MING Studios is a contemporary art center and international artist in residency program.

Our mission is to exhibit, experience and explore contemporary arts and culture. Our purpose is educational, non-profit, community driven, multicultural, collaborative, participatory, public and relevant.

We provide exhibition space and resources for featured international artists, whom we support through our Artist In Residency Program and encourage to create new work that is influenced by their experience and collaborations at MING Studios.

We also serve our community by hosting innovative programs including workshops and cultural activities, performances, screenings, readings and artist talks .

MING Studios Board of Directors & Team

Officers

Jason Morales, President
Jason founded MING Studios to introduce international artists to Idaho through an Artist In Residency program, to host art installations and exhibitions that would not otherwise be accessible to Idahoans, and to offer new opportunities for regional artists. Jason also works for Microsoft on the Worldwide Education team as a Strategy Leader for Data and AI, and as Professor at Boise State University in the College of Business & Economics.

Alina Nisanova, Secretary
Alina lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and two children. Alina earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Potsdam in Berlin Germany with an emphasis on Jewish Studies and Russian History.  During that time Alina worked at the Jewish Museum where she provided educational and entertaining presentations in 3 languages (German, English & Russian), led museum Educational programs aimed at children ages 6-15 years old and supervised and supported VIP events and symposiums for government officials.

Mark Pemble, Treasurer
Mark has lived in the Boise area his entire life. He regularly visit many of the local museums and galleries in his spare time. Mark also enjoys being involved in the local music scene. He serves on various boards and committees in the area including the Friends of the Library, the Train Depot, and the Historical Preservation Committee. Mark enjoys skateboarding, snowboarding, and casually riding his bicycle through new neighborhoods.

Directors

Rod Burke
Over the past 25 years, Rod Burke has been a noteworthy leader in the garden and landscaping scene in Idaho. You may know him from his work at the Idaho Botanical Garden before his retirement in 2019. While at IBG, he viewed the Garden as his pallet. He was instrumental in incorporating local artist’s work into the garden to show how structural art can enhance the natural beauty of the living landscape.

Now, you may find him fishing, cooking, volunteering, and making his own yard a beautiful work of art. Being a part of MING Studios is an opportunity to continue community involvement in the arts.
  

MING Team

Matt Bunk, Program Curator
Matt Bunk is a multimedia artist of the American West. His work is centered around loops, parallels, and reflections. He is a founding member of the Address Book collective and a proud Field Worker for the Ecogeogplyphic Observatory. He has directed, acted, sound designed, and otherwise meddled in theater all over the place. Matt’s body of musical work includes scores for podcasts, installations, and live performances, as well as albums with the bands All Around Cowboy and Sage Country Fragments. His writing has also appeared in Elsewhere: A Journal of Place, Oroboro, and Paper Plane Press.
[email protected]

Kristen Cooper, Artistic Director 
Kristen is a conceptual artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. She has traveled extensively; collaborating with artists and curating exhibitions. Kristen received a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and a M.F.A. from the Dutch Art Institute, in the Netherlands. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
[email protected]

Sequoia Solmorales, Outreach & Community Engagement
Sequoia Solmorales has worked at the intersection of education, the arts, and event coordination since 2019. A community builder and operations specialist with a background in nonprofit leadership, he currently serves as Operations Manager at City Club of Boise. In addition to his professional work, Sequoia is a multi-instrumentalist who plays and studies the guitar, kamale ngoni, and handpan. He travels regularly to experience the music of artists who inspire his craft. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Boise State University.
[email protected]