Spring 2026 MFA Faculty | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Photo by Ana Taylor Photography

Criticism & Theory I

Anniessa Antar (she/her and they/them)

MA, Education – University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
BA, Philosophy & Arabic – McGill University

Anniessa is an educator, cultural organizer and software engineer living in Bde Ota Otunwe, so-called Minneapolis. Her pedagogical approach centers on the power of creative, playful, and collective work to confront and heal systemic inequities. She has taught at l’Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France, and for learners of all ages across the Twin Cities. Currently, she also instructs in the Art and Art History department at Saint Catherine University, St Paul. Beyond working with artists and arts organizations in her prior role at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Anniessa has been co-coordinating MASS Action (Museum as Site for Social Action) since 2016. This collaborative project strives to align museums with more racially just and liberatory practices. Anniessa received a Master’s of Education from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Arabic from McGill University.

Finance and Business Skills for Artists

Joseph Barisonzi (he/him)

Joseph Barisonzi is an accomplished entrepreneur and leader in the field of financial capital democratization. With a career spanning over three decades, he has been instrumental in transforming the way communities and businesses approach development and financing. As the founder and CEO of Belgata, Inc., Barisonzi has been at the forefront of empowering individuals and businesses to access financial capital. Through innovative approaches and a deep understanding of community development, he has successfully democratized investment opportunities and fostered economic growth. His expertise extends beyond his role at Belgata, Inc. He serves as a senior advisor and board member for esteemed organizations such as the Global Leaders Organization, Business Finishing School, Impact Infrastructure, LLC, SDG Systems, LLC, and Nucleii Marketing, LLC. His strategic insights and guidance have helped shape the direction of these organizations and drive positive change in their respective industries. With a strong background in community development, Barisonzi has been a trailblazer in advocating for asset-based community development (ABCD) and social entrepreneurship. His commitment to building triple-bottom-line enterprises has earned him recognition and accolades, including the prestigious grand prize Brick Award for Community Leadership. His thought leadership and industry expertise have made him a sought-after speaker and consultant. He has published widely read white papers on various topics, including community-sourced funding and crowdfunding for community banks. His eBook, "Navigating Your Portal Launch," continues to be a go-to resource in the industry. Beyond his professional achievements, Barisonzi actively volunteers his time and expertise to support environmental and community organizations. His commitment to social causes is reflected in his roles as an executive director, curator, advisor, and board member for organizations such as the Izaak Walton League of America, Friends of the Minnesota Valley and the Green Crew. Joseph Barisonzi's passion for democratizing financial capital, dedication to community development, and extensive leadership experience have solidified his reputation as an influential figure in the field. Through his work, he continues to empower individuals and businesses to achieve their financial goals and contribute to the growth and well-being of their communities.

Photo by Dan Norman

Graduate Critique Seminar II

Emily Gastineau (she/her)

MA, DAS Choreography — Amsterdam University of the Arts, Amsterdam, NL
BA, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Dance minor — Macalester College

Emily Gastineau is an artist working with language across the field of dance. Based in Minneapolis since 2009, she appears as a choreographer, writer, performer, editor, and cultural worker. Her performance work has been developed and presented in North America and Europe, and she maintains a parallel practice in arts writing and publishing. Her writing has been published in Sixty Inches from Center, MARCH, ASAP/J, Temporary Art Review, Culturebot, Mn Artists, and elsewhere. Emily co-founded the peer response platform Criticism Exchange, and she was the editor of Mn Artists, an interdisciplinary arts writing publication of the Walker Art Center. She studied at DAS Choreography, Amsterdam University of the Arts.

Professional Practices

Michael Gaughan (he/him)

MFA, Painting – San Francisco Art Institute
M.Ed, Art Education – University of MN
BFA, Painting – Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Michael Gaughan is a Minneapolis based Visual Artist. Specializing in Watercolor Painting, but also working in Performance, Humor and Absurdity, Public Art, Sculpture, Mixed Media, and Commercial Illustration. MFA Painting 2014 San Francisco Art Institute / M.Ed Art Education 2004 University of MN / BFA Painting 2002 Minneapolis College of Art and Design / Over 20 years teaching experience / Over 23 years experience as an exhibiting visual artist, performing artist, and professional artist.

Teaching in Higher Education

Dan McAvey (he/him)

MFA - Minneapolis College of Art and Design
MA, Educational Psychology - University of Minnesota
BA, Psychology - Carleton College

Dan McAvey's artistic practice explores mental health and human interconnection through the genre of landscape painting. He is a faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in studio art, art education, and humanities. Dan earned an MFA in Visual Studies from MCAD. Prior to pursuing art full-time, he worked in psychology and student development on college campuses. Dan also holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Carleton College.

Criticism and Theory II

Patricia McMeans (she/they)

PhD, practice-led, Contemporary Art Practice – Edinburgh College of Art
MFA, Sculpture and Combined Media – University of Minnesota
BFA, Media Arts/Film - Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Patricia Healy McMeans is an independent artist, builder, filmmaker and writer living and working in Minneapolis and Edinburgh, Scotland, where she’s recently completed her practice-led PhD studying how artists learn together. Her work is entirely situational, and manifests in video, sound, film, printmaking, sculpture, site-writing and site-engaged social practice. Since 2012, she has instigated itinerant social studio projects focusing on peer-to-peer artists exchange over time, including Third Outpost Art Res (2025), funded in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation, and Ten Chances Art Res and Moveable Feast Bothy based in Minneapolis and Edinburgh. These projects, now serving an alumni of over 50 international artists, bring together a cohort of artists, writers, and thinkers for 3-6 week iterations across urban and rural places in conjoint study.

Her varied works are affiliated with Soap Factory (Mpls), formerly Art of This Gallery (Mpls), Fruitmarket Gallery, The Number Shop (Edinburgh), Cove Park Residency, Hospitalfield Arts Residency (SCOT), HIAP/Saari Residency in Turku (FIN), Kunsterdorf Schoppingen (GER), Casa de Velasquez (Madrid) as well as locations in New York, Cleveland, Richmond VA, Washington DC, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh (UK), Istanbul (Turk), Barcelona (Spain), Helsinki (FIN), and Shanghai (CHI). She is a part of the transnational research group called ARRC: Art Residency Study Collective, which investigates how we live together in the fugitivity of today’s times.

She has recently been awarded a 2025 Visual Arts Fund Grant and the three-year Constructive Advanced Thinking Grant from NETiAS: European Network of Institutes for Advanced Study. Along with her PhD, she holds an MFA in Sculpture and Combined Media from the University of Minnesota (2006) and a BFA in Media Arts: Film from MCAD. She and her partner and three diva cats reside on the traditional lands of the Dakhóta and Anishinaabeg people, in an area known for its white cliffs called Uŋčí Makhá Park.

Graduation Preparation II

Gabriel Saloman Mindel (he/they)

PhD, History of Consciousness - University of California, Santa Cruz
MFA - School for Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University

Gabriel Salomon Mindel is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and scholar. He works primarily in sound, text, visual mediums, and socially collaborative forms. From 2001-2012 his work with Sam Gould and Red76 was supported by Creative Time; the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Gallery at Reed College; 01 San Jose; SF MoMA; The Bureau for Open Culture; Manifesta 8; The Walker Arts Center; the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US State Department, and many others. He was also a co-founder of the Vancouver-based Lower Mainland Painting Company (2011-2013) who received commissions from the Littman & White Galleries at Portland State University, VIVO Media Arts Centre, and Shudder Gallery. His solo works have been exhibited by the Audain Gallery, Unit/Pitt Projects, 221a, and Capilano University. His current artistic research focuses on surfacing sonic archives of political resistance and fugitive imagination.

For over two decades Mindel has also performed and recorded experimental music under his own name and in collaborative ensembles, touring internationally, composing for film and dance, and producing nearly 100 recordings. In addition to his solo work he currently records and performs with transmission artist Anna Friz, in Bottling House with Andy Graydon and Luke Martin, and as one half of the allegedly legendary noise duo Yellow Swans.

His recent curatorial work — Landscape and Life (Indexical, 2022-23); On Love and Revelation (Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, 2024) — focuses on artistic experimentation, landscapes, and the trouble of settler colonialism. Previous curatorial projects have explored speculative concrete poetry, feminist responses to sexual violence, the impact of parenthood on contemporary art practices, materials from the Grateful Dead archive, and the Strathcona Art Gallery (2011-15), a residency, library and exhibition space run out of his Vancouver home in collaboration with Aja Bond.

Mindel received an MFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California Santa Cruz. His scholarly research focuses on the relationship between noise, protest, and power. Writings of his have appeared in both scholarly and para-academic publications, including Sound Stage Screen, Foundry, Resonance: Journal of Sound and Culture, RadioDoc Review, Sounding Out!, Folklife Magazine, Studies in Social Justice and The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest. He is currently working on two book projects, the first focused on Prince and the end of the world, and the second on noise’s potential to radically transform, evade, and abolish structures of political power.

Graduate Critique Seminar II

Brooks Turner (he/him)

MFA — University of California, Los Angeles
BA — Amherst College

Brooks Turner is an artist, writer, and educator. Through methodologies that include archival research, collage, drawing, and installation, Turner engages histories of labor, fascism, and resistance in Minnesota, with a focus on the 1934 Truck Drivers Strike. A member of the Remember 1934 Collective, he helps organize support for contemporary labor struggles through commemorating this history. Turner’s solo exhibitions include Voters in Revolt at Hair+Nails, Pedagogy and Propaganda at the Perlman Teaching Museum, and Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota at the Weisman Art Museum. He is a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and his work is held in the collections of the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. His essays have appeared in Labor Art Review, Art Papers, MnArtists, and TEMP.