Big Ideas, Real Impact

Heijeu Arts' goals and vision come from the founder's decades of arts experience in rural and nonmetro spaces. Our flagship program, The Tiny School of Art & Design — a mobile arts program that has served rural and nonmetro communities across Minnesota — encompasses the goals and values of our programming today:

Goals

  1. Bring creative experiences directly to Minnesotans. Through mobile programming, Heijeu Arts travels to communities across the state — removing geographic and logistical barriers that keep people from accessing the arts.

  2. Center underserved communities in everything we do. We intentionally design and deliver programming in communities that have been historically under-resourced by arts institutions, ensuring that creative opportunity is not determined by zip code.

  3. Build genuine connection across difference. Heijeu Arts creates spaces where people from different backgrounds, disciplines, and walks of life come together around shared curiosity and creative expression.

  4. Make participation accessible to all. From flexible tuition models to meeting people in familiar spaces, we remove financial, cultural, and physical barriers so that everyone can engage — not just observe.

  5. Grow a statewide creative community. Over time, we aim to weave together a network of artists, makers, and curious people across Minnesota who see themselves as part of something larger.

Values

  • Accessibility — Art is for everyone. We design every program with inclusion as a baseline, not an afterthought.

  • Mobility — We go where people are. Showing up matters.

  • Curiosity — We believe the act of wondering is itself creative, and we welcome everyone — artist or not.

  • Community — We don't just serve communities. We are in them, with them, and accountable to them.

  • Equity — We acknowledge that access to the arts has not been equal, and we actively work to change that.

  • Joy — Creative expression should be fun, alive, and worth showing up for.