Matthew Shlian is an artist/designer and founder of the Initiative Artist Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  His work ranges from drawings to large-scale installations to collaborations with scientists at the University of Michigan.

He's widely known for his work with folded paper, but as a maker he doesn’t see himself fitting into a particular category—he likes to work with what he has at hand—without being able to predict the results. He makes his work from what he calls ‘a place of not knowing’.

Lily Yeh is a co-founder of The Village of Arts and Humanities, for which she also has served as executive director and lead artist. Founded in 1986, the Philadelphia-based, non-profit organization aims to build community through art, learning, land transformation, and economic development. In 2002, Lily began Barefoot Artists, which continues her style of community building through art on an international level, in places such as Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Ecuador, and China. Lily Yeh seeks to build a more compassionate future through her collaborative work. She told the Christian Science Monitor, “I have found that the broken spaces are my living canvas. In our brokenness, our hearts reach for beauty.”