Mission
Values
CAFAC is a community-based arts organization with unique creative resources designed to be accessible, responsive, and relevant.
Our foundational values, which we strive to demonstrate through action, are:
1>>
We build a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment that fosters experimentation, reciprocal learning, and trust.
2>>
We use our tools to spark individual and collective creativity and to disrupt systems of inequity and injustice.
3>>
We respect traditional processes and techniques while encouraging innovative exploration and creative problem solving.
4>>
We take responsibility for the finite resources used in fire art forms by promoting creative reuse, repair, and environmental stewardship.
Our Team
Becca Cerra, Education & Access Coordinator | Email
Heather Doyle, Artistic Director | Email
Pallav Kumar, Content & Communications Coordinator | Email
Victoria Lauing, Executive Director | Email
Jhyle Rinker, Gallery Coordinator | Email
Jessica Bergman Night, Resource Coordinator | Email
learn more about our staff and board
“I love the permanence of metal, how solid it is, how elemental, and how much physical work and chemical knowledge goes into casting and finishing. ”
Our History
CAFAC was founded in 2007 by a group of six neighbors who met through their involvement with the Central and Bryant neighborhood organizations. Their idea for an arts center at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue was motivated by a resident-led small area plan that outlined development goals for this neighborhood commercial node.
CAFAC’s building started its life in 1915 as a silent movie house known as the Nokomis Theater.
Learn more about the building history
Visit us
We have regular gallery hours when you can visit. Generally, someone is in the building Monday through Friday, so if the front door isn't open please come to the parking lot door under the Hothouse sign.