Interco(a)stal Artists
James Eric Francis Sr.
James Eric Francis Sr. is a Penobscot artist, historian, and geographer based on Indian Island, Maine. As Tribal Historian for the Penobscot Nation, his work explores the deep connection between Indigenous people and their ancestral landscapes. Francis is widely recognized for his meticulous dot paintings, an additive technique inspired by the precision of flint knapping. His creative practice—spanning photography and film—was further refined during his Spring 2026 residency at Surf Point in York, Maine. Whether depicting ancient place names or the Penobscot River, his art serves as a visual bridge between historical research and contemporary Wabanaki resilience.
Art Director
Corinna Dibble
Corinna Dibble is a multidisciplinary artist and project manager with a background in the publishing industry. Her artistic practice spans painting, mixed media, carvings, and textiles, where she explores themes of identity and our relationship with the natural world. She is also interested in uncovering hidden histories that shape our understanding of place and community. With years of experience in art production, creative coordination, and project management within educational publishing, she is passionate about broadening access to learning opportunities for all and fostering connections through creative expression.
Content & Production Manager
Dr Meghna Singh is a Cape Town based visual artist and researcher with a PhD in visual anthropology. Through video installation, performance and XR, her work examines colonial and capitalist legacies through decolonial approaches, often blurring documentary and fiction to create immersive environments that question ideas of humanism. Her public art installations activate urban and rural spaces while foregrounding histories embedded in place. She is a 2025–2026 New Archival Visions Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Western Cape, working with Robben Island Museum and Mayibuye Archives to develop an augmented reality experience for Robben Island and leads the Nordic AR and Public Space Network.
Augmented Reality LeadMeghna Singh
Mihku Paul www.mihkupaul.com
Mihku Paul is a Wolastoqey elder, writer, visual artist, educator, and cultural leader who was born and raised traditionally on the Penobscot River in Maine. She holds a background in Human Development and Communication and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast in 2010. Her poetry has been published internationally and translated into French and Spanish, and she serves as Executive Editor of Dawnland Voices 2.0: Indigenous Writing from New England and the Northeast. Mihku is a longtime advocate for Wabanaki language, culture, and ecological stewardship whose collaborative projects include Spinning Wampum, the Pejepscot Portage Mapping Project, Waponahki Studies Redux, and Skoniminol Kuliwot (Good Seed). She has taught poetry and fiction writing for the Waponaki Writers Project, Rise Up!, the Maine Women Writers Collection, and Portland Public Schools.
Athena Lynch
Athena Lynch is a transdisciplinary artist and community arts organizer based in Portland, Maine. Raised in East Orange, Orange, and Newark, New Jersey, she earned a BFA in Sculpture from Maine College of Art & Design. Working across sculpture, immersive installation, sound, video, textiles, performance, and social practice, Lynch explores memory, archival absence, Black diasporic histories, and the rituals through which communities reclaim place, identity, and belonging. Guided by the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa—to return and retrieve what has been left behind—her practice transforms overlooked histories into spaces for reflection, collective witnessing, and dialogue. Lynch's community practice is inseparable from her studio practice. She is the organizer of Portland's annual Juneteenth Celebration and the Sounds N Sizzle Festival, creating spaces that celebrate Black culture, foster connection, and civic dialogue.
www.acapellalynch.com
Arisa White
Arisa White is a transdisciplinary poet, a Cave Canem fellow, a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor, and an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, part of the Fighting for Justice series for young readers. A 2026 TempoArt-commissioned artist, Arisa’s work extends to the stage as the librettist for Post Pardon: The Opera and into public spaces through the installation look after your heart at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Arisa’s projects emerge from the lines between text and performance, reimagining how poetry engages the body, the archive, and public memory. Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for the NAACP Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award.
www.arisawhite.com
Marissa Joly
Marissa Joly’s artwork is deeply informed by her Wabanaki heritage drawing inspiration from nature, spirituality, and emotional experience. Her use of bold color, organic shapes, and intuitive designing elements come together to create visually rich ways of storytelling. Her art explores the connection between landscape, inner feeling, and cultural memory, offering expressive interpretations of nature. Animals and plants are recurring elements in her work. She invites viewers into conversations about Indigenous identity, and the emotional resonance of place. Her creative process is intuitive and reflective, guided by both personal perspective and ancestral influence. Her work aims to foster awareness, connection, and a deeper appreciation for Wabanaki culture and the natural world that continues to shape it. Her goal is to create visually appealing art that catches the viewer’s eye at first glance, but upon further reflection finds that there’s deeper meaning within the colors, shapes, and symbols.
www.designsbyjoly.com
Archana Palaniappan
Archana Palaniappan (she/they) leads the Nature Based Education Consortium and supports Maine's Outdoor Equity Fund, working to realize a shared vision where every BIPOC person may thrive and experience safety, belonging, and freedom in nature. She believes that re-seeding the ancestral relationship of wonder, care, and mutual respect with the natural world in young people is one of the most radical acts we can take toward justice, dignity, and liberation for all beings. Archana's background is in policy advocacy on global anti-poverty and human rights issues, including coalition work on transparency and accountability of foreign aid, extractive industries, and illicit financial flows.
www.nbeconsortium.com
Antonio Rocha
Antonio Rocha, originally from Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988, he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the United States to perform and deepen his mime skills with master mime Tony Montanaro. Since then, he has earned a summa cum laude B.A. in Theatre from the University of Southern Maine and studied with Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha's unique, award-winning fusion of mime and storytelling, enhanced by mesmerizing voices and sound effects, has been performed in 20 countries on six continents and in 44 U.S. states, with appearances at venues including the Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, the National Storytelling Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, and thousands of schools.
storyinmotion.com
Ashley Page
Ashley Page (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, ME. She holds a BFA in Sculpture and a minor in Public Engagement from the Maine College of Art & Design. Her studio practice and curatorial projects serve as vehicles for storytelling, representation, and intergenerational exchange. Her artwork has been exhibited at museums and institutions including the Portland Museum of Art, Hunterdon Art Museum, the Tate House Museum, University of Southern Maine Art Gallery. As a teaching artist, she has taught various workshops in textiles, papermaking, and printmaking at Peters Valley School of Craft, the University of Maine Orono, Waterfall Arts, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and others. She presently serves as the Studio and Programs Manager at Indigo Arts Alliance where she works within the intersection of art and activism.
www.ashleypagestudio.com
Nyugen E. Smith
Nyugen E. Smith is a Caribbean-American artist whose work explores ritual, memory, migration, and the ways people create refuge and meaning amid crisis. In his practice, he combines material experimentation with research into diasporic histories, oral traditions, and speculative world-building. Smith holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Pérez Art Museum, Museum of Latin American Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Frist Art Museum, the National Museum of Brazil, and Museum of Cultural History in Norway, among others. He is a recipient of Creative Capital and numerous other awards.
www.nyugensmith.com
Stephen Oliver
Stephen Oliver is an interdisciplinary artist based in Bridgton, Maine. He holds a BFA in Architecture from New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design. His experience includes, architecture, construction management, exhibition design, and fabrication in multiple mediums. Stephen has worked closely with curators, artists, and communities in education based programs at museums and historical societies across New England. His work includes assemblage, furniture, and public art and is informed by historical and cultural reclamation. His passion lies in utilizing art and design to make the world a better place.
www.stayintheriver.com
Jennifer Rachele & Kouchera
Kouchera (koo-CHAIR-uh) is inspired by the Haitian Creole and Hindi words for cousin—reflecting the band's belief that meaningful music feels both familiar and new. Blending Haitian Konpa, soul, and R&B, Kouchera reimagines beloved songs alongside original music. Since its Indigo Arts Alliance debut in 2023, Kouchera has performed for audiences in intimate venues and on festival stages. Their original song, "Lakay Mwen," was recognized by NPR's Tiny Desk Contest as a standout performance in a language other than English. Whether performing original songs or reimagined classics, Kouchera creates experiences rooted in joy, connection, and the healing power of music.
www.kouchera.com
Cipelahq Ehpicik
Cipelahq Ehpicik is a Passamaquoddy women’s drum group from Sipayik (Pleasant Point), founded by Barbara Paul, keeper of the tribe’s sacred drum, after younger women in the community asked her to teach them the tradition of drumming. The women gather to drum, sing, and dance as a way of honoring their ancestors, sustaining Passamaquoddy cultural traditions, and bringing healing and connection to their community. They have drummed for elders, at funerals, for people who are sick or dying, and at sacred places including Split Rock on Passamaquoddy Bay. Their practice responds to generations in which Passamaquoddy people were discouraged or prohibited from speaking their language, singing their songs, and practicing their traditions. Cipelahq Ehpicik works to heal those wounds and carry Passamaquoddy culture forward for future generations.
(Thunder Women)
Lilah Akin
Lilah Akin is a Penobscot Nation Tribal Member, interdisciplinary artist and 2023 Kindling Grant recipient for Spinning Wampum. She has developed site activations around the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, as well as Casco Bay. Lilah performed as an actor in several Indigenous-led performance projects, including a production of My Story is Gluskabe (Penobscot Theatre Company, Bangor). She holds BA degrees in Communication, Digital Media and Geography-Anthropology. Lilah is currently in her second semester as a graduate student in the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA at USM with a focus in Poetry.
www.instagram.com/missspapaya/
Jason Pardilla
Jason Pardilla is an accomplished outdoorsman, photographer and videographer, canoe builder, and councilor. Exploring the Wabanaki Homeland year round, Jason works to round up Wabanaki stories that cause people to contemplate their relationship with nature, while promoting the preservation of wild places everywhere. Layered by outdoor travel, adventure, canoeing, and cultural subjects, Jason is known for images that are punctuated by cultural, Wabanaki landscapes. Through the camera lens Jason strives to share his vision of Wabanaki homeland with all people, and inspire them to explore for themselves. His perspective has earned him opportunities to work with exceptional people, build birchbark canoes, and represent his tribe as a Penobscot Nation Tribal Councilor. Jason lives in his homeland in the Penobscot River Valley. Jason has established himself as a river guide and creative. He is happiest with his family spending time on the Penobscot River.
www.jasonpardillaphotography.com
Liz Rhaney
Liz Rhaney (she/they) is an installation and experiential artist. Their work includes education, filmmaking, writing, music, and DJing under the name BLK Plutoh. Liz is originally from Savannah, Georgia. She comes from a family of artists and musicians with Gullah and Geechee ancestry. They earned their BFA in Graphic Design from Armstrong State University (now Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University) and their MFA in Studio Art from Maine College of Art. Themes in her work include the intersection of science and art and connecting with cultural memory. They currently teach STEAM classes at Hyde School in Bath, Maine.
www.lizr.art
Azari Minter
Azari Minter is a digital artist and exhibition designer with a passion for creating immersive experiences that bridge the gap between technology and the natural world. Minter earned his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019. Minter specializes in 3D modeling and traditional illustration, digital tools including MAYA, Unreal Engine, ZBrush, and Procreate. His work explores the compelling intersection of nature and fantasy, drawing inspiration from natural environments. His artistic investigations span diverse realms often incorporating his fascination with entomology and botany.
azariminter.wixsite.com/work