Tanja Hollander

Tanja Hollander is an artist who works with gardens, social practice, photography, video, and installation to understand cultural and visual relationships. For the past fifteen years, she has examined the many ways in which we build community both on and offline. In her Ephemera Project, she is building images and stories into an archive of the people we love and the objects that hold us together.

Hollander has created several artistic responses to the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine on October 25, 2023, and has spent the last two years researching how artists help communities to heal after mass violence. She has worked in New York City with the 9/11 Museum & Memorial, in Boston with Marathon Daffodils, and in Paris with the Archives de Paris. She was recently invited to do an installation at the University of Manchester, UK incorporating the in memoriam pieces she has made to date.  She planted the first 🤟🏽 Garden with the community for the second anniversary of the Lewiston shootings and continues to work on this project.

Hollander was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1972. In 1994, she earned a B.A. in photography, film, and feminist studies from Hampshire College. Her last body of work, Are you really my friend? debuted in its entirety as a year-long exhibition, including a short documentary and a book, at MASS MoCA, the largest contemporary art museum in the US. She lives and works in Auburn, Maine.

E-mail Tanja.

Regina Galli

Regina Bartholomew Galli was born in Portland, Maine. She is a Yoga instructor, a Reiki master and a death doula. She became a community wellness advocate in January 2024 when she began her work with the Maine Resiliency Center. There she offers weekly trauma- and grief-informed restorative yoga sessions and guided meditation to those affected by the tragedy on October 25th, 2023. Regina is an avid flower gardener who has had various jobs in the floral industry. In recent years she has enjoyed working independently as a floral designer and interior plant specialist.

Regina’s skills and passions converge in her work on the vibrant 🤟🏽 Gardens project. (joined March 2026)

E-mail Gina.

Irene Brady Barber

Raised in midcoast Maine, Irene Brady Barber traveled and lived abroad, then realized that Maine is the community she feels most at home. Through years of education, continued professional development, life’s trials & lessons, and many ah-ha moments, Irene discovered a passion for Horticultural Therapy. She recognized the extraordinary power of plants that benefit people in so many ways, especially when people are manually working/interacting with plants, either in crafts, in the garden or with house plants. As an accredited Registered Horticultural Therapist, achieved through the Horticultural Therapy Institute, for 15 years, Irene designed and managed Horticultural Therapy sessions, serving people of all abilities to address & improve their wellbeing, located in the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Irene annually planned the layout, plantings and special features, in the universally accessible garden for program participants who successfully nurtured and reaped the rewards (aka health benefits) of therapeutic gardening and customized plant-based activities.

Today, Irene runs her landscape design and Horticultural Therapy programming business, Greenscapes Design LLC out of Durham, Maine and looks forward to growing HT contracting services to people who may not otherwise have easy access to gardens. (joined March 2026)

E-mail Irene

Miia Zellner

Miia Zellner is a Deaf artist and educator living in Mexico, Maine. As a member of the Deaf community raised in a Deaf family, they have used their lived experience as a disabled person to inform their work and practice.

As an artist, their work explores the Deaf experience in a hearing world, and values the cultural differences that create a vibrant community. Their multimedia pieces invite viewers and participants to utilize their senses and engage with the work in unconventional ways, facilitating human connection and emotion through various methods of access. This work is continued in the context of the mass shootings on October 25th, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine to create spaces of healing for all.

As an educator, their teaching practice is rooted in experiential learning, differentiation, and play. Their Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students are provided opportunities for discovery and consideration of their environment while instruction is accommodated to all abilities. Miia encourages their students’ natural curiosity and hands-on exploration to inspire personal growth and comprehension.

Miia has an MAT from Maine College of Art and Design, a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and is currently a Teacher of the Deaf through the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing at their Elementary Deaf Education Program in Lewiston.

E-mail Miia

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