Meet the 2026 INSITE Fund Grantees!
La ArteSana: Community, Grief, and Solidarity for Abolition
La ArteSana: Community, Grief, and Solidarity for Abolition is socially engaged art that will culminate into a book of reflections. Each event in our four-session series is designed for people impacted by the GEO Facility in Aurora, CO.
Sessions are partially spaces to metabolize grief at a community scale, part art workshop, and part roundtable discussion.
About the Grantees
Laura Gonzalez
Laura Gonzalez
Laura is a courageous community leader who is passionate about intersectional racial equity in all communities. Laura is a proud first-generation, queer daughter of Indigenous refugees from Abya Yala; youngest of 8 siblings and first one to get a Bachelor’s degree.
Laura grew up in Mexico, Guatemala and at la frontera of southeast Texas which has contributed to her multicultural and interdependent lens in intersectional topics. Laura played an important role in making Boulder a sanctuary city. Laura has a BS in Chemistry from St. Edward’s University and an MS in Physical Chemistry from CU Boulder.
Jeanette Vizguerra
Directly impacted person by the immigration system, 17 years fighting my own case, and previously to that I was already an activist for more than 30 years for workers' rights, human and civil rights, and founder of immigrant rights in Colorado, connected with all of the movements locally and national, recipient of multiple awards for civil right, labor rights, and named one of the 100 most influential people by times magazine in 2017.
Teague McDaniel
Teague McDaniel
Teague McDaniel is an artist, educator, and curator from Denver, CO.
They are an Affiliate Professor at MSU Denver, Founder of INK lusion, and Curator at CII.
Teague is the recipient of grants and awards, including the Arts in Society Colorado arts grant administered by RedLine, is a resident artist at TANK Studios, and exhibits their artwork nationally.
The Listening Shed
Artists can help save local agriculture by lending their talent and reach to local organizations, converting that reach into funds that plant seeds.
We will build a standalone structure, invite artists inside to share their work and the origins of that work before we present that work on the roof of the structure culminating in a closing event featuring all participating artists.
About the Grantee
Marcus “Shmoody” Moody
Marcus “Shmoody” Moody is one of the youngest Black men to bring his own orchestra to the John F. Kennedy Center. They won UMD’s Battle of the Bands to open for T-Pain and Lil Dicky, were AFROPUNK semi-finalists, and broke records at the Kennedy Center and National Arboretum. He’s worked with VICELAND, Tyler the Creator’s GOLFMEDIA, a James Beard Award nominated restaurant as Music Director, Resy, and more.
After driving from Maryland to the west coast of Mexico, he traveled around the country and sold out an art gallery in San Miguel De Allende before returning to the states as a NO VACANCY Residency artist in the RINO Art District with his original Listening Potty, a half-bathroom he converted into a sound booth.
Bound Together
Bound Together is an immersive, interactive installation and community pop-up event that transforms patchwork, textile mending, and shared storytelling into a living record of intergenerational connection and repair.
Rooted in the artists’ heritage of quilting and textile repair, the project brings generations together through a shared process of making, mending, and reflection.
About the Grantees
Carrie Miller
Carrie Miller is an artist, designer and Assistant Professor & Sewing Lab Coordinator at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. In 2018, Carrie received her MFA in Fibers from Colorado State University. Her work has been featured on the cover of Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot magazine and is on permanent display in the Lory Student Center at Colorado State University.
Her working process and material curiosity are the products of an untamed childhood. Growing up on a farm, Carrie was exposed to birth, death and whatever could be accomplished in between. The rhythm of this lifestyle fuels Carrie’s enthusiasm to learn new techniques and manifest a plan.
Christy Nelson
Christy Nelson is a multidisciplinary visual artist and educator whose work explores themes of vulnerability, protection, and healing through encaustic, painting, textiles, and installation. She earned her BFA in Painting, summa cum laude, from Mississippi State University in 2007 and her MFA in Painting from Colorado State University in 2019.
Nelson's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. In addition to her active studio practice, Nelson has worked in art education, museum programming, and on curatorial projects. She currently teaches Art Appreciation and Art History at Red Rocks Community College.
Undone & Coming Apart
Growing out of Undone, artist Abi Paytoe Gbayee’s Coming Apart will bring three live performances into everyday public spaces in Greeley, Colorado.
Through taking apart, reworking, and attempting to reassemble familiar objects, the work aims to explore vulnerability, what needs to be exposed in order to change, and whether putting something back together means returning it to what it was before.
About the Grantee
Abi Paytoe Gbayee
Abi Paytoe Gbayee is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher based in Greeley, Colorado. Their creative practice moves across fiber, found objects, mixed media, writing, and performance, often beginning with an idea of what something might become and following the process somewhere entirely unexpected.
Their work explores vulnerability, protection, repair, and transformation through materials, experimentation, and the act of making itself.
Abi is also an Assistant Professor of Art Education at the University of Northern Colorado, where making, questioning, and creative exploration remain central to their work.
Ride With Me
About the Grantee
Joseph Graves Jr.
Joseph Graves Jr. is a multidisciplinary visual artist, educator, and performer based in Denver, Colorado. Rooted in his upbringing
among the landscapes, horses, and cowboy culture of Kansas and Colorado, his work merges personal history, Black cultural heritage, and contemporary urban life into bold, layered visual narratives.
A graduate of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Graves brings a rare interdisciplinary perspective to his practice blending storytelling, social awareness, and historical inquiry with expressive abstraction and figurative imagery.
Graves is widely recognized for his "Black Cowboys Exist" visual movement, and his commitment to reclaiming and reimagining overlooked histories through contemporary art. An award-winning performer and published children's book author and illustrator, Graves integrates his background in theater, music, and education into a holistic creative practice that emphasizes accessibility, emotional connection, and community engagement.
Invisible Currents: Untold Stories of Water
Invisible Currents: Untold Stories of Water is a site-responsive moving-image project exploring the visible and hidden systems that shape water in Colorado.
Four free weekly activations will present the same original 15-20 minute film at different waterways across Colorado Springs.
The film is organized into three interconnected chapters:
Claim examines Colorado water rights, prior appropriation, diversion, settlement, and unequal access.
Drain connects Front Range groundwater depletion and drought with municipal growth and the hidden water and energy demands of AI data centers.
Return gathers community water memories and considers reciprocity, restoration, and collective responsibility.
Although the film remains the same, its appearance will change at every location.
Each activation will conclude with an informal public conversation inviting audiences to reflect on how water is claimed, transported, depleted, concealed, and remembered.
The mobile installation will leave no physical trace and will use no dyes, chemical additives, generators, anchoring devices, permanent structures, or materials left in the landscape.
About the Grantee
Darya Warner (b. 1981, Ukraine) (they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher working at the intersection of art, science, technology, and sustainable art practices.
Their work translates environmental data, field observations, and site-specific research into installations, sculpture, photography, mapping, sound, and participatory experiences that investigate climate change, ecological transformation, and collective memory.
They are an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where they teach photography, new media, and interdisciplinary art and science practices while integrating sustainability into the curriculum. They are also the co-founder of the CAYO Art & Science Residency in Brazil, fostering collaborations between artists, scientists, and local communities.
