ACES: Artists of Color Expo & Symposium

Artists and entrepreneurs discuss the value and nuances for managing the business aspects of a creative studio practice. This conversational workshop is for those seeking career advice for creating and navigating a successful creative business.  

Eduardo Mendonça has played, composed, and directed various genres of Brazilian popular music in the US, Canada, Nepal and Brazil.  A native of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Eduardo has performed for many notable personalities, including the 14th Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, and former South Africa President Nelson Mandela, and he was featured in the PBS American Masters documentary, Paul Simon: Born at the Right Time.   
A naturalized US citizen, this multi-talented performer graduated in Arts Education is a much sought after artist-in-residence and master class instructor recommended by the Washington State Arts Commission for lectures, workshops, and school assemblies. Eduardo is Co-Director for Brazil Arts & Education, DBA: show Brazil!.

Erin Shigaki was born and raised in Seattle, WA, where she recently returned after many years on the east coast, studying and working in design and art education. Her homecoming has paved a path for public art commissions and grants to create work that is community based and focused on people of color experiences, often the World War II incarceration of her community. Erin is passionate about highlighting similarities between that history, the inhumane detention and family separation immigrants face today, and other systemic injustices black and brown people continue to face.