Vanessa considers herself to be a painter happily trapped in a ceramic world. At the University of New Mexico, She received her BFA in Studio Art: Painting, but has worked in Ceramic Tile Murals since 2006 and takes pride in bringing the painterly aesthetic to tile mosaic. She was born, raised, lives, and still works in the South Valley of Albuquerque. In addition to working for ALMA, she continues to work as a teacher at La Academia de Esperanza and is also the Art Director for the South Valley Dia de Los Muertos Marigold Parade. A driving force in her life has always been a need to give back and improve her community, she believes that art is the perfect vehicle for teaching, uniting, and healing.

VanessaLynnAlvarado.com

Born in Albuquerque, raised in Las Cruces and with family in Laguna Pueblo, Margarita has ties across NM. Her multi-ethnic background (Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo & Santa Clara Pueblo) is core to her artmaking. She is a ceramic artist, teacher, organizer and muralist. She received her BFA with an emphasis in Ceramics in 2003 from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Then an MA in Art Education in 2008 at the University of New Mexico. In 2006, while at UNM, she was able to do an apprenticeship abroad in Paris, France with an internationally known ceramicist, Madame Fance Franck for five months.  In 2009, she was able to travel to Japan for a ceramics exploration trip as a part of an Arita Porcelain class at UNM.   In early 2020, she was an Artist in Residence at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.  

Since 2009, she’s worked as a lead artist with the ALMA Summer Institute of ALMA, creating large-scale public art mosaic murals across New Mexico. In 2015, she helped start ALMA (Apprenticeships for Leaders in the Mosaic Arts) as a non-profit and is the Operations Director/ALMA Artist.  In 2020, ALMA was awarded the Creative Bravos Legacy award in Albuquerque, NM. She has also been a full time Art teacher at a Charter High School, in Albuquerque, NM since 2009. Both of those bridge her passion for working with community and youth through art.

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Cristina Tadeo is a dance artist, maker, and designer from the Midwest, working in Albuquerque and Chicago. She has studied contemporary dance forms, somatic practice, and studio art through a variety of formal, deeply experimental, and collaborative processes. Her choreographic work has been awarded grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and 3Arts’ Project Program. Cristina was a 2019 artist in residence at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon. Her recent graduate research at the University of New Mexico was focused on the theory and practice of improvisation, embodied experience, and socially-engaged performance forms. 

Since 2010, Cristina has supported a multitude of artists and mission-driven organizations including collaborations in print and sound design, video documentation, development, and project management as a professional arts administrator, designer, and grant writer.

cristinatadeo.net