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Kim Bishop is a nationally exhibited artist who has worked from her San Antonio, Texas studio for the past fifteen years alongside her partner in Bishop & Valderas, LLC. Bishop holds a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her recent public art projects in San Antonio include Fountainhead & Rise Up at the San Antonio International Airport, Time Capsules at Blanco & Dresden, Poets Pointe, a park near Woodlawn Lake, and the VIA Eastside Bus Hub in San Antonio. Her work is included in numerous private collections, as well as the collections of The University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M University–Kingsville, San Antonio Public Library, and Pearl Brewery. Bishop’s work can also be seen throughout San Antonio in public murals and at VIA bus stops,as well as across Texas in the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau billboard campaign. She is co-founder of A3, a pop-up industrial street press, and 3rd Space Art Gallery. She also serves as a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program. In addition to her studio practice, Bishop works closely with local arts organizations and public school arts programs throughout the region. She currently serves as Senior Programs Manager for the Young Artist Programs at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Alex Casso is an artist, educator, and museum professional with a career spanning New York and Texas. He studied at New York University and San Antonio College, and has built a multidisciplinary professional background rooted in visual art, public engagement, and community-centered education. Across roles in schools, museums, universities, and youth programs, Alex has worked with thousands of students, families, and visitors—designing learning experiences that make art accessible, relevant, and meaningful. His work often lives at the intersection of creative practice, teaching, and institutional collaboration, supporting both individual growth and large-scale programming goals. Alex brings a strong foundation in curriculum design, public-facing facilitation, and project coordination, with experience developing TEKS-aligned instruction, leading workshops and studio intensives, and building partnerships that strengthen arts access across communities. He is known for combining warmth with structure—balancing high expectations, clarity, and care in both educational and professional environments. Grounded in firsthand experience, Alex believes art is global, personal, and essential to a healthy society. His practice is driven by the conviction that creativity builds connection, critical thinking, and resilience—and that meaningful cultural work requires both vision and operational excellence.

Juan Zavala Castro is an Artist Educator working in museum education and public programming. Since 2024, he has served as the Education and Public Programs Manager at the Contemporary at Blue Star in San Antonio where he oversees student programs, artist engagements, and education partnerships. Previously, he held education and programming roles at the McNay Art Museum, and he currently serves in the San Antonio Art Education Association as the chair for Outreach for non-profit organizations, corporations, cultural centers, and museums. Juan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Southwest School of Art, which later merged with The University of Texas at San Antonio. He has served as a grant evaluator for the Texas Commission on the Arts and provides professional development and team building art activities for non-profits and corporation. Juan maintains an active professional art practice, alongside his work in arts education and community engagement. His work is represented in public and private collections like City of San Antonio, Texas Public Radio, and Northwest Vista College.

Barbara Hill is an experienced Director of Community Art Programs with a demonstrated history of working in the visual arts education for both adults and youth, and community events and services. She has worked in Nonprofit Organizations, Art Education, Event Management, Fundraising, and Visual Arts.

Ashley Lillian is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Antonio and Austin whose practice centers on photography as a tool for examining memory, belief, and personal transformation. Her fine artwork explores the emotional and psychological spaces people inhabit, often focusing on themes of identity, trauma, and healing. Through staged imagery, documentary approaches, and mixed media processes, she creates photographs that feel both intimate and confrontational, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences and internal narratives. She frequently incorporates additional materials such as paint, fibers, text, and installation elements to expand the photograph beyond its traditional boundaries, emphasizing the physical and emotional weight images can carry. Her work is driven by an interest in how environments, particularly liminal and domestic spaces, shape individual identity and collective memory. By combining personal symbolism with universal themes, she creates images that exist between documentation and reconstruction. Alongside her fine art practice, she works as a graphic designer and commercial photographer, applying her visual sensibilities to client-based projects. This design experience informs her attention to composition, clarity, and visual storytelling, while her fine art practice remains rooted in personal narrative and conceptual exploration. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Arts at UT San Antonio and received her BFA in Studio Art with an Emphasis in Graphic Design from Baylor University in May 2025.

Ashley Perez (b. 1985) is a Texas-based artist whose practice centers on painting and drawing that explores memory, identity, and mental health. For more than 15 years, she led visual arts programs at SAY Sí. She is now the Arts Ambassador at San Antonio River Foundation and was recently appointed to serve on the City of San Antonio Arts Commission. Perez was selected for the University of Texas paCE Artist-in-Residence program; the Casa Lü Artist Residency in Mexico City; and the 2025 cohort of the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program. Her work has been exhibited at Centro de Artes, The Contemporary at Blue Star, the McNay Art Museum, Presa House Gallery, and Ruiz-Healy Art. Her honors include the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts Grant (2019) and the City of San Antonio Individual Artist Grant (2023).Her public art sculptures Kindred and Pulse, created for the World Heritage Wayfinding and Trails project, debuted in 2025 and 2026.

Martín received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2003, and Master of Fine Arts in 2018, both from The University of Texas at San Antonio. He is a New Media Interdisciplinary artist of Puerto Rican descent, with an emphasis in performance and installations, having performed at the Capilla del Arte in Puebla City, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City and Hotel Pupik in Scheifling, Austria, Throughout Washington D.C., throughout the city of Berlin, Germany. And, of course, San Antonio, TX. His art is part of both private and public collections. Martín is co-founder and Gallerist of Un Grito Gallery in the Upstairs Studios at the Blue Star Arts Complex in San Antonio, TX. Martín's wife, Verena Gaudy, is his closest collaborator and partner at Un Grito.

Libby Rowe is an artist working in photography, sculpture, interactive installation, and performance. Her artwork explores ideas of identity and belonging through self-definitions as informed by social and domestic constructs. Rowe explores the sociological, physiological and psychological aspects of femininity using image, object and installations. Rowe is interested in breaking from traditional presentation strategies for photographs to engage viewers in a more interactive experience as well as the role of the photographic image in relation to other media. Rowe’s work has been exhibited widely across the US and abroad.Examples of her work and her professional activities can be found at www.libbyrowe.com Rowe received her BFA from the University of Northern Iowa and her MFA from Syracuse University. She resides in San Antonio and is the Founding Director of the School of Art, Professor of Art, the Area Head for photography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

As Director of the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture, Krystal Jones Somers leads the strategy and public investment behind one of the nation’s largest municipally funded arts ecosystems. She oversees a wide-ranging portfolio that includes grantmaking, public art, the San Antonio Film Commission, city galleries, and cultural initiatives such as the Poet Laureate Program. Krystal’s leadership centers on building cross-sector partnerships and advancing the role of arts and culture as essential drivers of civic identity, economic vitality, and community connection. Under her direction, San Antonio has secured historic public art investments, launched Texas’s strongest municipal film incentive, and expanded opportunities and support for local artists. A dedicated cultural administrator and arts advocate, she is committed to broadening access to creative experiences and championing the transformative impact of arts and culture in communities.

Luis Valderas received a BFA in Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1995. In 2005, Valderas co-founded and produced Project: MASA I, II,III, IV & V—a national group exhibit series that continues to feature Latinx artists and focuses on Chican@ identities. He co-founded The A3 Press and Bishop & Valderas, LLC. a large-scale printmaking community engagement collaborative and production house. Currently, Valderas is a mentor and board member for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). He has exhibited at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia(MOA), Medellin Museum of Art, Colombia, the Queens Museum, NYC and the UCR-Arts Block, Riverside, CA. His work is featured in books such as Altermundos-Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film and Popular Culture-2017, Mundos Alternos-Art, Science Fiction in the Americas-2017, Chicano Art for Our Millennium-2004, and Triumph in Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-2005. His work is in the permanent collections of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Arizona State University, Art Museum of South Texas, and the San Antonio Museum of Art.