OUR TEAM

Karen Castleman has spent more than 20 years immersed in the art of dance as a professional dancer, educator, choreographer and community leader. Following a professional career dancing with MOMIX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Rubberbandance Group, and others, she has spent just over a decade now teaching and creating in NW Arkansas. Her work has involved engagements and collaborations with some incredible organizational partners in the high south and beyond, from more classical commissioned works of contemporary ballet, Red Rover for Tulsa Ballet II, and Late Summer Cycle for NWA Ballet Theatre, to abstract creations for engagements at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Momentary. Both within the gallery and outdoors, in site specific conversations with sculptural works of art, Karen’s work stretches across the boundaries of contemporary concert dance genres.

As an educator, Karen has taught ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary and social dance forms to students of all ages at schools in California, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Arkansas, including Loyola University of Chicago and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Youth Education Department. Karen spent 6 years as director of the high school dance program at Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers, AR and serves on the faculty of NWA Conservatory of Classical Ballet. She is also an adjunct lecturer in dance as a part of the theatre department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She has been the recipient of grants and awards by the Artists 360 program, Arkansas Arts Council, Mid-America Art Alliance and the Walton Family Foundation.

In 2022, Castleman co-founded NWA Movement Hub, an organization dedicated to bringing the power, beauty and joy of dance to people of all walks of life. Programs of the Movement Hub have included a choreography lab and performance series, giving regionally based choreographers the opportunity to present work locally and receive feedback and financial support, as well as a project-based dance company, Flyover Contemporary Dance, presenting new works of contemporary dance in collaboration with many of our regions premier art organizations including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, and 21c Museum/Hotel.

Karen enjoys creating spaces for people to deepen their experience of the artform of dance, whether by introducing novice viewers or students to movement that sparks curiosity, or engaging experienced audiences in work that challenges preconceptions, motivating dialogue. Whether creating dance in a theater, museum, parking garage or open field, utilizing ballet, modern, popular or pedestrian vocabularies, or facilitating spaces for arts activity, she welcomes communities to join together in engaging the senses to make new meaning out of the most familiar subject, the body.

Lisa Marie Evans is a filmmaker and animator. She co-directed, edited, and animated In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction. In 2020, In Her Words was the first film to win the Publishing Triangle’s Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award. Since April 2022, the film has reached audiences across Italy, Ireland, Spain, Germany, England, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, and the United States.

Evans was a keynote speaker at VIII Gendercom: the International Conference on Gender & Communication in Viterbo, Italy in 2022. She received a grant from the US Embassy in Rome to support the 2024 International Day of Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia and the advancement of the LGBTQI+ policies, including a screening of In Her Words at Sapienza University in Rome.

Lisa Marie debuted an animation to accompany a bassoon performance by Lia Uribe of Fernando Fernández's Enredadas Alegrías at the 2023 International Double Reed Society conference in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a 2021 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Fellowship Award in Cinematic Arts. Evans co-produced Beyond Belief: Three Stories of Faith in Action, part of a 2016 national initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in partnership with Kansas City PBS.

For more than 20 years, Evans has mentored multidisciplinary artists. She is the Director of Creative Development for CACHE where she designs and leads professional development programming, project support, and grantmaking for artists. Since 2020, she has overseen the distribution of more than $840K dollars to more than 190 creatives.

Kelsey Howard is a world traveler at heart who’s grateful to call Siloam Springs, AR home. After teaching English in South Korea, Kelsey received the Rotary District 6110 Ralph R. Kirchner Award, which funded her graduate studies in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) with a specialization in British architecture.

She has worked at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, John Brown University in Siloam Springs as an adjunct professor teaching Art History, and was most recently the Executive Director of Main Street Siloam Springs. In the last several years, she’s had the privilege to combine her love of public art with enhancing historic downtown spaces; she was honored with the Main Street Arkansas Outstanding Director award of 2018-2019. Kelsey currently sits on the governor-appointed Arkansas Historic Preservation Review Committee to protect our state’s historic buildings.

Brittany Johnson is an arts administrator from Houston, Texas.

Brittany made her way to Northwest Arkansas to join the team at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art where she served as the Communications and Marketing department’s first email marketing manager before joining the Interpretation team, and including the Momentary in her scope of work. With the Interpretation team, she developed 21 exhibitions in two years and worked with curators to keep the museum’s permanent collection—more than 500 years of American art—inspiring and engaging for museum guests. She additionally oversaw the museum’s efforts to become fully bilingual, working with translators and museum stakeholders to create and solidify the language used to describe the museum and it’s offerings in Spanish. Finally, she aditionally led DEAI efforts on behalf of the museum and helped found the museum's first Black and African-American staff resource group.

She has held positions at Houston Arts Alliance (Houston, Texas), Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin, Texas), and SFMOMA (San Francisco, California). She is the editor of the MMIAM Journey, an online journal for international arts management, a member of the Fayetteville Public Library’s Public Art Committee, and Capacity Building Co-Chair for the Creative States Coalition.

Brittany has a Masters in International Arts Management from SMU in (Dallas, USA), HEC Montréal (Montreal, Canada), and Universitá Boconni (Milan, Italy) and another n Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

Outside of work, Brittany is a reader, live music enthusiast, aspiring podcast host, and avid language learner; Brittany speaks Spanish and French, and can be found forgetting to complete her German and Italian lessons—the Duolingo owl is frequently disappointed.

Since 2015, Thalia has been a key connector between the performing arts and the community. With a degree in Environmental, Soil, and Water Science from the University of Arkansas (graduating Cum Laude), she brings a thoughtful mix of analytical skills and creative passion to her work.
Thalia began her career as Production Manager for the Northwest Arkansas Conservatory of Classical Ballet. She later expanded her impact as Project Manager for NWA Ballet Theatre’s Dance Anywhere/Everywhere program. Later, as Interim Executive Director, she managed 22 professional dancers, supported nationally recognized performances, and strengthened the company’s role in the region by fostering connections with artists, venues, and community leaders.
At The Medium, Thalia started as Operations Coordinator and now serves as Operations Manager, where she played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing the first-ever Creative Exchange Fund (CXF), a 5 tiered grant program which, to date, has supported more than 100 creative and community projects. She also leads Radical Community Care initiative, which actively works to remove barriers for local creatives so that they can comfortably express themselves and focus on their art.
Thalia is an Enneagram 6, born and raised in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She’s been married 25 years and has five children, whom she gave birth to at home. She is a Sagittarius Sun (barely) who identifies as a Capricorn, Gemini Moon, Gemini Rising. Thalia used to be a tap dancer and marathon runner; now she goes on long walks for exercise and to binge podcasts. Thalia geeks out on science but will also talk about the Kardashians with you too.

Kevin Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American musical artist, producer, and audio engineer from Salt Lake City, UT. He is a graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences in Gilbert, AZ. For two and a half years, Kevin worked on his craft in an intimate studio in Bentonville’s famed CACHE Studios, collaborating with the new wave of Hip-Hop and Rap artists in our flourishing and eclectic art and music scene. Having recently served as a barista at a local cafe, known for its excellence in hospitality, he is looking to help facilitate these qualities, at The Medium, for everyone in the creative community.

Inspired by the Ozark region she was born in, Amber Perrodin is a community-focused artist, storyteller, creek baby, mushroom hunter, painter, mother, wife, and Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalist. Since 2020, she has worked with CACHE as the Artist & Community Manager at The Medium, helping to establish the Creative Exchange Fund. This initiative celebrates creative risk-taking while putting more than $270,000 into the hands of artists.

As a four-year Artist Fellow with Looking For America, Amber published "The Ozark Story Project," a book exploring the intersection of immigrant and traditional folklore in the Ozarks. From 2018 to 2021, she was a local team member with the Live in America Festival, a festival and research project by the Momentary amplifying performance art in America.

As a mixed-media artist based in Springdale, Arkansas, Amber is inspired by her community. She recently painted an outdoor mural at Hillfolk at 8th Street Market and was the featured Chalk Artist in 2024 at the Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere. As Program Director with the Downtown Springdale Alliance, she organized more than 100 events in just two years, including the popular Outdoor Street Dinner and Ozarktober Fest. Amber now serves on the Board of Directors with the Downtown Springdale Alliance and is an active member of Springdale Rotary.

Amber created The Little Craft Show, Team Springdale, and co-founded The Creative Social Retreat. Together with her husband, they’ve opened their art studio, Perrodin Supply Co., as a mindful, artist-led space that serves the neighborhood through public and private events. Recently, they hosted the NWA Film Club and the "Women of the Ozarks" exhibition.

Cynthia Tran is a fine art photographer and creative innovator with more than a decade of experience capturing the essence of people, places, and moments. She specializes in portraiture, weddings, boudoir, and branding photography, using her work to foster connection, curiosity, sensuality, and self-expression.

In 2016, she founded Transcendence Crystal & Art Collective, an art gallery and event space in Oklahoma City showcasing nature’s minerals alongside local and national artists. This venture deepened her appreciation for community and collaboration. She further expanded her creative horizons through roles with RAW Artists in Los Angeles and Art Conspiracy in Dallas, where she honed her skills in large-scale artistic projects and event production.

In 2019, Cynthia founded Women & Wildlife, a transformative retreat that blends all the things she loved: art, spirituality, holistic wellness, and nature, designed to inspire connection with the environment and promote embodiment and embracing nature as a vessel for healing. The experience grew across the Midwest, guided by her mission to nurture community through art and self-discovery.

A move to Northwest Arkansas in 2021 marked a new chapter of intentional living. There, Cynthia evolved from freelance artist to community supporter, working with organizations like CACHE and mentoring through EforAll! and Ozark Media Arts Festival.

In 2023, Cynthia realized her dream of creating a homestead that serves as a sanctuary for creativity and rejuvenation. Her homestead invites the community to find inspiration in their every day environment and engage in the creative process, serving as her studio and personal retreat space. View more of her work at http://cynthiadtran.com/