Social Impact Artist Award 2024 Honorees

Jeff has been creating compelling performance art in the Denver area and beyond for over 30 years as a direct service provider and grassroots organizer, always leveraging his platform as an artist for social commentary and civic engagement.

From touring Hip Hop artist and poet, to writing, and producing his own stageplays, Jeff has been an influence to the creative landscape of Denver across genres and mediums. Jeff has inspired artists throughout Colorado, and has spearheaded advocacy campaigns utilizing art as a means to address police brutality and the mistreatment of people experiencing homelessness. Jeff’s current work is focused on uncovering the hidden history of Colorado and its role in the Black American West. 

Chelsea is a passionate activist for Native rights, awareness, and sustainability. Her practice involves adapting traditional materials and techniques, such as pine needle weaving, porcupine quilling, and hide work, to address resilience, mental health, system reformation, and means of healing.

Chelsea is White River Ute and White Mountain Apache / Irish settler, and was born on the Northern Ute reservation. She earned her BFA at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2022, Chelsea was awarded the Native Arts and Cultures LIFT grant for early career support and was invited to participate in Redline’s Artist-in-Residency program for emerging, contemporary Colorado artists. She is a Greene Fellowship recipient and currently serves on the Indigenous Advisory Council for the Denver Art Museum after being a Native Arts Artist in Residence in 2022.

Suzi is an award-winning poet, author, interdisciplinary artist, music maker, and dreamer of dreams who lives in Denver, Colorado. While primarily known for her poetry, Suzi is also an organizer, an educator, a singer-songwriter, playwright, and interdisciplinary creative. She has created, curated, coached, organized, and taught for over 25 years, touring throughout the United States.

The author of poetry collections Poems for the End of the World, A Gospel of Bones (winner of the 2019 Electric Press Award), and the chapbook collection, Thirteen Descansos, Smith’s work has been featured in print, on numerous television and radio programs, and her poetry has been sampled and remixed all over the world. For over 25 years, Suzi has worked as an educator with both youth and adult students and, as an organizer, with civil rights, advocacy, arts and peace organizations, hospitals, prisons, and many more in Denver and around the United States.