a space where the ARTS bring us all together
Co-Artistic Directors & Board of Directors
Our leadership team brings over 20 years each of experience with extensive and diverse backgrounds in arts education, social justice, equity, inclusion and arts advocacy. Our facilitation and teaching models use arts-based tools and strategies that have helped to build successful collaborations, productions, teams, and coursework.
Jessica Lanius (she/her)
Theatre LILA
Jessica has worked as an actor, both on stage, television and in commercials in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Madison. While in New York, she co-founded Theatre LILA and in 2014 Jessica transplanted Theatre LILA to Madison.
Jessica focuses on producing stories for LILA that are multi-disciplinary inventions that inspire, surprise or engage audiences in unconventional ways. Theatre LILA builds new works in collaboration with musicians, writers, designers, poets, artists and performers of all kinds, and seeks to answer the question "What story does our community need to experience right now?"
She currently teaches in the UW Dept of Theatre and Drama. Her directing and movement work can be seen at American Players Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Madison, Forward Theater Company, UW Theatre & Drama Department, Four Seasons Theatre, and Whoopensocker!
Founder & Co-Director
Founder & Co-Director
Slate Blue Studios
Founder & Co-Director
Monica Cliff (she/her)
Inventiva Works LLC
Monica is the founder of Inventiva Works, a company focused on providing art and theater classes for kids, youth, and adults in Spanish. Monica has over 20 years of professional experience in the arts. She has designed sets, costumes, puppets, and props in Madison, WI for local theater companies such as Madison Opera, Children’s Theater of Madison, Theatre LILA, Wisconsin Film Festival, among others. She created Teatro ñ in Madison at the beginning of 2021.
Monica has a bachelor’s degree in Scenography from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico, and a master's degree in Social Innovation and Sustainability Leadership from Edgewood College.
AJ Juarez (he/him)
Barrio Dance LLC
Ariel Juarez (AJ), is a native of Argentina and has been dancing for 16 years. He began his training in latin ballroom, but quickly discovered a love for lyrical jazz, musical theatre, hip hop, and modern contemporary styles. AJ studied dance at the Julio Bocca School of Musical Theatre and immediately began performing in productions of “Applause” and “Aladdin” in Argentina’s Broadway. He was member of Chet Walker’s Fosse company, a featured dancer on Royal Caribbean Cruises and Celebrity Cruises, and has danced and choreographed for Argentina’s “Dancing with the Stars,” “Singing for a Dream,” and “Dreaming to Dance.”
AJ is a lecturer for UW Madison and founder of Barrio Dance in downtown Madison, where he has built an artistic home for numerous dance artists and emerging professional dancers.
Karisa Johnson (she/her)
Slate Blue Studios
Karisa has been a feminist social impact professional for over 20 years, working in nonprofit management and politics in Wisconsin and Washington, DC.
She served on the City of Middleton’s Arts Committee for 8 years, an experience that fueled her interest in the local business partnerships that ignite a downtown’s creative economy.
Karisa is founding
Slate BLUE Studios to amplify the work of local artists, with an intentional focus on affordable workspace and sustainable creative practices, including artist co-working, opportunities for teaching artists, exhibition space rental, and retail events.
She looks forward to watching artists create amazing works and glorious messes, providing a safe place for teens to engage in artistic expression, boosting public art in Verona, and offering uncommon visual arts classes and community events.
Shelley
Reynolds
Realtor
EXP Realty
Art House
360
Board
of
Directors
Miguel
Garcia-Gosalvez
Associate Director, DoIT
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scott Cramer
Chief Operating Officer
KL Engineering
Michelle
Mettner
Chief Government & Legal Officer
Children's Wisconsin
Stephan Hiroshi Gilchrist
Co-Founder/Co-Director
Institute for Collective Wellbeing