![MEET OUR 2026 MCKNIGHT CULTURE BEARER FELLOW - TISH JONES Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, an arts & culture organization in Saint Paul, MN. Tish Jones is a poet, cultural strategist, and educator from the Historic Rondo Neighborhood in Saint Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people, arts & culture, youth development, and civic engagement. With over 20 years of experience as a teaching artist, community organizer, and cultural producer, Jones is passionate about the arts as a tool for education, community building, personal and professional development, and social impact.Former Brave New Voices Festival Director, Tish has a breadth of experience with large scale cultural production which includes managing teams of 75+ people, managing budgets of over $800K, securing corporate, government, and philanthropic partnerships and more. She has developed curriculum, published books and articles, served on panels, lectures; she has partnered, collaborated with, consulted with or facilitated leadership activities with The University of MN, The University of Wisconsin Madison, Words, Beats, & Life, Youth Speaks, The Kennedy Center, The Loft Literary Center, The Minnesota Department of Education, The McKnight Foundation, The Intercultural leadership Institute, and a host of other entities across the nation.Her writing can be found in We Are Meant to Rise (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), A Moment of Silence (Tru Ruts and The Playwrights Center, 2020), the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015) and more. As a performance artist her work has been shared in venues across the United States and throughout the world, including but not limited to Cuba, South Africa, London, Washington D.C., and more.Learn more about the McKnight Culture Bearer Fellowship at:#2026McKnightCultureBearerFellow#IndigenousRoots #McKnightFoundation #CultureBearerExchangeNetwork]()
✨MEET OUR 2026 MCKNIGHT CULTURE BEARER FELLOW - TISH JONES✨
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, an arts & culture organization in Saint Paul, MN. Tish Jones is a poet, cultural strategist, and educator from the Historic Rondo Neighborhood in Saint Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people, arts & culture, youth development, and civic engagement. With over 20 years of experience as a teaching artist, community organizer, and cultural producer, Jones is passionate about the arts as a tool for education, community building, personal and professional development, and social impact.
Former Brave New Voices Festival Director, Tish has a breadth of experience with large scale cultural production which includes managing teams of 75+ people, managing budgets of over $800K, securing corporate, government, and philanthropic partnerships and more. She has developed curriculum, published books and articles, served on panels, lectures; she has partnered, collaborated with, consulted with or facilitated leadership activities with The University of MN, The University of Wisconsin Madison, Words, Beats, & Life, Youth Speaks, The Kennedy Center, The Loft Literary Center, The Minnesota Department of Education, The McKnight Foundation, The Intercultural leadership Institute, and a host of other entities across the nation.
Her writing can be found in We Are Meant to Rise (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), A Moment of Silence (Tru Ruts and The Playwrights Center, 2020), the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015) and more. As a performance artist her work has been shared in venues across the United States and throughout the world, including but not limited to Cuba, South Africa, London, Washington D.C., and more.
Learn more about the McKnight Culture Bearer Fellowship at:
#2026McKnightCultureBearerFellow
#IndigenousRoots #McKnightFoundation #CultureBearerExchangeNetwork
11 days ago
