Bill Amundson was born in 1953 in the small Norwegian/American community of Stoughton, WI. He earned his B.S. in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975, and spent the next 35 years living and working out of Colorado. Mr. Amundson has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Canada for nearly 50 years, and has had solo shows in New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, Los Angeles, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Colorado Springs, Madison and Denver. His work is in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the University of Colorado Art Museum, Ripon College and the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. He has also contributed illustrations and cartoons to numerous publications. His work has been described as “ironic, compulsive, delicate, irreverent, whimsical, masterful and banal,” which leads one to question the veracity of the publishing world. In 2010 he relocated to his home town of Stoughton with his wife Anita. Since then his work has taken on a Wisconsin and Scandinavian flavor, including numerous variations on traditional Norwegian folk art.

Tara Austin is a rosemaler and painter from the Gunflint Trail near Lake Superior. She grew up in Northern Minnesota, where her environment instilled in her an appreciation of botany and a keen observation of patterns in the natural environment. Reflecting on her experiences in the Midwest, South America, and Europe, she seeks to communicate a form of natural beauty by incorporating techniques from scenic painting and faux finishing, the folk art of Norwegian rosemaling, and reverse painting on glass. Observing these processes has led her to develop a personal aesthetic based on quality craftsmanship, where the established authority of geometry, harmony, and beauty speaks vibrantly.

Elizabeth Belz is a blacksmith, educator, the owner of Black Widow Forge and is the Blacksmithing and Metals Coordinator at John C. Campbell Folk School. She was the blacksmithing apprentice at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN for two years where she trained under master smith Jim Masterson. Elizabeth was a craft education intern at North House Folk School, a resident artist with the Science Museum of MN, a Creative Catalyst fellow and has spent a lot of time at craft and folk schools across the country. Elizabeth has shown her work, competed, and taught blacksmithing throughout the United States and internationally and has most recently finished up a year long artist residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Elizabeth sits on the board of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America the largest blacksmithing community non profit dedicated to preserving and advancing blacksmithing as both a profession and a hobby.

Pieper Fleck Bloomquist, a Minnesota native and current Grand Forks, North Dakota resident, has been painting in the Scandinavian and Austrian styles of folk art since 1993. She has studied Swedish Dalmålning (Kurbits) and Bonadsmålning with master artists Karen Jenson of Milan, MN and Judith Kjenstad of Minneapolis, MN. Pieper has been active in programs sponsored by the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) as Master Artist teaching Swedish Dalmålning. In 2018 she was granted a Folk Arts Fellowship through the American-Scandinavian Foundation, studying folk painting of Sweden and helping to perpetuate that tradition across North Dakota and Minnesota. Pieper loves the art of storytelling. She creates art that reflects the cultural life of a community that shares a common heritage, bringing to life memories from her childhood where she depicts her grandparents as they were, her siblings as small children, and her home as she envisions it. Her paintings often depict scenes that, while personal to her, portray universal human experiences and daily activities of growing up in the upper Midwest. She enjoys placing playful, contemporary scenes in the context of traditional Swedish flower and scroll formations. When she is not painting, Pieper works as an Oncology nurse at Altru Cancer Center in Grand Forks, and enjoys going out to see live music and drinking coffee with her husband.

Talon Cavender-Wilson is a Dakota man from the Upper Sioux Reservation in Minnesota. He spent five years in Sweden training in the traditional art of Scandinavian blacksmithing, earning a journeyman’s certificate in Artisanal Blacksmithing. Upon returning to Upper Sioux, he began his practice, focusing on sculptural and architectural work. He explores the boundaries between new mediums like ironwork within Dakota traditions, including questions such as: How can or should Dakota people take this new skill and make it their own? What is the difference between Dakota art and an artist who happens to be Dakota? What elements are ok to share with which audiences? He has a special love for traditional folklore and try to find the balance between traditional storytelling and modern sculpture. 

Teresa Faris an artist and educator who makes objects from ethically sourced, recycled and recyclable materials that are intended to be worn on the body. Her works speak to ideas of permanence and connectedness to the natural world. She is Professor and Area Head of the Metals program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she received the Women in Leadership Award, and is co-author of the Women of Metal Exhibition and Oral History Project, and is the recipient of awards including the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Grant Award: Access to Artistic Excellence. Teresa participated in the Artist in Residence program at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI (1999). She exhibits extensively in Europe and the U.S.

John Frandy is a practical woodworker who focuses on making usable art. He grew up in the Wisconsin Northwoods, where he learned the value of hunting, gathering, and making one’s own things. Since then, he’s built skis, tables, beds, all manner of kitchen implements, kuska cups, cabinets to store everything from jewelry to guns, wild rice hullers, and a library substantial enough to enable his weakness for musty old books. He particularly loves making toys, but as his three children are now too old for those, he canoe camps with them instead.  He lives with his wife in southern Wisconsin where he teaches physics at a small college. 

Maeve Gathje is an artist, craftsperson, and educator from Rochester, MN. Maeve focuses on material intelligence and storytelling in her work with wood, stone, and other traditional materials. Her work focuses on pedagogy; she is passionate about teaching and engaging communities through the processes of making. Maeve is a handcraft instructor at multiple institutions including North House Folk School and the American Swedish Institute, teaching book arts, woodcarving, and leatherworking classes. Maeve is also a full-time public artist who has worked on permanent stone installations across Minnesota. Her work in handcraft is whimsical, and reaches back toward tradition while leaning forward into the new. When she isn’t in her studio, she spends her free time dreaming about future projects. 

Kjetil “KJ” Groven was born in Skien, Norway and moved to South Dakota in 1999. He first began working with wood, leather and metals as a child while spending time with his grandparents on the family farm, and made his first knife at age 12, and his first carved spoon at age 13. Today he combines wood work with blacksmithing and tool making, with most work relate to hand tools from old Scandinavia, while also teaching at different institutions in the U.S. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and considers himself as versatile as a potato. 

Jess Hirsch is a maker, sculptor, and educator living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is the founder of Fireweed Community Woodshop, a space to empower women and marginalized genders through the art of wood craft. Hirsch, as a lover of trees, studies Sloyd (Scandinavian hand craft) as a method to connect with the landscape through fresh cut wood. When she is not making bowls or furniture, she is chasing her toddler through fields while gathering wild herbs for medicine.

Amber M. Jensen is a painter, textile artist and teacher working out of her Minneapolis studio. She’s inspired by the nature around her, and the throughline she can trace from our ancestors’ blankets to her own work today. She was recently awarded a fellowship in textile arts from the McKnight Foundation and is a former Jerome Foundation fellow. Her journey into textiles began nearly two decades with the creation of one-of-a-kind bespoke backpacks that have since evolved into complex and individual pieces of wearable art. In devotion to her daily art practice, she has also created wall-sized weavings and paintings embellished with stories and symbols. She has exhibited her work in numerous group shows from Tokyo to Paris and led a solo show last fall at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, Minn. Her commitment to sharing her love of weaving has taken her to All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis, the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids, an icy lake for an Art Shanty project and the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minn. Her work is an invitation for viewers to join her in a fantastical world of imagination that’s grounded in the often elusive sense of place, home and shelter.

Jerry Johnson is of Norwegian descent and has been rosemaling since 1991. He lives in Stoughton, WI, where the rosemaling tradition was revived in America in the 20th century by Per Lysne, before gaining widespread interest in the Midwest and also nationwide. He has rosemaled in the Gudbrandsdal style for many years, among others, in part for its ability to lend itself toward originality. Using Gudbrandsdal he has also since incorporated a “Green Man” motif, inspired from the legendary figure from folklore and mythology, to develop his own unique distinctive style. His self-proclaimed moniker is the “Rebel Rosemaler,” based on his practice of diverging from the strict traditional dictates of rosemaling to paint in a more contemporary style. 

Tia Keobounpheng (b. 1977 Virginia, MN) is a multidisciplinary artist of Finnish and Sámi descent based in Minneapolis, MN. Her abstract “unwoven” tapestries break apart traditional craft methods as a means of processing generational patterns and imagining an expansive decolonized world. In 2000, she earned a BA degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota and has spent more than two decades exploring at the intersection of design, craft, and art. Keobounpheng earned Artist Initiative and Creative Support Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2017/2020/2021, Next Step Fund Grants from the McKnight Foundation through the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council in 2018/2023, and a Folk Art and Cultural Traditions Grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation in 2023. Her solo exhibition Revealing Threads at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) was on view July-October 2023. Keobounpheng’s work is part of the permanent collections of Mia, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, The North Dakota Museum of Art, the University of St. Thomas, and numerous private collections in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, Albuquerque, Lake Tahoe, and Los Angeles. Keobounpheng completed a 10×20-foot permanent commission for the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN in August 2024.

Beth Homa Kraus is a weaver, woodworker and artist in South Minneapolis, MN. They have been sustainably harvesting local materials from the Minnesota boreal forests, including bark, root and wood, for more than a decade. Using hand tools, they process and refine natural materials before turning them into baskets and other art objects. They also teach classes and foster weaving communities, and are passionate about spreading the love of baskets to everyone who catches weaver fever.

Mike Loeffler is a craftsperson who creates wooden objects inspired by folk traditions, including household items, furniture, buildings, and sculptures. Using a mix of hand and power tools, he focuses on making functional pieces that have character through carving and color. His carved designs feature a rough, sketch-like quality that reveals their form beneath the surface. The details are intentionally loose, emphasizing the human touch. While these pieces draw inspiration from tradition, they also encourage new interpretations and possibilities. Mike is inspired by the materials from the forested landscapes he loves, which give him a strong sense of connection. He aims to create work that feels rooted in its environment, drawing life from the natural world. This connection to nature motivates and inspires his creations.

Christine Novotny is a textile artist, designer and educator. She weaves vibrant textiles, all guided by her love for surprising color and design interactions. From rugs and blankets to fine art work, each of her pieces explore color nuance and relationships through materiality and traditional techniques. Her designs are guided intuitively by the physical practice of different woven processes, finding bold, graphic forms in tapestry and loom-controlled designs, and sensitivity and atmospheric movement in rya pile weavings. Christine’s weavings explore not “if” colors work together, but how they interact, seeking unexpected color nuance and relationships in woven form.

Peter “Pekka” Olson uses wood, bark, bone and other natural materials to create works of art that highlight the natural beauty and versatility of the materials local to the forests near his home in Tapiola, MI. Born and raised in this community, Olson’s life on a small subsistence farm with his Finnish ethnic family taught him how to use the trees and the materials they offer for useful things: carved wooden handles, farm tools, sauna materials, and more. His later work as a woodsman sustainably harvesting timber from his land — as well as his ongoing interest in his Finnish heritage — later led to his work as an artist, carving, weaving, assembling, and teaching others how to do the same. Pekka’s deep sense of nature contributes to his understanding of how to use different items to their advantage, mixing textures, grains, colors, and techniques. Always wanting to learn more and to teach his skills to the next generation, Pekka has been both a master and apprentice artist through awards from the Michigan Traditional Arts Program and the American Scandinavian Foundation, also receiving first prize at the Emberlight Festival as well as an Upper Peninsula Folklife Award from Northern Michigan University.

Sonja Peterson explores the human impact on a variety of ecosystems and cultures and how our world has become interconnected. She grew up in Minnesota, where her mother was a folk painter (or “flower painter” in many languages), and began practicing painting, drawing, cutting and weaving paper at an early age. She developed an early interest in imagery based on plants as well as psaligraphy. She has since departed from the precise traditional standards she learned from her mother, while retaining some threads through her use of natural imagery. Sonja creates large hand-cut stories out of paper that are often suspended in space to create multiple vignettes or chapters through a single piece, heightening her objective of drawing the viewer into details after their initial glance. Her works focus on the environment and where humans fit within it, and also explores the impact of invasive species as well as the world’s interconnectivity through agricultural, financial and trade systems. Her use of delicate, hand-cut paper mimics the precariousness of our present day, and she additionally works with books, laser-cut and -routed metal and wood sculptures.

Karen Rebholz combined her interests in the art she loved—rooted in beauty, craft, pattern, and storytelling—along with her interests in science, music, and her Norwegian heritage when she started to build Hardanger fiddles in 2012. She first learned from studying instruments directly, online research, violin building books, and corresponding with makers in the US and Norway. She furthered her skills and understanding of acoustics in 2018 while working with Sigvald Rørlien at Ole Bull Akademiet in Voss, Norway, thanks to a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation. She has received Gold Medal, Best of Show, and People’s Choice awards in woodworking at Vesterheim, and three of her Hardanger fiddles were awarded medals at Landskappleiken in Rjukan, Norway in 2022 and Gol in 2024.

Gene Tokheim grew up on a farm in Clarkfield, MN, and earned his B.S. in Ceramics and Sculpture in 1971 after being drawn to its blend of art and craft. He withdrew from his MFA program when an advisor told him he was already qualified to be a professional studio potter, which he has never regretted. After being invited to build his first kiln and studio pottery on the family farmstead of his friend, graphic artist Franz Richter, he began practicing under the name Tokheim Stoneware, and worked in collaboration with Richter on projects including Haug Folk (small clay sculptures of Nordic characters). His goal as a young potter was to foster the arts in their rural community. After meeting his wife, Lucy, the two began their shared practice. He has collaborated with many other artists over the years, including Karen Jenson, an acclaimed rosemaling artist from nearby Milan, and has also led apprenticeships for students including his son Sam Tokheim, and an assistant Abby Spence, who now also designs for Tokheim Stoneware. In 1983 he was invited to demonstrate wheel-throwing at the Vesterheim and other Norwegian folk festivals, and took his first knife-making class at Vesterheim in 1986 with Norwegian Hårvard Bergland.  From January to August in 1989, he received an artist residency that allowed him, with Lucy and their family, to live and work in Norway, where he taught classes, set up a pottery studio, and had the opportunity to meet King Olav. Three works from Tokheim Stoneware were featured in the 1995 exhibition Emigration of a Tradition, which traveled to the New York Museum of Folk Art as well as Minneapolis, Seattle and Norway, and other works have been featured in the Smithsonian museum store. He has since taught Norwegian knife making at the North House, the Vesterheim Museum, the Swedish Institute, and the Milan Village Art School. In 2003 Lucy and I were among the founding artists of the ongoing Upper Minnesota River Meander Arts Crawl. Now in 2024, Tokheim Stoneware is a well-known regional pottery in Southwest Minnesota. 

Lucy Tokheim has been inspired by Norwegian folk art throughout her life as an artist, beginning with an early period of exploration at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, IA and the Rauland Academy in Telemark. She met her husband Gene Tokheim as he was beginning studio pottery at Franz Richter’s farm in 1973, and later began adding calligraphy and rosemaling to his Nordic bowl forms. Together they developed a focus in Norwegian and Scandinavian Folk art through meetings with craftspeople at Vesterheim’s Nordic Fest as well as through studies of scholarly and reference materials, including Per Gjærder’s Norse Drikkekar Av Tre and the Primstav calendar. She later worked with Kon Tiki Museum designer Magne Holter on border designs carved in wood panels, and after a 1989 study session at the Rauland Academy began extending pottery design from wood carving to traditional textiles. She frequently reviews Scandinavian textiles for new design ideas. Her shared practice with Gene has developed a supportive audience and visitors to their studio over the past 50 years, where they enjoy being an anchor of the Upper Minnesota River Valley artist community. They have exhibited at museums including the New York Museum of Folk Art, the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the North Dakota Heritage Center, and the Nordic Heritage Museum. Lucy has been the recipient of SMAC grants for an online retrospective of her work in folk art, “Materials at Hand, At the Green Edge of Scandinavian Folk”; and for illustrating and writing the book The Princess and the Boat Boy, Heroes of the Ancient Norwegian Primstav. Since 2020, she and Gene have also begun finding new audiences by bringing their pottery sales online, with the help of their son.

Nathan White is an artist and craftsperson who predominantly works in wood. He first began woodworking as an apprentice at a wooden boat shop in Pemaquid, ME in 2011, where he was introduced to concepts and techniques such as green woodworking, turning, and sloyd, that would influence his work for years to come. Through apprenticeships, grant projects, and residencies, he has studied many different types of woodworking ranging from spoon carving to timber framing, and credits the many mentors and teachers he has had over the years. While turning bowls has been his most consistent area, White is ever curious not only about other avenues of woodworking, but craft in general. Lately, he has been working on chairs, decorative carving, and the Crown of Thorns form of the American folk art known as Tramp Art. His home and studio are in Minneapolis, MN.

Lisa Wiitala is a fourth-generation Finnish American weaver, writer, and teacher living in Hancock, MI. With a passion for education and the natural world, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Arts in Secondary Education. In her 40s, she acquired her grandmother’s antique floor loom and learned to weave through study at Finlandia University and the Finnish American Folk School. In keeping with her heritage, she focuses on rag rugs and ryijy rugs, the latter of which derive their subject matter from natural elements found in the Keweenaw Peninsula. She has taken part in various local exhibitions, including Art from the Kalevela and Friends of Finland; has demonstrated both rag rug and ryijy rug weaving at local and regional events from Heikinpäivä to FinnFest USA; and has taught ryijy weaving for the Finnish American Folk School. A member of the Buellwood Weaver’s Guild, she was featured in the documentary Finnish American Rag Rug Weavers, and in 2022 presented a webinar for FinnFest USA entitled “From Rags to Rugs: My Grandmother’s Loom.” In 2023, she traveled to Finland to study advanced ryijy design through a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.