Staff + Consulting Partners
Andi Cheney
They / Them
Email Andi | 651-641-1128 x 110
Read Andi’s Bio
Andi is responsible for Forecast’s financial systems, business compliance, planning and budget management, human resources, IT, and information systems.
Taylan De Johnette
She / Her / Hers
Read Taylan’s Bio
Taylan De Johnette is a Minneapolis-based graphic designer, illustrator and consultant, who brings over five years experience in crafting diverse branding identities and marketing materials for businesses. Since receiving her BFA at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she has spent time collaborating with organizations like the University of Minnesota, The Loppet Foundation, Target, and the MSP Airport. Taylan is currently the Chief Creative Officer of Mango Day, a creative agency located in the twin cities. She was also a previous member of Public Functionaries studio programs in the Northrup King Building.
Clients recognize Taylan’s ability to translate a brand’s fundamental essence and emotional value, which consistently draws in a diverse range of customers. She’s able to meet multifaceted branding needs by actively delivering an eclectic range of styles across various commercial applications and mediums, including motion design.
Taylan holds a fervent passion for the intersection of design and social innovation, aiming to merge the realms of art and societal impact. Beyond her design endeavors, she finds joy in crafting watercolor pieces, tending to her indoor garden and embarking on new adventures in fashion and beauty.
As a consultant, Taylan works with Forecast on a variety of projects.
Jen Dolen
FORWARD project manager
She / Her / Hers
Email Jen | 651-641-1128 x 108
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Jen Dolen manages all content and communications needs for the organization. She oversees Forecast’s website and other digital content, digital marketing and communications, social media, and digital asset management. 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. 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.
Ebony Dumas
She / Her / Hers
Email Ebony | 651-641-1128 x 107
Contact Ebony to discuss planning and engagement projects, and RFP opportunities.
Read Ebony’s Bio
Ebony Dumas is an urban and regional planner who enjoys building consensus among stakeholders for local and national projects in economic development, creative placemaking/keeping, and neighborhood planning. She is interested in creative and public spaces and their intersection with inclusive economic development. As Director of Planning + Engagement at Forecast Public Art, Ebony directs the planning and engagement portfolio, manages national teams of consultants and artists, and ensures that cross-sector projects align with Forecast’s mission.
Prior to joining Forecast, she led the innovative initiative for the DC Office of Planning to collect oral histories as qualitative data for a land use vision study, and used that content to produce a podcast miniseries, District Crossroads. The episodes are available on your favorite platforms … and are really good.
Ebony was a board member for the Association for Community Design and a cofounding organizer for Girls Rock! DC. She was also a cohort member of the 2023 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Washington’s Leadership Institute for emerging built environment leaders and has served on multiple panels for the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town creative placemaking grant.
Ebony’s introduction to urban planning and her analysis of the impact that a city’s infrastructure has on creative expression began taking shape in 2007 in DC as a DJ, nightclub worker, performance festival manager, and contemporary visual art gallery manager; all at venues that were central to citywide economic development strategies. This experience continues to inform her work today.
Cándida González
They / Them / Theirs
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A queer, non-binary mixed Puerto Rican born in South Minneapolis, Cándida González (they/them) studied Latin American Art and History at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and went on to get their Masters of Education at The University of Minnesota in 2003. In their 20+ years of arts education work in Minneapolis they worked on building art programs that focused on equitable arts opportunities, inclusivity of underserved populations, and deeper, culturally relevant arts experiences for youth and communities of color. Through their work they have also focused on providing opportunities and development for emerging artists of color. They approach their work by centering at the intersection of art, activism, healing and personal/community empowerment. Cándida works nationwide as a public art consultant, curriculum developer and workshop facilitator as well as a jewelry and installation artist.
As a consultant, Cándida 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.
Singer Horse Capture
She / Her / Hers
Read Singer’s Bio
Singer Horse Capture is a nonprofit professional centering Indigenous voices and values in community-based work. Growing up in Minnesota in a family that deeply values the arts, Singer largely connected to the Indigenous part of their identity through art. Singer is a member of the A’aniiih (ah-ah-nee) tribe of Northern Montana. She holds a bachelor’s in Cultural Anthropology and Native American Studies.
As a Forecast consulting partner, Singer is our consultant on the ground for the Mississippi River Learning Center, where we are collaboratively designing meetings, activities, and workshops to engage a wider range of residents and incorporate local artists into the project, with lead architecture firm VJAA and landscape architects TEN x TEN.
Lauren Kennedy
She / Her / Hers
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Lauren Kennedy is an experienced arts organizer committed to equitable access to the arts and support for artists and cultural producers.
As a consultant, she is working with Forecast on a variety of projects.
Daniel Koff
He / Him / His
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Daniel Solmon Koff is an arts and culture planner, creative producer, and non-profit leader with over 15 years of experience in co-designing and implementing plans and projects that protect and expand access to creative space, disrupt systemic inequities, and uplift everyday lives.
Through his consulting practice, Solomon Office, Koff partners with local municipalities, non-profits, and educational institutions to develop strategies to listen deeply to people, shift cultural narratives, and envision new ways forward. Koff also holds positions with the City of Malden as their Community Preservation Manager, at Olin College of Engineering where as an Adjunct Professor he leads their Collaborative Design course which is required for all students, and with Jean Appolon Expressions where he consults on operations and the build-out of their new Dance Center.
Koff was born and raised in Brookline, MA, and went to college at Washington University in St. Louis where he developed a Special Major in Social Design, focusing his research on the creation of spaces that foster social interaction, namely the University’s first housing cooperative which he co-founded as a student. Koff also holds a Master in Design Studies (Mdes) from Harvard Graduate School of Design in Art, Design, and the Public Domain where he developed a new schema to trace the operations and effects of data in a Field Guide to Spatialized Archives.
As a consulting planner, Koff works with Forecast on cultural planning projects.
Jen Krava
She / Her / Hers
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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 previously set the vision for Forecast’s learning opportunities, grant programs, and the Change Lab, which is focused on building equity in public art across the country. She has led curriculum development for our training programs, led pilot programs, and helped others work with artists. Jen is also a textile artist, working in hand embroidery.
As a consultant, Jen works with Forecast on a variety of projects.
Boo McCaleb
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Boo McCaleb, also known as Booscapes, is a projection artist, filmmaker, public art consultant, and experiential designer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Leading with intuitive spiritual practice, love, and kindness, he believes in networks of mutuality, sensory experiences, and creative technology to create pathways of engagement for holistic wellness and community.
As a consultant, Boo is working with Forecast on a variety of projects.
Mallory Rukhsana Nezam
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.
As a consulting partner, Mallory works with Forecast on a variety of projects.
Aki Shibata
She / Her / Hers, They / Them / Theirs
Email Aki
Contact Aki to discuss our annual grants for Minnesota-based public artists.
Read Aki’s Bio
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.
Theresa Sweetland
She / Her / Hers
Email Theresa | 651-641-1128 x 104
Read Theresa’s Bio
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.
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