The Women’s March on Washington –inspiring audiences to dance to the rhythm of rebellion.
The Eco-Performance Lab at UC Berkeley
The Eco-Performance Lab is an experimental performance ensemble in residence at the University of California, Berkeley, sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and funded by The Green Initiative Fund. The Lab’s mission is to contribute artistic, symbolic, and expressive communication to societal conversations about the ecological emergency and to empower participants and audiences to take action, exercise their creativity, and overcome climate despair and political overwhelm. The lead creative team for Earthprayer, the Lab’s offering at Bioneers 2026, are interdisciplinary artist Bine Buencamino Phung, performer and choreographer Iu-Hui Chua, musician and composer David Coulter, designer and musician Amanda Hayami, director and performer Daniel Larlham, director and performer CC Miller, and designer and costume builder Aurie Stetzel.
SambaFunk!
SambaFunk! is a collective of dancers, drummers, musicians, visual artists and community members who are dedicated to preserving and presenting African centered Art from throughout the African Diaspora currently under the Artistic Direction of Theo Aytchan Williams. SambaFunk! fuses African Brasilian and African American cultures in unique ways that benefit and educate under-served African American communities in Oakland and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Our mission is to present works that create new intersections between the Arts and Health & Wellness.
Chiffon Lark
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Chiffon Lark is a Southern California-based artist and storyteller of White Mountain/Mescalero Apache, and Coahuiltecan heritage. Specializing in alcohol inks—a fluid, intuitive medium—she merges precise brushwork with the natural movement of breath-blown pigment on Yupo paper.
Entirely self-taught, Chiffon draws inspiration from the rhythms of Earth and the sacred connection between all living beings. Her work often centers on wildlife, reflecting her belief in the spiritual relationships shared as living beings of the natural world.
This book marks her debut as both author and illustrator, blending visual art with prayer to offer children (and their grownups) a moment of stillness, wonder, and belonging.
Description of the art piece: This book began as a quiet prayer—whispered to the wind, the trees, and the little ones who listen with their hearts. Each illustration is created using alcohol inks, honoring the unpredictable beauty of creation and the medicine of color.
This book is currently being translated into multiple tribal languages so it can be used within each respective community to support language learning and cultural revitalization. Through collaboration with tribes across the Americas, the story is adapted to help children learn, honor, and strengthen the language of their own people.
Bushra Gill Studio
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Bushra Gill finds order within the chaos of everyday life through art. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and emigrated to Houston, Texas, with her family as a small child. She graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in sculpture. She has been awarded residencies at Pilchuck Glass School, Kala Art Institute and Jen Tough Gallery.
Gill spent many years working as a museum educator at various galleries and museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Drawing Center and The Rotunda Gallery, while also working as a studio assistant to various artists. Currently living and working in northern California, Gill also curates, drawing on her experience from a long teaching career to be a visual storyteller.
Description of the art piece: Curated show from open call for entry to Bay Area artists for a show related to the Bioneers theme, tentatively titled “Nature in Charge”.
Thailan When
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Thailan When is a California painter and writer. Her work is richly expressive, utilizing vivid contrast and evocative imagery to enliven her metaphorical style of visual language and storytelling. She gathers her creative inspiration from nature, animals, dreams and the powerful emotions revealed within them. Born in Thailand and raised in the Sierra Nevada foothills, she is based out of the Bay Area.
My approach to art is intuitive. I interpret my emotions as a form of raw creativity, and by listening, I am able to identify what feelings are asking for expression. Colors and images begin to appear and flow without restriction or any attempts to control. Eventually this leads to the organic development and refinement of concepts and visual stories that bridge the tangible to the ethereal, shaping the narrative of my art.
I enjoy exploring different mediums and styles-from painting and collage, to figurative and abstract, always curious to uncover the hidden messages and teachings within each new exploration. While working, I am often listening to music, singing, jotting down thoughts, and pausing to move and dance, allowing my creative process to expand and express itself freely. Over time, and with the necessary attunements, I have slowly learned to trust myself and the process. Having this trust has helped me to release judgment, and as a result, I am able to be more fully engaged in my practice.
Description of the art piece: Jaguar Garden: This piece symbolizes life and beauty in active, blooming decay. Time is not linear here, every dimension exists at once. The impermanence of beauty, the beauty of impermanence… Two intertwined snakes crown her head, representing renewal, intuition, and cyclical transformation. From this living crown blooms a mysterious flower of paradise, and we catch the rare moment when awareness breaks fully into consciousness.
Each animal represents an aspect of her spirit. The butterflies embody fragility, change, and the fleeting nature of life, while the jaguar stands as a guardian of strength, instinct, and primal drive. Together, these animals reflect the layered forces that guide her.
For me, this piece is a meditation on living fully in the present moment. It acknowledges the constant proximity of death not as something to fear, but as a reminder of life’s preciousness. By holding mortality and vitality side by side, this painting invites us to meet the present with reverence, courage, and attention.
Ruth Tabancay
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Ruth Tabancay began her adult professional life as a hospital laboratory technologist, then as a physician in private practice, and finally as an exhibiting artist. With techniques as varied as embroidery, crochet, felting, computerized Jacquard weaving, stitching, cast and burnt sugar, hyperbolic crochet, assemblage, and fabric manipulation, she expresses concepts in bacteriology, microscopy, hyperbolic geometry, hexagonal symmetry, and environmental issues such as bleaching of the coral reefs, organisms’ ability to digest plastic, and ecological systems such as mycorrhizal networks and bee colonies.
Ruth is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine; and California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited nationally and regionally including The Textile Museum, Washington, D. C.; World Financial Center, New York City; and Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco. She was the UCSF Library Artist in Residence for 2024-25. She lives In Berkeley, California.
Description of the art piece: One of the main causes of global warming is the burning of petroleum-based fuels which, among other applications, are also used in the manufacture of plastics. An increase in ocean temperature, as little as 2° Fahrenheit, can be deadly for coral reef systems. Corals form a mutualistic relationship with the algae zooxanthellae. Warmer temperatures cause them to expel the algae and, if sustained, eventually kills the corals. Instead of stunning colors, a bleached coral reef is left behind. For the first pieces in the ‘Bleached’ series, I crafted imaginary reef organisms from white plastic household and medical discards. Whorls of hyperbolic crochet, a structure seen in corals, surround the organisms. Subsequent works in the series used all colors of plastic discards to highlight human consumption. In 2019, due to worsening lung disease, I needed a lung transplant to survive. Many of the injectable medicat’ions I administered to myself at home were housed in p;lastic delivery systems. While I required these medications to live, this conflicts with my strong commitment to reduce the plastic in my life as much as possible. The ‘organisms’ for ‘Plastic Reef: Transplant are made from plastic discards from these treatments.
Benny Ferdman
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
As a collector of materials and stories from our human, natural and cultural landscape, artist Benny Ferdman reinterprets images and tales to reclaim wonder in everyday life. His paintings, sculptures and installations are animated by a mix of folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, time and transformation. His art often draws on themes of heritage, spirituality, and the human connection to nature, interpreting these sources and ideas through contemporary art practices.
Ferdman’s work incorporates painting, drawing, assemblage and mixed media. He creates layered, textured pieces that balance the earthbound and mystical with the modern, creating a unique visual language that resonates with viewers on an aesthetic, visceral and symbolic level. Woven throughout is a great reverence for the natural world and an increasingly urgent message around collective ecological responsibility.
Benny Ferdman lives in Los Angeles and is Co-founder and Artistic Director of Creative Ways, an organization that creates public art, exhibitions, multi-media installations, interdisciplinary arts programming and educational curricula nationally and across the globe. www.creativeways.org. He is also Co-Founder/Director of Camp Wildcraft–an art and nature summer camp whose mission is to “grow curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature.”
Description of the art piece: I think of my artwork more as poetry than product.
For this year’s art installation, my attention has turned to the wisdom of an 8th century Chinese poet Li Bai.
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
By Li Bai Translated By Sam Hamill
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
This simple poem by Li Bai offers a profound awareness. Despite the distractions and illusions of connection, when we are fully present in nature–firmly grounded like a mountain–our sense of self diminishes and we become part of the whole. Where I live, I am surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains. Every morning I hike up into the mountains and viscerally experience Li Bai’s poem, as I lose myself, and find a source of solidity in the transcendent and protective landscape.
WEAD – Women Eco Artists Dialog
WEAD is a volunteer-run collective, a network of feminist ecoartists, educators, curators, and writers working toward the goal of a just and healthy world. Founded in 1995, we focus on women’s unique perspective in ecological and social justice art. WEAD’s website (weadartists.org) serves as a virtual gallery of eco artists work, connects artists and curators with exhibition opportunities, and educates and enlightens through WEAD Magazine, presentations, classes, and exhibitions.
In 1996, Jo Hanson, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, and Estelle Akamine. They created WEAD in response to increasing requests for artist referrals and for designing ecoart exhibits and programs. Word-of-mouth networking started in 1995 at the Regional Northern California Women’s Caucus for the Arts. WEAD published its first directory with more than 100 listing artists. From 1996 to 2004, with 200+ listees, editions were labor intensive cut-and-paste, xerox editions. In 1998 Estelle retired, and Jo and Susan were joined by 10 activist women artists, creating the WEAD Board of Directors, who continue to produce and direct all WEAD publications and outreach programs. Our website, launched in 1999, reached the largest audience with the smallest carbon footprint and cost. We suspended printing in 2008 on paper. Our work continues.
Bow Seat: Creative Action for Conservation
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Founded in 2011, Bow Seat: Creative Action for Conservation provides an innovative space for youth to connect, create, and communicate for our blue planet. Working at the intersection of ocean science and arts education, our award-winning programming emphasizes creative thinking and making in exploring the natural world. Our flagship educational initiative, the Ocean Awareness Contest, is the world’s largest environmental youth program for the creative arts. Through art exhibitions, publications, and scholarships, Bow Seat uplifts diverse youth voices to advance dialogue and participation in environmental conservation. We empower young thinkers and creators to be active and empathetic global citizens, starting in their local communities.
Description of the art piece: Bow Seat’s 2025 Ocean Awareness Contest, Connections to Nature: Looking Inside, Going Outside, challenged participants, ages 11-18, to explore the natural world and their place in it through the lenses of generational knowledge, resilience, human health, and urban environments. Through the process of imagining, designing, and creating their pieces, students learned about the nature in their own backyards and reminded us of why it’s so important to protect the planet.
Joanna Kao
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Joanna was born in Los Angeles of Chinese immigrant parents. Sudden detente in the world political situation eventually gave her room for personal growth, in turn allowing her to move forward as an artist. Empathy for the outsider and our interdependence with the natural world are among her passions. Her work has been exhibited via residencies in China, S. Korea, Costa Rica, Hawaii, New York; recent venues include the Berkeley Art Center, the deYoung, Ruth’s Table, Kearny St Workshop, and Boston University.
Description of the art piece: My plan is to hang a series of monochrome woodblock prints with the theme, immigrant labor, and also political posters calling for No Kings, Hands Off…etc., on a folding 3-4 panel shoji screen using velcro dots. A few mixed media paintings may also be included. On the table will be a few small scale ceramic 3-D and framed 2-D works.
Earth Heart Murals
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Earth Heart Murals is a group of mural artists with the climate action group Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay, along with a team of community recruits.
Our first mural was painted in Clarion Alley, San Francisco in 2020-2021. It is titled “”World on Fire”” and depicts wild fires around the world and the life we are fighting to protect.
In 2022-2025 we painted four exterior wall panels on a neighborhood market in the Richmond, CA hills. It tells a story of regenerative community agriculture.
Description of the art piece: “Nourishing The Earth That Feeds Us”, located on the Arlington Market in Richmond, CA, is a community-centric vision of sustainability and how to get there. The work has been about a mindful collaborative process. Shoppers see how food grows and connects us to nature. They would see us work, and how the artist connects to the painting. Neighbors of the market, of all ages, have made their mark, creating a genuine community piece. Patrons love details of the local view of the bay, hills and native flora and fauna. One panel depicts current destructive agricultural practices, two show sustainable methods to benefit natural systems, and one imagines food grown in balance with nature. We have had gracious support from the market owners and their large extended family. We strive to inspire this community and beyond.
Comet Sinclair
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Comet (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and wilderness ceremony guide whose projects integrate the invisible strata of magic and memory held within human-disrupted landscapes.
Born through deep listening with place, Comet’s art is nourished by the imaginal dark of dreams and by her perceptual experience as a synesthete (she perceives sound, music, language, and touch in color). Created using waste-stream materials, foraged earth pigments, homemade charcoal, ash, and bone, her art gives voice to the mythic currents alive within landscapes.
Comet co-guides wilderness rites of passage ceremonies with Midnight Sun, a collective exploring emergence and creativity through deep listening with place.
A poly-topophilic human (topophilia = love of land/place), she lives and works in both the Bay Area and the Sonoran Desert. When she’s not in her studio, you can find her drinking coffee and communing with the land with her star-dogs, Moondog and Pluto.
A frequent collaborator, her work has been shared at Burning Man, SFMOMA, the California Academy of Sciences, and at art events throughout the Bay Area and Desert Southwest. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Sierra Nevada College, a BA in Anthropology from Stanford, and is training to become a somatic ecotherapist.
Strawberry Creek speaks!
Strawberry Creek is one of this land’s oldest living ancestors. Flowing within steps of Zellerbach Hall, the creek asks that its voice be included in this year’s gathering.
Created with mud, stones, wastepaper, and water gathered from the creek itself, this relief landscape collage collapses time to mirror Strawberry Creek as a living body of oracular wisdom, memory, and intelligence.
As one of xučyun (Berkeley)’s primary waterways — and the reason the university exists where it does — the creek carries a layered story of resilience amidst colonial settlement and urban development.
What happens when a waterbody is forced underground?
From its headwaters in the Berkeley Hills — fed by springs, fog, and rain — the creek flows through campus until kin (it)* reaches Oxford Street, where kin is culverted underground into a system of pipes and tunnels. Kin travels unseen beneath the city for over a mile before re-emerging at Strawberry Creek Park, where kin then dips back underground, flowing close to the rematriated West Berkeley Shellmound before uniting with the Bay in an intertidal zone at Pileworm Beach.
Creeks, rivers, and springs have long been sites of counsel between humans and the more-than-human world.
How might we include waterbodies as essential voices in our activism and change-making?
Visit the artwork inside Zellerbach and receive a listening invitation to take with you to the water’s edge.
What does Strawberry Creek say to you?
*The use of “kin” in place of “it” is inspired by Annabelle Berrios’ essay ‘Alternative Mapping: Tracking Solidarity to Sacred Land,’ and by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s call to practice a grammar of kinship.
Marikit Mayeno
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Marikit is a Filipina visual artist from Oakland California. She cares deeply about international solidarity and advocates for a true ceasefire in Palestine. Recently, she integrated with a fisherfolk community in the Philippines to deepen her understanding of US-imperialism and further her organizing with GABRIELA Oakland. Currently, she works for Urban Strategies Council to uplift the voices of residents to the City of Oakland in shaping the Oakland General Plan.
Description of the art piece: Marikit’s nature masks follow the journey of her visiting different forests and cityscapes to describe the land or place as a whole through a fragmented self-portrait. The project first originated in Paris, when studying intersectionality and performance art, these pieces were designed to be fire starters to signify the ephemerality of identity that is largely based on a sense of place, which, like the self, is always changing.
So much of where we are dictates who we are. These works aim to encourage the viewer to explore a sense of self in nature, to experience a sense of embodiment in our surroundings.
To connect this work to the current moment, like the changing colors of a leaf, immigration shouldn’t be alarming- all humans deserve the right to move from place to place. There is no such thing as an “illegal alien”- only the criminalization of brown and undocumented people. To support immigrant communities right now, get involved with a campaign local to you.
Veronica Ramirez
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Veronica is first generation to Chilean/Mapuche ancestry, born on Ramaytush Territory (Redwood City, CA). Co-founder of PLACE (People Linking Art, Community & Ecology) on Ohlone Territory (Oakland, CA), an educational center and maker space since 2011, Veronica’s experience spans various domains, including organizational development, educational programming, placemaking projects, community partnerships, and neighbor relations. In 2021, she joined SNAG Mag/The Nest (Seventh Native American Generation), a Native owned arts and culture magazine, based in Northern California, Pomo Territory. As a co-director she co-created and designed the last 2 SNAG Magazine issues post covid with richly inspiring stories and curated art works from Native/Indigenous artists, including herself. Veronica is also a founding member of Golden Gate Cohousing since 2012. She contributes to the co-living project dedicated to diversity and affordable housing for change makers, a project of Shared Living Resource Center where she serves as a board member. Additionally, Veronica’s commitment to food and criminal justice issues is evident through her board membership with Planting Justice, an organization dedicated to addressing these concerns. In 2017 Veronica was recognized for her community work by the City Council of District 1 in Oakland, CA on Legacy of Cesar Chavez Day. As a sacred activist she has led public earth altar making rituals and workshops with community since 1998. Earth Altarscapes (formerly Earth Peace Mandala Project) is the body of work that most brings to life her passions for the natural world, art, and the sacred while also celebrating community. Veronica’s passion for community and restorative justice is exemplified by her role in the North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, tackling community violence through a restorative lens; this is where her mutual aid/advocacy volunteer work with unhoused neighbors of Oakland began and from which lasting relationships in these communities continue. Veronica’s curious nature inspires her toward her deep love of the natural world, human connection, and the transformative healing that comes from the co-creative spirit we each possess.
Description of the art piece: I have been leading public earth altar making for the past 27 years. This sacred art form is a ritual to me, beginning with the gathering of natural elements and listening in prayer and stillness for guidance. Over the years I have come to learn that this work has been my greatest teacher and love. I do these sacred spaces for connection, community, and healing.
For the past three years Veronica has hosted and guided the interactive 4 directional altars at the Bioneers Conferences. These thematic and interactive community altar spaces is an invitation to the public to be drop into sacred space and contribute and discover the beauty inherit in each of us to co-create. This 4th year she will be tabling and showcasing past works with a smaller intentional altar. Come vist and support this sacred activism work she has lead for almost 3 decades in community.
Minkah Taharkah
Minkah Taharkah is a co-facilitator with B Healthy B Holistic Consultation firm. She is a multidisciplinary artist, environmental scientist & justice advocate, land steward, and designer. She is passionate about supporting the development of integral community connections through healing arts practice and engagement. In addition, she is a professional photographer, yoga instructor (200RYT), and multimedia & performing arts practitioner.
Minkah also serves as the Coordinator for the California Farmer Justice Collaborative & Director of Land + Programming with The Butterfly Movement.
Amikaeyla Gaston
Hailed by NPR as one of the “purest contemporary voices,” Amikaeyla emerged from a life-altering hate crime to become a beacon of healing and transformation through music. As a Cultural Ambassador for the State Department and founder of the International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute (ICAHSI), she has channeled her extraordinary journey into the pioneering “Music As Medicine” methodology, utilized and embraced by the UN High Commission on Refugees and Department of Health & Human Services.
A twelve-time WAMMY Award winner for Best Jazz, World, and Urban Contemporary Vocalist, Amikaeyla’s soulful artistry has led to performances, recordings, and collaborations with legends including Bobby McFerrin, Pete Seeger, Mickey Hart, Baba Olatunji, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Sheila E., and Esperanza Spalding just to name a few. Honored with the United Nations Global Woman Award and invited to perform for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, her transformative influence spans from conflict zones to prestigious platforms including PBS, HBO, and the Sundance Film Festival. Through heart-centered seminars and immersive workshop intensives drawing from African-American, Caribbean, and global traditions, she guides others to unlock their authentic voice, embodying the power of the human spirit to transform trauma into collective liberation.
Toni Mikulka-Chang
Associated Event: Art Display in the Marsh, Puppet workshop
Toni Mikulka-Chang is a Northern California–based multidisciplinary artist, puppeteer, and community arts facilitator, and the founder of ArtJoy.org and Giant Puppets Save the World. Her work lives at the intersection of ecological storytelling, large-scale visual performance, and participatory public art.
With roots in theater, nonprofit arts leadership, and immersive installation, Toni specializes in creating monumental puppets, hand-painted silk banners, lanterns, and kinetic sculptures crafted from recycled and sustainable materials. Her projects transform streets, theaters, and festival landscapes into living ceremonial spaces that invite collective wonder, dialogue, and environmental reflection.
Toni has presented work at festivals, museums, parades, and social impact gatherings across the United States, using giant puppetry as a tool for place-making, cultural connection, and ecological advocacy. Her facilitation practice centers collaborative build processes — guiding communities in co-creating large-scale works that embody shared values and visions for the future.
The Giant Arctic Fox installation is a collaborative creation with artist Sarah Lovett, whose sculptural craftsmanship and environmental artistry helped bring this powerful guardian figure to life. “”ArtJoy.org presents Giant Puppets Save the World, a symbolic installation honoring the power of collective creation — the act of working together with our hands to build something far greater than ourselves.
Featured at Zellerbach Hall, the Giant Arctic Fox stands as both guardian and messenger — a sculptural embodiment of fragile ecosystems, climate awareness, and interdependence across species and communities. Crafted through collaborative artistry and large-scale puppetry techniques, the fox reflects the beauty, resilience, and vulnerability of the natural world.
This monumental figure invites viewers into a shared moment of awe, reminding us that through cooperation, creativity, and care, we can shape a more conscious and connected future.
Melanie Lynch & Plorentina Dessy Elma Thyana (Borneo x Ireland Cultural Exchange)
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Plorentina Dessy Elma Thyana is a Dayak youth activist, educator, documentary filmmaker, and chef from Tahak village in the Borneo rainforest, Indonesia. Since she was child, Dessy goes to the forest to gather food, traditional medicine, and attend rituals. Her love for her culture inspired her to establish four Arus Kualan schools empowering 149 students. Her goal is to preserve the traditional knowledge and values, connecting youth with the elders to learn about Dayak traditional music, games, food, medicine, rituals, local wisdom, language, carving and stories. Arus Kualan also teaches literacy and encourages Dayak youth to make documentary films, recording stories from their community.
Melanie Lynch is an award-winning Irish storyteller, curator, and social innovator, with almost 20 years’ experience in delivering world class communications and pioneering education programmes that open hearts and minds, resulting in lasting social change. In 2016, she founded HerStory, a multi-disciplinary storytelling platform that illuminates and celebrates female role-models, spearheading the successful campaign to make Brigid’s Day Ireland’s first national holiday named in honour of a woman and Celtic Goddess. In 2024 Melanie started OUR STORY, a new impact-driven communications consultancy in service to people and planet. In 2025 she was nominated to become a National Geographic Explorer and she was awarded a Master’s degree in Design Thinking for Sustainability. “”The Borneo x Ireland cultural exchange is a timely partnership between the Dayak tribe and the Irish people, forged by Our Story Founder Melanie Lynch and Indigenous activist Plorentina Dessy Elma Thyana. United in our love for the forest, we are empowering environmental education and regenerating our ecosystems. In the spirit of reciprocity, we are sharing Indigenous wisdom and sustainable solutions, and celebrating our nature-centred cultures.
This spectacular exhibition features photography by Karen Cox and David Metcalf of children from Arus Kualan Indigenous Schools founded by Plorentina Dessy Elma Thyana in the Borneo rainforest, and Down to Earth Forest School founded by Carol Barrett in the West of Ireland.
In this polarising era, this inspirational story and unusual friendship between the Irish and Dayak people is a celebration of our shared humanity and the gifts of diversity. Reaching the hand of friendship across the world, together we transcend continents and cultures, demonstrating the potential for a partnership future that is rooted in respect, equality, and the mutual flourishing of people and nature.
Our goal is to inspire other countries to forge genuine friendships with Indigenous cultures, to support each other to heal the earth, to learn from Indigenous wisdom and the kinship worldview that cultivates sustainable societies, living in right relationship with nature.
Nimisha Doongarwal
Associated Event: Art Display in the Upstairs Mezzanine of Zellerbach Hall
Nimisha Doongarwal is a San Francisco–based mixed-media artist originally from India. Her work explores identity, migration, climate consciousness, and women’s lived experiences through layered compositions that merge traditional textiles, painting, collage, and archival imagery. Rooted in South Asian craft and personal history, her practice reflects on how memory, place, and ecology shape who we become.
Nimisha’s work often centers on stories of resilience of immigrants, women, and communities navigating change, inviting viewers to consider care, interdependence, and responsibility toward both people and the planet.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the de Young Museum, San Francisco International Airport, and the Museum of Northern California Art. She has been featured in Forbes, ArtMarket, Suboart, and Sfumato Art Magazine, and is a recipient of a City of Berkeley arts grant.
Minoosh Zomorodinia
Associated Event: Art Display at the Marsh
Minoosh Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born educator and interdisciplinary artist who makes visible the emotional and psychological reflections of her mind’s eye inspired by nature and her environment. She employs walking as a catalyst to reference the power of technology as a colonial structure while negotiating boundaries of land. Her strollings sometimes reimagines our relationships between nature, land, and technology, while addressing transformation of memories into actual physical space absurdly.
Zomorodinia has received numerous awards and residencies, including the YBCA 100, Lucas Artists Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation, Kala Media Fellowship Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi Residency, Recology Artist Residency. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Berkeley Art Center, Pori Art Museum (Finland), and Nevada Museum of Art. Her work have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Hyperallergic, KQED, and SFWeekly. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MA and BA from Azad University in Tehran.
