2026 EAL MENTORS & MENTEES
Luya Moreno (EAL mentee)
Luya Moreno is a DJ, art teacher, multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural organizer. They are also the founder and creative director of FLWRPOT Collective, where they serve as an event coordinator and project manager.
As a practicing visual artist and screen printer, Luya’s work centers on community access, creative empowerment, and cultural sustainability. Through their artistic practice, teaching, and community-based programming, they create opportunities for people to connect, learn, and express themselves through art.
Luya defines professional success as building sustainable, values-aligned creative systems that allow both themself and their community to thrive.
Jane Hervey (EAL Mentor)
Founder & Executive Director, Future Front
Jane Hervey is an award-winning community and brand executive, cultural strategist, curator, musician, and nonprofit founder based in Austin, Texas. Over the past decade, she has led transformative campaigns and programs for arts and entertainment organizations, philanthropic institutions, museums, public parks, and nationally recognized lifestyle, hospitality, and technology brands. Her work has spanned everything from launching citywide music festivals in downtown Austin to developing creative direction and community-focused initiatives for organizations including Bumble, The LINE Hotel, Waymo, and more.
As Founder and Executive Director of Future Front, Hervey has helped create community-designed programs that have welcomed more than 200,000 visitors and distributed over $1 million in commissions and direct support to independent artists, musicians, filmmakers, and craftspeople across Texas. Her innovative work in public programming, emerging creative infrastructure, and experimental arts has been recognized by ADWEEK, Texas Monthly, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Austin Women’s Hall of Fame.
A sought-after speaker and curator, Hervey has collaborated with organizations including SXSW, The Contemporary Austin, Soho House, and Fusebox Festival, advocating for contemporary Texas storytelling, creative leadership, and the intersection of culture and public infrastructure. She is also an accomplished writer and recording musician whose work explores Gulf Coast landscapes, spoken word, and regional identity. A fifth-generation Texan, Hervey lives and works in Austin.
Demian Chávez Galvan (EAL mentee)
Andrea Ochoa (EAL mentor)
Demian Chavez Galvan is a theatremaker whose work centers the cultures, histories, languages, and voices of the U.S.–Mexico border. They are the Artistic Director of Teatro Sin Fronteras, a multilingual theatre company based in the Borderlands, through which they have self-produced much of their work.
As a playwright, director, dramaturg, and educator, Demian’s work has been presented on stages throughout the Southwest. Language has long been central to their artistic practice. Born and raised along the U.S.–Mexico border, they began making theatre in response to the lack of bilingual performance in their hometown and continue to create work that reflects the complexity and richness of border communities.
Demian defines professional success as continuing to deepen their artistic and educational practice while creating meaningful opportunities for the communities they serve. In the coming years, they plan to pursue a master’s degree, with particular interest in programs such as Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities or Performance as Public Practice at The University of Texas at Austin.
Director of Education & Community Impact, Austin Opera
Andréa Ochoa is a Mexican American arts administrator, educator, and soprano based in Austin, Texas. She serves as Director of Education & Community Impact at Austin Opera, where she leads the strategy, development, and implementation of the organization’s educational programming and community partnership initiatives. Through her work, she helps strengthen connections between Austin Opera and the diverse communities it serves.
Ochoa holds a Master of Music in Classical Voice Performance and an Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from New York University, where she also served as an Adjunct Instructor of Voice. She earned her Bachelor of Music Education with a concentration in Vocal Studies from Oklahoma Christian University. Her career reflects a commitment to arts education, community engagement, and expanding access to the performing arts.
Kalle Duncan (EAL mentee)
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Kalle Duncan is an Austin-based curator, muralist and multidisciplinary artist. Her exploration of themes such as grief, spirituality and matriarchy derives from her Chicana background and experiences of loss throughout her adolescence. Duncan received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2024 and has exhibited work in shows across Texas at institutions including the McNay Museum of Art, UpFront Gallery and the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas. As an individual freelancer as well as alongside her participation as a member of the muralist cohort Chroma Collective, Kalle has painted 9 murals across the Austin area.
Sara Vanderbeek (EAL mentor)
Co-Founder, Executive Director & Curator, DORF
Sara Vanderbeek is an award-winning artist, curator, and cultural organizer based in Austin, Texas, with nearly two decades of experience in curatorial leadership, public art, and arts advocacy. Her artistic practice explores themes of place, motherhood, and trauma, and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries, museums, and artist-run spaces.
Vanderbeek is the Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Curator of DORF, an artist-led gallery recognized for advancing sustainability, experimentation, and collaborative cultural practice. Through both her creative and organizational work, she has championed artists and fostered meaningful cultural dialogue across communities.
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts, Austin Arts, Culture, Music & Entertainment, and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, among others.
Lindsay Jow (EAL mentee)
Lindsey Millikan (EAL mentor)
Artist, Muralist & Public Art Advocate
Lindsey Millikan is a painter and muralist based in Austin, Texas, whose work explores themes of transformation, uncertainty, resilience, and collective change. Working at the intersection of fine art and public space, she creates paintings, murals, and community-centered projects that invite reflection, connection, and dialogue.
Millikan is a recipient of the National Mural Award and the California Arts Council Established Artist Grant. Her work has been commissioned by leading organizations including Atlassian, Twitch, Salesforce, CNN, Swinerton, and Sentry, and developed through partnerships with municipalities, nonprofits, and cultural institutions nationwide. Notable collaborations include the Chabot Space & Science Center, 826 Valencia, and PangeaSeed.
In addition to her artistic practice, Millikan serves as Vice Chair of the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places Panel and regularly contributes as a grant panelist and juror. In 2025, she was invited as the international guest artist for the Edmonton Mural Festival. Her work continues to be exhibited nationally while expanding through large-scale public art projects across Texas and beyond.
Lindsay Jow is a painter whose work is characterized by bold color, crisp brushstrokes, and a sense of play. She holds a degree in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin and has spent much of her career in marketing. In connection with her background, Lindsay's work explores packaging, pattern and how consumer goods shape our culture, are part of our memories, and help define our taste. Her work encourages viewers to consider the visual vocabulary of their own lives—to recognize the beauty, humor, and quiet complexity embedded in the objects they encounter daily.
Lilly Wylde (EAL mentee)
Lilly Wylde is a multidisciplinary artist, dancer, and creative director recognized for her innovative approach to movement and visual storytelling. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from California Institute of the Arts, a globally respected institution known for advancing excellence in the arts. By embracing raw authenticity and uninhibited expression, Lilly aims to create a space where creativity flows freely, healing is nurtured, and the wild, untamed spirit within us is awakened.
Acia Gray
(EAL mentor)
Executive & Artistic Director, Tapestry Dance Company
Acia Gray is an internationally recognized tap dancer, choreographer, producer, educator, and arts leader. She is the Co-Founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance Company, now celebrating more than three decades of artistic excellence, as well as the founder of the internationally acclaimed Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival.
Throughout her career, Gray has performed and collaborated with many of the world’s leading tap artists and has become a respected ambassador for the art form. She is the author of The Souls of Your Feet: A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers, an Amazon bestseller that has been translated into multiple languages and used by tap dancers around the world.
Gray has produced more than 65 full-length dance productions spanning multiple disciplines. Her acclaimed work The Souls of Our Feet: A Celebration of American Tap Dance was recognized as a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces production. Among her many honors is the prestigious Hoofer Award from the American Tap Dance Foundation in New York City. Based in Austin, she continues to choreograph, perform, teach, and produce groundbreaking dance experiences both locally and internationally.
Tisha Vonique (EAL mentee)
Brian Bydeeman Joseph
(EAL mentor)
Artist, Author & Founder, Bydee Art Gallery
Brian “Bydeeman” Joseph is a self-taught artist, author, poet, and motivational speaker whose vibrant body of work celebrates diversity, positivity, and human connection. Originally from Trinidad and now based in Austin, Joseph developed his signature artistic style around the fictional "Bydee People," colorful characters that have become the foundation of his creative philosophy and artistic practice.
For nearly 30 years, Joseph has operated Bydee Art Gallery, sharing original artwork, prints, books, and educational materials that encourage joy, inclusion, and understanding. His work has been commissioned by organizations including Texas A&M University, The University of Texas, the City of Austin, the National Education Association, Family Eldercare, and numerous schools and nonprofit organizations throughout Texas and beyond.
Joseph is the author of five published books and has completed public art and mural projects for universities, schools, and community organizations across the country. His contributions to arts and education have earned numerous honors, including the TNOYS Spirit of Giving Award and the Austin Links Honoree of Community Arts Award. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology from Tougaloo College and a Master of Arts in Urban Studies from Trinity University.
Through his art, writing, and public speaking, Joseph continues to inspire audiences with a message that transcends race, culture, and politics, using creativity as a tool to bring people together and make the world a more joyful place.
Tisha-Vonique is a creative strategist, community champion, and teaching artist whose work amplifies local social service programs and creates meaningful opportunities for connection. Her artistic practice explores the human experience through heritage, tradition, nostalgia, and positive creative expression.
As the founder and teaching artist behind ScriptHOPE, Tisha-Vonique uses handwriting as a tool for identity, advocacy, and connection. Through hands-on learning experiences for people of all ages, she brings together penmanship, historic exploration, and cultural traditions to encourage reflection, self-expression, and community engagement.
Tisha-Vonique defines success as preserving the art of analog connection in an increasingly digital world. The word “hope” is central to ScriptHOPE because her work is rooted in the belief that handwriting, storytelling, and shared creative experiences remain vital ways for people to connect with themselves, their histories, and one another.