Meet the Team
Anyia Gillespie is a senior at Ballard High School and actively involved in creating films at her school's filmmaking program. Because of her love of visual arts and her determination to uphold racial equity in the arts, she joined The Colorization Collective as their film editor. In addition to creating films, Anyia is involved in community service: she volunteers at an art store called Recreative and lends a hand at the Northwest Folklife Festival.
Anya Shukla (Co-Founder) is a gap year college student and has been an artist for as long as she can remember. A proponent of racial equity in the arts, she co-founded The Collective to create space for teen artists of color who, like her, may feel underrepresented in the art community.
Camila Vallejo is a sophomore at California State University Fullerton majoring in studio arts and planning to concentrate on illustration. She is interested in pursuing work in illustration, animation, design, and video editing. Her involvement in the arts, student organizations, and volunteer work helped spark her interest to help advocate for young artists.
Izze Peña is a sophomore at Kamiak High School and has been involved in the arts for her entire life. She has goals of going to college for art as well as environmental science. She is an advocate for accessibility, sustainability, and racial justice. Being a Hispanic neurodivergent person, she joined The Collective to represent those with an intersecting identity like hers.
Jessica Liu is a senior at Madison West High School passionate about lending teen artists of color a platform to alter the world and using writing to advocate for minorities. A lover of creative writing her whole life, she has won various national writing awards for her poetry and flash fiction, and has been published in The Best Teen Writing of 2018. Aside from writing, she loves science and is a co-captain of Science Olympiad at her school.
Josh Harris is a senior in high school from Central Virginia and is excited to join The Colorization Collective team. Passionate about both artistic expression and racial justice, he is thrilled to work with this organization to provide more representation for young artists of color. Josh is involved in local artistic groups and non-profits and is eager to expand his work with The Collective.
Kathryn Lau (Co-Founder) is a senior at Lakeside School who has spent more of her time on stage or in rehearsal than not. She has danced with artists from all over the country, and more recently finished the Seattle Children's Theatre's Young Actor's Institute with Anya. As a co-founder of The Collective, Kat wants to find a way to make the arts inclusive for all audiences regardless of race and strives to have equal, authentic representation in the arts community.