Date: April 15, 2024
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm CST
Location: Zoom Meeting
Price: Free
Category: Workshop
“Ask Me Anything” events are casual midday conversations on a variety of topics with Springboard’s Artist Career Consultants (ACCs) or staff and guest artists/presenters, hosted by Springboard for the Arts. These events are presented virtually, on Zoom.
Ask Me Anything: Artists on O-1 B Visas
Date/Time: Monday, April 15, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm Central Time
The O-1B visa is for “individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry.” Join Minneapolis visual artist Zoe Cinel and the New York-based immigration attorney they worked with, Teresa Woods Peña, for a conversation on the experience of applying for and receiving an O-1B visa, moderated by filmmaker and Springboard Artist Career Consultant Cecilia Cornejo.
Zoe Cinel (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator from a Mediterranean culture. Through art they build community around human experiences that are isolating and complex to navigate. Starting from their personal journey as an O1B immigrant and a chronically ill artist, they strive to connect with others and produce social change. Collaboration and community building is fundamental in Cinel’s practice: they are a member of CarryOn Homes, an artistic collective that tells stories of immigration to Minnesota, and a consultant with the Disability Justice Collective MN. Awards and achievements include: 2024 – 2025 MCAD Jerome Fellowship, 2023-2024 University of Minnesota Liberal Arts Hub Residency, 2023 – 2024 MRAC Arts Impact for Individual Grant, 2022-2023 residency with Second Shift Studio. Cinel artistic and curatorial work has been hosted and featured at the Walker Art Center, Mana Contemporary Chicago, the Rochester Art Center, the Gordon Parks Gallery, among others. They graduated with a Master in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2018, and they are currently working as a Visiting Professor at Carleton College, a Community Faculty at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, and a Curator at the Rochester Art Center. https://cinelzoe.myportfolio.com/bio-and-cv
Teresa Woods Peña (she/her), Teresa Woods Peña is an immigration attorney whose work focuses on Artist Visas and Green Cards. For more than twenty years, she has zealously advocated for clients seeking to remain in the United States in their applications with USCIS. She has also appeared in immigration court on behalf of clients in removal proceedings and successfully litigated their cases. She has worked as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has taught Asylum and Refugee Law at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School while leading the Human Rights Clinic’s asylum work. Formerly a Senior Program Associate with the Vera Institute of Justice’s Center on Immigration and Justice and Managing Attorney of KIND’s (Kids in Need of Defense) New York office, she now continues her work by representing artists and innovators looking to make the United States their home. Teresa lives in New York City with her husband, daughter, and senior dog. She loves staying connected to the Art World through her clients’ work! https://www.woodslawgroupnyc.com/
Cecilia Cornejo (she/her) is a Chilean-born documentary filmmaker, artist, and teacher based in Northfield, Minnesota. Known for placing community members at the center of the creative process, she uses a range of approaches and production methodologies to engage them as active participants and co-creators of meaning. Locally rooted yet globally minded, her work examines notions of belonging and the immigrant experience while exploring the traces of historical trauma on people and places. Cecilia is an inaugural recipient of the 2020 McKnight Fellowship for Community-Engaged Artists and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), the Jerome Foundation, and the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council. She teaches in the Cinema and Media Studies department at Carleton College. Visit her website at http://thewanderinghouse.com/ and read more about Cecilia on Creative Exchange.