Mikhayla Harrell | Star Blossom Life

May 2025 Co-President, LAEA Advocacy

FY27 Grant Panel Review, Louisiana Division of the Arts

Served as a grant review panelist for the Louisiana Division of the Arts, reading and formally commenting on 43 grant applications from arts organizations across Louisiana. Led panel discussions on 9 grants, drafted funding recommendations, and shaped the written record for statewide arts investment.

Arts funding decisions ripple through communities for years. Getting the commentary right matters.

The work required synthesizing each organization’s mission, financials, program outcomes, and community context into defensible, nuanced written recommendations, drawing on nearly two decades of program design, grant writing, and arts administration experience.

Spring 2025 Co-President, LAEA Leadership

Artists at the Capitol Day, Louisiana State Capitol Museum

Drafted and delivered formal remarks at the Louisiana State Capitol Museum for LAEA’s Artists at the Capitol Day, held in recognition of Youth Art Month. The event brought together K–12 art educators, student artists, and legislators to make the case for sustained arts funding as a civic priority.

Remarks were crafted to speak simultaneously to educators, policymakers, and the public, grounding advocacy in both the documented value of arts education and the lived experience of teaching art in Louisiana schools.

Ongoing Founder, Star Blossom Life LLC Consulting

Arts-Centered Program Design and Strategic Planning

Through Star Blossom Life LLC, I offer consulting services to equity-focused organizations navigating program design, strategic planning, and grant development. My approach bridges vision and execution: whether an organization needs a curriculum framework, a funding narrative, or a facilitated planning process, I bring both the strategic lens and the practical hands.

I work where art, education, and community trust intersect. That’s not a niche. It’s a specialty.

Bard Early College New Orleans Visual Arts

2024–2025 Visual Arts Instructor, BECNO Curriculum

College-Level Art Curriculum, Bard Early College New Orleans

Developed and taught original curriculum at BECNO, including an acrylic painting unit on narrative and symbolism (informed by Tanner, Marshall, Klimt, Alma Thomas, and Kahlo) and a digital album cover design project integrating visual identity, typography, and concept development.

All materials were designed for dual-enrollment college students, with rubrics, assignment sheets, and Canvas-compatible import files built for accessibility and rigor. Students are held to college-level standards while being met with full pedagogical care.

Prior Teen Intern Coordinator, Ogden Museum Youth Programs

Teen Intern Program, Ogden Museum of Southern Art

As Teen Intern Coordinator and Museum Educator at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, developed and ran a youth internship program that gave New Orleans teenagers hands-on experience in arts administration, education, and curatorial work. Many participants had never seen themselves reflected inside a cultural institution before.

The museum is only as alive as the young people who see themselves in it.

The program built real skills: facilitation, public speaking, art interpretation, and professional readiness, while grounding participants in the cultural and civic significance of Southern art and history.

Ongoing Co-President, LAEA Advocacy

Youth Art Month and Statewide Student Recognition

Through LAEA, co-leads statewide recognition of Youth Art Month each spring, coordinating student exhibitions, educator spotlights, and legislative engagement that centers young artists as the heart of the argument for arts funding in Louisiana.

This work is advocacy, but it is also documentation: creating a public record of what young people can do when they are taught well, resourced fairly, and seen fully.

Arts leader, educator, and strategic partner
for creative communities.

Arts Leadership & Advocacy

FY27 Grant Panel Review, Louisiana Division of the Arts

Artists at the Capitol Day, Louisiana State Capitol Museum

Arts-Centered Program Design and Strategic Planning

Youth Leadership & Development

College-Level Art Curriculum, Bard Early College New Orleans

Teen Intern Program, Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Youth Art Month and Statewide Student Recognition

Nearly 20 years building arts ecosystems that last.

Let’s build something meaningful.

Arts leader, educator, and strategic partnerfor creative communities.

Arts Leadership & Advocacy

FY27 Grant Panel Review, Louisiana Division of the Arts

Arts-Centered Program Design and Strategic Planning

Youth Leadership & Development

College-Level Art Curriculum, Bard Early College New Orleans

Nearly 20 years building arts ecosystems that last.

Let’s build something meaningful.

Arts leader, educator, and strategic partner
for creative communities.