Staff
Theresa Sweetland
Publisher FORWARD
She / Her / Hers
Email Theresa | 651-641-1128 x 104
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Theresa Sweetland is an experienced executive director, fundraiser, curator, and leader in the field of community cultural development and creative placemaking. Theresa served as Executive/Artistic Director of Intermedia Arts, Minnesota’s premier multidisciplinary, multicultural arts organization, where her leadership successfully revived this renowned arts organization from near death in 2009 to stability and national prominence. Most recently, she served as Director of Development and External Relations at the Minnesota Museum of American Art where her efforts focused on raising visibility and resources to support the rebirth of the St. Paul institution.
Her passion and know-how have continually brought together diverse sectors of the community, artists and planners, elders and teens, prisoners and poets, to build collaborations and partnerships that expand and enrich lives and build community. Theresa holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from The University of Minnesota Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs with a concentration on community and economic development. Theresa is a Co-Founding Artistic Director of B-Girl Be, the world’s first international women in hip hop summit and founding director of Creative CityMaking, a pioneering partnership between artists and city staff to advance racial equity goals and engage underrepresented communities in determining the future of Minneapolis. Theresa was recognized for bold new steps and strategic leadership with the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Initiative in 2015.
Jen Krava
She / Her / Hers
Email Jen| 651-641-1128 x 111
Contact Jen to discuss our client services
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Jen holds master’s degrees in public art & design, and landscape architecture, and approaches her work with a multi-directional lens to investigate contemporary issues in public art, placeknowing, and creative economies. Jen sets the vision for consulting work at Forecast and works on projects invested in community driven research and prototyping. She leads arts and culture planning efforts, facilitates equitable RFQ processes, curates public art projects, develops and facilitates customized training, creates online learning systems and content, develops regional capacity building, manages Forecast’s artist grant program, and leads the Change Lab, which is focused on building equity in public art across the country. Jen is the past co-editor of _SCAPE, ASLA-MN’s publication, and a visual artist, studying human relationships to their surroundings, the connection between garments and social perception, and gender challenges in public.
Contact Jen to discuss our client services.
Shauna Dee
She / Her / Hers
Email Shauna | 651-641-1128 x 105
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Shauna is responsible for financial systems, business compliance, planning and budget management, human resources, IT, and information systems.
Jen Dolen
FORWARD project manager
She / Her / Hers
Email Jen | 651-641-1128 x 108
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Jen manages all communications and content needs for the organization, in print, online, and in-person. As project manager for FORWARD, Jen oversees all production of the digital publication. She has been involved with Forecast publications since 2013, sourcing and organizing images as well as writing for Public Art Review. Jen also oversees Forecast’s website and other digital content, digital marketing and communications, social media, and digital asset management. She previously managed Forecast’s esteemed Public Art Library.
Jen earned a BFA in photography and psychology from UW-River Falls, as well as an interdisciplinary master’s degree with an emphasis in arts management & museum studies from the U of MN, where she focused on image rights. She also holds an MLIS from St. Catherine University, with attention to special libraries and visual resources. Jen worked in the camera industry for over a decade, and has been involved with several vibrant Twin Cities arts organizations in a variety of capacities. She cares about issues faced by museums, libraries, non-profits and related spaces—and the communities they serve—as well as the challenge of fostering and sharing creative work, challenges in digital asset management, and the power of images and information. She is energized and inspired by the community value and impact of Forecast’s work.
Yarlyn Rosario
She / Her / They
Email Yarlyn | 651-641-1128 x 112
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Mark Salinas
He / Him / His
Email Mark | 651-641-1128 x 109
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For nearly two decades, Mark Salinas has served in a variety of leadership roles for public, private, and nonprofit sectors by providing public art consulting, creative content, and program management in both rural and urban communities. As the founding Director of Arts & Culture for Carson City, Nevada, he authored a new municipal public art policy; researched, wrote, and administered state and federal grants; curated a new municipal art collection; unveiled a new City Hall art gallery; and successfully boosted the roster of the Cultural Commission to include historically underserved communities.
Prior to Nevada, Mark lived in Queens, New York where he founded a commercial design and fabrication business as well as community non-profit mural organization.
Mark is an advocate for equity and cultural competency in the arts, believing transparent and inclusive practices yield a healthy democracy. Mark’s endeavors to achieve cultural equity have been recognized on a state and national levels by the Nevada Humanities and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures [NALAC].
Consulting Partners
Candida Gonzalez
They / Them / Theirs
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Candida Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican native of South Minneapolis, is passionate about education, community engagement through the arts and equitable arts access. They approaches their work by centering at the intersection of art, activism, healing and personal/community empowerment. They are deeply invested in the concept of using art and community design as tools to wage love and healing.
As a consultant, Candida works with Forecast on Making It Public workshops around the country, and was on the team that created Forecast’s Innovation Toolkit for creative alternatives to in-person arts-based activities in response to the massive loss of work for artists due to COVID-19.
Tricia Heuring
She / Her / Hers
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Tricia Heuring is a Thai-American curator, arts organizer, and educator. As a co-founder of Public Functionary, a Northeast Minneapolis-based multidisciplinary arts platform, she supports emerging artists of color to develop resources, studio practice, and exhibitions. Advocating for systemic change and equity in the MSP arts sector has put her in collaboration with organizations that focus on grant-making, public art, and social justice. As an educator, she has taught curatorial practice and cultural leadership at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and St. Mary’s University. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, raised as resident of Cairo, Egypt, and currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As a consultant, she is working with Forecast on a variety of public art commissioning projects, including ones for the City of Bloomington, and the PLACES initiative for the upcoming Southwest LRT Green Line Extension.
Mallory Rukhsana Nezam
FORWARD Curator of Partnerships + Programming
She / Her / Hers
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Mallory Rukhsana Nezam is a cross-sector culture-maker who loves cities and believes that we have the tools to make them more just and joyful. She specializes in public art, creative placemaking/keeping/knowing and the public domain. Through her cross-sector practice, Justice + Joy, she engages government, artists, advocacy groups, elected officials, community members and urban planners to de-silo the way we run cities and build new models of creative, interdisciplinary collaboration. She has helped build inaugural arts & culture teams in non-arts organizations at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of Boston, Transportation for America and PolicyLink. She is a co-founder of the Civic Artists in Residence Lab (CAIR Lab).
Raised in St. Louis, MO, she was the founder of St. Louis Improv Anywhere, and collaborating founder of the St. Louis Artivists. Through her art practice she disarms and disrupts public space norms using play and participatory performance. She holds a Master of Design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and her research focuses on the racial equity impacts of artists residencies in local government. She was a 2020 Monument Lab Transnational Fellow, a 2019-2020 inaugural Practices for Change Fellow at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute of Design & the Arts and a 2018 National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow. She seeks to be in every room she’s not supposed to be in.
Aki Shibata
Artist Support Grant Coordinator
She / Her / Hers, They / Them / Theirs
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Aki Shibata was born in Tokyo, Japan. She moved to the USA for her art education, and graduated in 2007 with a BFA in Photography from the College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, MN. Shibata states that she “creates more places and ways to let people meet their peace.” Her artworks are an examination of her body and mind in public gallery spaces. She has taught bookmaking, printmaking, papermaking, and works on creating more inclusion and equity for all with Science House Professional Development Group at the Science Museum of MN. In 2017 she founded and led the artist collective CarryOn Homes, a team of artists from five countries dedicated to telling the stories of immigrants and refugees in the USA through art. By engaging the public with cross-cultural dialogue, CarryOn Homes creates spaces for immigrants and marginalized communities to feel a sense of belonging and empowerment. That same year, Aki also founded primary school of behavioral art to create more spaces for people to learn from each other, breathe together, and find compassions for all. Currently, Aki runs the Teaching Artist minor program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
As a Forecast consultant, Aki is working on the Making It Public workshop administrator track with Candida Gonzalez. Aki has completed many RFQs with Forecast for local and national organizations, and has been part of public art strategy planning. Aki has also worked with Forecast on developing curriculum for Forecast.ED, our previous online learning platform. She directed and recorded video, and created modules, lessons, and accompanying resources.
Hawona Sullivan Janzen
She / Her / Hers
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Hawona Sullivan Janzen is a multi-disciplinary artist who seeks ways to bring people together through the arts, in positions as diverse as gallery curator at University of Minnesota, coordinator of the Literary Witnesses poetry reading series, and improvisational jazz singer with the Sonoglyph Collective. She is currently at work on two public art projects: the Dale Street Bridge Project over I-94 and the Rondo Family Reunion, a public art lawn sign installation.
As a consultant, she is working with Forecast on a strategic assessment of public programming for Hennepin Theatre Trust, and was on the team that created Forecast’s Innovation Toolkit for creative alternatives to in-person arts-based activities in response to the massive loss of work for artists due to COVID-19.
(651) 641-1128
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