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Education & Access Coordinator. Becca Cerra is a Queer, Female Artist living with Physical Disabilities and Mental Illness. Each of these identities informs the art she creates and the advocacy work she is involved in. She is passionate about contributing to the inclusivity, accessibility, and equity within arts organizations and spaces. She believes art is for all and is honored to help make that possible.

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Founder & Artistic Director. Heather has been inspired by fire as a creative and empowering tool since her first industrial arts class in high school. After working in industry as a welder, fabricator, and product designer, she became a fire arts educator in 2003 and developed a sculptural welding and blacksmithing program at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. At CAFAC, she continues her work as an educator and mentor in sculptural welding, blacksmithing, enameling and public art. She served on the Minneapolis Arts Commission and continues to contribute to the creative sector through educational partnerships, sculpture fabrication, and emerging artist mentorship.

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Gallery & Community Coordinator. Jhyle is a contemporary jewelry artist and gallerist who joined the CAFAC staff in 2017. As Gallery Coordinator, she plans and curates regular shows, special exhibitions, and artist talks, along with managing CAFAC’s retail gallery operations. She views her role as the welcoming committee for CAFAC and her vision for the gallery is for it to be a jumping off spot for emerging artists – a safe space to learn and come into their own as well as a comfortable space for people to connect to art and those that make it.

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Content & Communications Coordinator and Shop Coordinator. Pallav Kumar is a queer, South Asian-American media artist originally from Ohio. They work to shine light on the diversity of voices, projects, and stories at CAFAC. Their commitment to lifelong learning is what led them to pursue storytelling, first through journalism and later through film and digital media. Pallav believes strongly in the importance of arts centers like CAFAC as hubs to spark creativity, fuel collaboration, and build community

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Founder & Executive Director. Victoria has more than two decades of experience in higher education and workforce development. She spent 15 years as the Continuing Education Program Director at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, where she managed a large portfolio of course offerings ranging from arts to welding – and where she first observed the transformational power of combining the two. Victoria brings to CAFAC a passion for lifelong learning and the belief that the arts are fundamental to humanity, along with a knack for developing systems and processes that enable creators and creativity.

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