MING Studios is a 501(c)(3) non-profit 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.

Lena Walker, Secretary
Lena Walker is an urban planner and co-founder of Placemakers Union, an applied research and design collective focused on community life in the city. She also co-manages Third Shelf, a cooperative placemaking library and book exchange. In collaboration with Placemakers Union and MING Studios, she is developing a framework for interactive workshops which set the places and practices of daily life in conversation with artistic inquiry.  She lives in Boise, ID.

Alina Nisanova, Treasurer
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.

Directors

Mark Pemble
Mark has lived in the Boise area his entire life. He regularly visits 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.

Lindy Foust
Lindy Foust is a communications and project management professional with a passion for building connections, streamlining systems, and helping people thrive. She holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and is a certified PMP, blending strategic expertise with a people-centered approach. Lindy has volunteered with organizations from Wings for Autism to the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, and she enjoys bringing communities together through service, creativity, and shared experiences. She is dedicated to fostering collaboration, equity, and growth, and is excited to contribute her skills and energy to the MING community.

Asia Davis
Asia Davis holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Idaho and works at a local architectural firm in Boise. Her creative practice explores how folklore, memory, and identity translate into spatial narratives and built form. Rooted in both architecture and art, her graduate thesis reimagined folklore as spaces that hold cultural and emotional resonance. As co-founder of Sapphic Spaces, an ongoing research project, she documents and reinterprets queer women’s bars and gathering places across North America as vital sites of community, care, and design history. Through her work, she examines how design can foster belonging, visibility, and sustainable, community-driven narratives.

Jake Saunders
Dr. Jake Saunders is a cellist, educator, and collaborative artist based in Boise, Idaho, working across symphonic, chamber, contemporary-classical, and popular music. He serves as Associate Principal Cello with the Boise Philharmonic and performs with the Boise Philharmonic String Quartet. Saunders is also a tenured Section Cellist with Oregon Ballet Theater and Sphere Ensemble. He is the founder and Artistic Director of 208 Ensemble, Idaho’s first professional ensemble dedicated to music by living composers, and the creator of Boise Cello Collective. Saunders is Cello Instructor at Northwest Nazarene University.

  

MING Team

Kristen Cooper, Artistic Director Kristen Cooper is a conceptual artist, curator, and cultural worker focused on community engagement and artist-centered initiatives. She is the co-artistic director of HUJ e.V. in Berlin, where her work supports accessible spaces for cultural exchange, creative experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration through arts programming and public engagement.
Kristen received a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an M.F.A. from the Dutch Art Institute in the Netherlands. She 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]