We asked some of the most talented folks in the community to talk to us about projects they’ve worked on that they still think about, projects that really meant something. Have you had such an experience? Are you looking for inspiration for your next project? Check out the stories below, they are exciting, entertaining, and most importantly – inspiring.

Toon De Melker

After graduating college in 2023, I was fortunate to be cast in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door—a film that went on to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and garner widespread international acclaim. Landing such a role early in my career, especially under the direction of a cinematic icon like Almodóvar, wasn’t just an honor—it was a formative moment. Being entrusted to portray a character he had written and envisioned gave me a sense of artistic purpose I’ve carried forward ever since. Read more>>

Alexis Barnes

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was traveling to London in August 2024 for a one-of-a-kind collaboration event that brought together visual artists from the US and UK. The event centered on bridging our cultural perspectives through creative expression and inviting others to witness how we, as artists, visualize the world. Read more>>

Julio Cesar

Back when I start sharing more about my craft and view when it comes to dance I had a hard time believing my stuff were relevant for public in that time. I always concentrate in doing something the felt good but still question if couple would trust me and my work. Amazon came and offered me be part of there first project call “the future is ours” the it was a combination with fashion, dance and music. The beautiful thing about this, there main focus was to bring a team full of Latinos the represent excellence and innovation in there craft so working along side with people from different areas was a unique and meaningful experience the until this day brings joy to my heart. Read more>>

Cieon White

It truly is difficult to settle on just one experience that has been the most meaningful in my dance career thus far. So many things have been incredible and impactful. However, I can definitely recall an unforgettable experience that sealed the deal for me on fully pursuing my professional dance career.

Since I was 11 years old I consistently announced that I would move to LA and work as a professional dancer one day. Being born and raised in Washington meant that Los Angeles looked just as shiny and promising as it’s portrayed in every dreamer starter pack. Read more>>

Teliyah Bush

I do what I do because I believe in shining a light where it’s often overlooked. Northern California has always been a hub of raw, authentic, and diverse talent, from artists and musicians to creatives and entrepreneurs. But in the media and entertainment world, SoCal usually gets all the love. LA is seen as the center of culture, but NorCal has its own pulse, its own flavor, its own stories and those deserve to be seen and celebrated.  Read more>>

Ashley King

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my recent EP, Love Lately. It’s my first full body of work that really allows listeners to hear me, feel me, and understand who I am as an artist. While I had released a few singles before, this EP was my way of creating something more complete and intentional—something people could truly connect with. What makes this project so special is how deeply personal and spiritual it feels. Just like music, love is a deeply spiritual experience. It moves us, challenges us, and teaches us. Read more>>

Marian Moore

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my clay art series, which centers around geometric and circular patterns, floral designs, and spiritual elements inspired by various cultural traditions. This project holds deep personal significance because it allows me to explore and express my connection to different spiritual philosophies and cultural motifs through a tactile and meditative process. Read more>>

William Bradford

This is a difficult question to answer as with any and every project, at the time and during the creative process, it always seems that what you are working on will be the “most” meaningful project of your life up to that point – and it should feel that way. If you approach your art with real passion, your evolution as an artist should mean that you learn how to better express what you “mean” with each new project. So every album since the inception of SeepeopleS, the anti-genre band I’ve led for 25 years, has been a further step into deeper learning. Read more>>

Fabiola R. Delgado

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work on a wide range of projects, each one meaningful in its own way, so it’s impossible to pick just one. And I feel like I’m only getting started!
I always infuse a bit of me in partner projects, whether it’s co-creating a citywide food justice program with Chefs José Andrés and Carla Hall for the Anacostia Community Museum; developing inter-library partnerships that brought Hirshhorn Museum collections into local libraries for families to enjoy; or designing artivism and wellness activities in connection to the collective art marvel that is the Fundred Project, initiated by catergory-defining artist Mel Chin. Each experience brings its own kind of magic. Read more>>

Owen McIntosh

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is the Musical Headwaters series, especially our latest album, Garden. This project is deeply personal and reflects both my journey as a musician and a parent, as well as our family’s commitment to environmental stewardship and education.  Read more>>

Tracey Mason

One of the most meaningful projects I have worked on would be ASU Kerr, a gorgeous music venue where I have been General Manager for almost 15 years. It is definitely still a project in the works, as it’s success is still such a challenge. It is incredibly meaningful to connect artists with audiences and to again and again experience that spark that happens when audiences get to build community with friends, family and artists in a venue as special as ASU Kerr. It is special because there are so few adobe music venues in the US. It is beautiful, historical and has great acoustics so artists love it, but because it is so small and quite hidden, it can be incredibly difficult to sell seats and make ends meet. Read more>>

PaSean Wilson- Ashley

Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths with no known cause. The majority of women—including myself—will develop fibroids at some point in their lives. For many, these growths bring years of suffering marked by debilitating menstrual cycles, miscarriages, chronic pain, life-threatening anemia, disrupted sex lives, and other serious health complications. Read more>>

Tommy Jay Dwyer

I think that every project I have worked on has been meaningful in it’s own way. As an artist when you take on a project you need to find the meaning in it in order to truly give yourself to the piece. Recently I have been working on a documentary highlighting the deteriorating conditions of fire houses across Massachusetts. My father, uncles and two of my cousins were on the Worcester Fire Department and one of my uncles was on the Fitchburg Fire Department, so this project in particular has really hit home for me. I feel a great responsibility to tell this story and bring awareness to the issues these men are facing. Read more>>

Edgar Illescas

I would definitely have to say my first album as Entity with a close friend of mine who went by SPVCECVSE at the time. It’s a self-titled album and it was the beginning of a decade long era that led to me being a solo artist today. It’s a pretty feature heavy project and to see where everyone is now that was involved with the album makes me appreciate that time and reminds me to appreciate what’s going on now. Plus, there’s a song on there named First Love that I still perform to this day even though its 10 years old this year. (September 2015) Read more>>

Maddie Casagranda

This year I had the opportunity to collaborate with my dad on a really meaningful project. I had been playing around with the idea of using the embroidery hoop as a frame for my work, and asked my dad what he thought about the possibility of bending wood to make very large hoops. He was enthusiastic that it could work and excited to try it out. I was thrilled that he was willing to help me and support my concept. Over the course of a few months and after some trial and error, he ended up building 20 large embroidery hoops in various sizes. I was able to show some of these in my recent MFA thesis work at the Blaffer Art Museum and am continuing to explore using them in my artistic practice. Read more>>

Mark Plakotoris

In 2023 I was approached by Beth El Congregation in Baltimore to build a new Shulchan (a table/altar used for reading the Torah.) This piece was intended for a sanctuary that seats close to a thousand people! I had never done a commercial project of this scale before, so this was a unique opportunity for me. Having the chance to design a piece that would transcend from everyday furniture to a sacred ritual object was a remarkable brief. Having an entire congregation entrust me with such a large project was a very meaningful experience. Read more>>

Marco Catella

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my opera, Prince Cnut. It has occupied most of my time since I arrived in New York, and in many ways, it represents everything I believe in as a composer.

Opera is my favorite genre, and with Prince Cnut, I’ve tried to write a rare kind of premiere that is bold but still rooted in the genre’s natural strengths: organic dramatic flow and expressive, idiomatic vocal writing. I believe that in our rush to be new for its own sake, we sometimes lose the ability to communicate new things in a meaningful way. Read more>>

André Joseph

Out of any film project I have ever done, my 2022 short film ‘Dismissal Time’ was my most meaningful. It was inspired by a traumatic race-related bullying incident I endured as a high school freshman, where I was accused of wrongdoing while the administration failed to take accountability. Making the film with actors playing loose versions of the people involved in the real story was a very cathartic experience for me during production. But the emotional impact it had on audiences at film festivals touched me deeply. Everyone’s faced discrimination of some form or another in their youth, often shaping their worldview. I wanted this film to speak to the youth of today going through similar situations like I did and tell them they are not alone. Additionally, it was an important story to tell as a filmmaker to humanize real heroes by emphasizing their values and their flaws.  Read more>>

Daria Yang Du

Definitely—Wilton House holds a very special place in my heart. Completed in 2025, it’s a compact, affordable modern loft located between Koreatown and Hancock Park in Los Angeles. What makes it so meaningful is that it’s not only my first fully realized built interior project, but also my personal home and the birthplace of my independent practice, DD Studio. It functions both as a living space and as my creative studio. Read more>>

Young Entertainment

The podcast, hands down. It’s been such a labor of love, and seeing how far we’ve come is incredibly rewarding. We’ve had the chance to talk to so many talented people, from breakout stars to seasoned creators, and every conversation adds something new. I think what makes it meaningful is knowing that we’re creating a space that celebrates creativity, especially within the young adult genre, while also giving talent a platform to be real, vulnerable, and seen. It’s more than just entertainment—it’s about building connection. Read more>>

Thomas Kneeland

I’m currently writing a memoir-in-verse that 1) uses critical fabulation to fill the gaps of a matrilineal, Afrocuban narrative that reaches back to the Cuban War of Independence and flees to the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century, 2) superimposes present-day American context onto Cuban-American relations of the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, and 3) reiterates the necessity of matriarchs as sacred culture-bearers and keepers of wisdom; engages in creative/academic dialogue and discourse regarding topics of intergenerational trauma in Black, Afro-Latinx, and Afro-Indigenous communities; and shows how reimagination and preservation of ancestral narratives can reinforce Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Latine archives and amplify collective consciousness during times of racial, historical, and political crisis. Read more>>

Melanie K. Hutsell

I’m still working on it! I have a magic realism novel I’ve been wrestling with on and off for over thirty years. I believe it is my magnum opus, for what that’s worth, whether or not it’s ever worth anything to anyone else. It’s a story that I have to tell — I keep thinking the main character is done with me, many times over the years, but then he hunts me down and collars me. So what am I to do? Finally I have committed to see it through. Many writers say, a project like that belongs in a drawer, should be whittled down to a short story, etc. But I believe if I don’t write this, I’ll never be free of it. I have to write it through to move on in the end. And I guess that’s where I am now. I guess I could change my mind one day. But I’ve made my peace right now about this stage of my journey. This novel is my primary life’s work at the moment. Read more>>

Yasmin

My most meaningful project is my ‘COLOURS’ EP.

It’s almost like a time capsule of my personal experience with love. loneliness, change and relationships, as a teen / young adult.

I made most of those songs during lockdown, in secret. I don’t think I’d told my parents that I had used my student finance to buy recording equipment. I was experimenting with how to put my feelings out in the open, because it was so tiring keeping everything inside. Read more>>

Jessica Maret

Making art intended to honor an important moment in my collector’s lives brings me a lot of joy. One of my favorite recurring projects is creating a custom painting based on a couple’s wedding florals. These paintings makes such a special keepsake or gift for anniversaries or newlywed couples. I believe art has a very powerful way of capturing these important milestones, so special moments can be remembered and honored in a unique way. I also enjoy working on commissions to bring color and joy to a special space in people’s homes. Some recent commissions include: celebrating a new baby with a custom painting for their nursery, or partnering with collectors to make art that compliments a well-loved space in their home. Read more>>

Brad Rose

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is The Bird House, a suburban backyard micro-gallery I co-run with Eden Hemming. We started it as an extension of Foxy Digitalis, but more than that, it was a response to a question we kept circling around: What does it mean to create space for art when you live outside of major cities? Read more>>

Antonia

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is LeNuQuem—a collaborative photo tapestry series created in partnership with ten Mayan artisan women from Santa Clara La Laguna, a village above Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. The name LeNuQuem means “our stories” in Kaqchikel, and that’s exactly what the work aims to do: honor and amplify stories told directly by the women themselves. Read more>>

Carly Glovinski

Opelske, Almanac, and the Wild Knoll Foundation Garden are three deeply intertwined projects that merge my roles as both artist and gardener. Together, they reflect years of inquiry into the materiality of flowers—what they mean as living things, symbols, specimens, and objects of care.  Read more>>

Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth

The vision of FotoFocus is “to inspire conversations about the world through the art of photography.” At our core, each project is a meaningful interpretation of this aspiration: we seek out artists, creatives, and experts of various fields, all with the intent of considering the world we live in now through a multitude of perspectives. Since 2010, FotoFocus has collaborated with organizations, curators, academics, and more than 3,000 artists and participants, to present over 800 exhibitions and programs. Each signature program, including the Biennial and annual Symposium, addresses timely social, political, and cultural topics, using photography and lens-based art to prompt dialogue and critical engagement with history, society, identity, and culture. Read more>>

Shawna Foster

I was living through my worst nightmare. I experienced the devastating and unexpected loss of two of my children due to a form of psychological abuse known as Parental Alienation, or more specifically, Attachment-Based Parental Alienation. This occurs when one parent encourages a child to unjustly reject their other (targeted) parent through poisonous messaging, blocking contact, erasing good memories and replacing them with fear and falsehoods, encouraging secrecy and betrayal of trust, and undermining the authority of the targeted parent. It shattered me. I was fighting for my children, my relationship with them, my marriage, my business, my health, and my life as a whole. Read more>>

Robbie Gallo

I recently released my sophomore album, For all K.I.N.D. (Knowledge Infinite New Discoveries), digitally on April 15, 2025.

This one’s personal because I lag. I get in my head about my craft, my practice, my skills. It messes with my confidence and delivery. I’ve been doing this for decades, and honestly, the longer I do it, the harder it gets. Am I good enough? Do the new poets, rappers, and musicians respect what I bring? Do they even think I have talent? Read more>>

Uttara Ganesh

My MFA thesis has been the most meaningful project I’ve worked on in recent years. Interestingly, it began as something else entirely, with a completely different direction and outcome. During my first semester, I reluctantly started exploring Indian mythology in one of my seminars. As an Indian, I initially felt that engaging with these stories was too predictable—almost a cliché. But as I delved deeper, I became fascinated by the idea of retelling and reimagining the very stories so many of us grew up with. What truly challenged me was rewriting familiar myths from the perspective of a female “side character”—someone typically overlooked in the original narratives. Read more>>

Darius Burton

The most meaningful project that I believe I have worked on was the Book “Modesty is Beauty” Even though I have produced and directed 4 feature films publishing this book through the company in a way has shown me how I have been changed and desire to put out content that will help others change as well. The reason I say this is because before being a filmmaker I started out with photography and whatever was eye-catching or shocking or even provocative is what I would strive for even if it was immoral. Read more>>

Alexandra Balog

Altalena was born out of a very personal search: a desire to create a space where deep artistic work, cultural exploration, and meaningful human connection could coexist. The idea came to life during a period when I was reflecting on how fragmented and transactional the cultural world can feel—especially for artists who are constantly on the move, often without a true sense of belonging. Read more>>

Carrie Burckle

The most meaningful project I worked on was creating the Arts Organization Textile Arts LA. Prior to forming Textile Arts LA I had an urge and a vision to create a space for like minded textile artists where we could gather together to share facilities, teach classes and hold artists talks. My inspirations were the Textile Center in Minneapolis and the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. After attending workshops at Penland and Haystack, both well known craft schools I had a desire to create something similar here in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a fashion manufacturing hub, plenty of fabric stores, fashion design programs and textile artists, crafters, designers, and enthusiasts. We were a desperate community that lacked a center. Read more>>

Erin Johnson

Among the most meaningful creative endeavors I have been a part of, are not necessarily the ones that are already tidily completed and in the past, but are the projects which I am currently on the journey towards fulfilling. It is often the projects we are in the midst of – in the present – which reflect the most compelling creative leaps, expansion and ambitions for an artist. Read more>>

Lucy Finch

In my 40s, I discovered the art education I never knew I wanted – atelier training in drawing and painting. Earlier in my life, I attended a university on an art scholarship and enjoyed studying art, but my art never progressed past a certain, clunky stage. So I switched degrees and forgot about art, although it popped up in different ways, no matter what job I took. But at the atelier, I learned how to see differently, and, along with age-old techniques, was amazed to learn that I could create 2D images that looked 3D. Read More>>