Meet The Team

Wendy Holmes is curious about cities, and what makes them work well and equitably. She’s lived in Minnesota since attending Macalester College, but her roots are on an Illinois farm, which is now an organic farm where her daughter goes to occasional “farm camp.” Wendy has worked for the Walker Art Center, the Science Museum of Minnesota, Minnesota Public Radio, and her alma mater. 

Ask Wendy what she does and she’ll tell you that she and her team of five are “community whisperers.” She is always on the go to new places—large and small—to help figure out puzzles that lead to equitable community development where creative people and organizations have a strong voice at the table. 

Wendy has been active on local and national boards and advisory committees including James Sewell Ballet, the Urban Land Institute, Cantus, the Minneapolis Park Foundation, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has been a speaker at numerous national arts and urban affairs conferences, as well as a guest lecturer at the University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota. Wendy is a national resource for information about urban redevelopment issues, and has been interviewed by many local and national publications.

Teri Deaver joined Artspace in 1997. With a background in the performing arts, she has a particular sensitivity to the plight of artists seeking affordable space. She began her tenure at Artspace in the Asset Management division where responsibilities included leasing, property management oversight, annual budgeting, and artist relations. As Director of Asset Management she oversaw Artspace's portfolio and worked with the Board of Directors' task force on Asset Management while maintaining asset management responsibilities for the Hennepin Center for the Arts, Spinning Plate, and the Riverside Artist Lofts. Other roles at Artspace have included project development work for the Riverside Artist Lofts in Reno, NV; and project management of various predevelopment and consulting projects nationally.

In her current role as V.P. of Artspace Consulting, she works with communities nationally as they embark on arts development projects including affordable live/work, creative incubators, studio and non-residential creative space, facility expansion, and the infrastructure necessary to sustain the community’s vision for their artists and creative sector.

Anna Growcott joined Artspace in 2012, upon returning home to Minneapolis after living just about everywhere else. From Chicago to China, and New York to Australia, she has worked in a wide range of communities as a dancer, educator, and presenter-- and even picked up a few foreign languages along the way.

As Vice President of Artspace Consulting, Anna works with communities and arts organizations that are at various stages of envisioning affordable space for the arts. This often includes working with civic leaders to assess the feasibility and market for creating new, sustainable, affordable space for the creative sector in their communities. Other times, this work is focused on individual arts organizations planning for a new facility. Anna is particularly interested in how Artspace's community-led development approach can be scaled to support both larger regional and state planning, as well as smaller organizations' decision-making processes. She leads Artspace Immersion, a cohort program focused on capacity building for organizations that are planning for space-related initiatives. 

Anna graduated from Northwestern University as a Cognitive Science major, a Spanish minor, and an unofficial member of the Dance department.

When she is not at Artspace, you might find Anna teaching Pilates or searching for surf waves.

Aneesha Marwah joined Artspace Consulting in 2017. She moved to Minneapolis from Chicago, where she previously worked for Goodman Williams Group, a real estate research firm. Aneesha earned her Master of Urban Planning and Policy with a concentration in Economic Development from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2015. Major projects she’s involved with at Artspace include the Preliminary Feasibility and Creative Space Market Studies for Artspace’s consulting communities. She's assisted over 50 communities and arts organizations to date. Before joining Artspace, her work included transit-oriented development studies, downtown master planning, and housing market studies.

Prior to moving to Chicago for graduate school, Aneesha lived in New Orleans for nine years, where she attended Tulane University and was a legislative aide. She saw firsthand the relationship between politics and urban planning, and furthered her interest in affordable housing policy, art as a tool for economic development, and the need to preserve space for culturally distinct communities. Aneesha spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia, and her love for travel and learning about new communities has not waned. She brings her knowledge and experience living and working in different parts of the world to the Consulting team and looks forward to continuing to assist communities creating affordable spaces for artists. 

When she is not at Artspace, you can find Aneesha playing with her puppy, Paws; exploring all the amazing biking, hiking, and cross-country ski trails in the Twin Cities; or hanging out in the North Loop with her husband. Aneesha is a 2019 Fellow of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators and currently serves as a Minneapolis City Planning Commissioner for the 2020-2022 and 2022-2024 terms

Naomi Marx joined Artspace in 2011 as an Asset Manager. In this time she has managed multiple Artspace projects on the East Coast and managed the marketing and lease-up of a $52 million development in East Harlem, NYC. She now focuses her time between research analytics for artist market studies and the development of sustainable facilities analysis for cultural organizations across the country.

Prior to joining Artspace, Marx worked as a Senior Analyst at Schwan's; Project Manager at Springsted Incorporated; and Analyst at General Mills.

She graduated from St. Catherine University with a B.S. in International Business and Economics.

Black, Queer, Create(her), businesswoman and conduit for culture and community, Crystal C. Mercer is a celebrated fiber artist, activist, published author, playwright, and poet. She utilizes theatre, poetry, and textiles to communicate ancestral messages and tell social justice narratives through merchandising artifacts of the culture and storytelling with an emphasis of uplifting voices of color and making marginalized populations visible.

As the newest member to the Artspace Consulting team, Mercer hopes to advance bridging real estate and racial justice for creative communities. Mercer holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Dance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Master’s Degree from the Clinton School of Public Service.

Her last name, Mercer, means “a merchant in textiles”. Find out more about her work at www.crystalcmercer.com and follow her on social media @ccmercertoo. She knows, shows, and cares about what’s going on in the hood… In every thread of her being, she is weaving a tapestry of her ancestors, draped in Afro-futurism.

Kelli joined Artspace in 2022 as the Consulting Coordinator. She believes that art is a tool for economic development and community enrichment. Within the Consulting Department, Kelli is the administrative switchboard operator for all consulting projects, the wrangler of schedules, and the first point of contact for new inquiries.

A passionate artist herself, Kelli is also a Minneapolis-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. She is constantly inspired by the way in which this movement form sparks conversation, invokes empathy and creates community. Throughout her training, she has spent time dancing in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Nashville and Israel. Kelli holds a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Leadership from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

When she isn't working, Kelli enjoys being a tourist in her own city - exploring local eats, drinks and activities. She is a lover of live music, rock climbing and board games. She is constantly planning her next trip to cities and countries around the world.