Tara Fahey

Tara Fahey is an artist, teacher, and performer. Their 20 year art practice includes lanterns, puppetry, papercuts, printmaking, and sculptural textiles.                      

In 2019, they were awarded a Puppet Lab Grant through the Jerome Foundation creating ‘Devotion:The Early Years of Rachel Carson’ at Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater.         

In 2022, they co-created Micro/Macro, a 16 panel-60 foot- visual ode to Minnesota freshwater ecosystems for Arts and Rec, featuring large scale papercuts.

In spring of 2023, they participated in a residency in Oaxaca,Mexico learning to make natural dye pigment for silk screen printing.

With the start of 2024, along with a small cohort of artists, they completed a two year-500 square foot expansion of the Illuminated Reef Installation at Can Can Wonderland fabricated from recycled materials.                                                         

In the spring of 2024, Tara was awarded a mid-career Forecast Public Art grant along with fellow artist Sofia Padilla. Together, they built 2 lantern bikes and taught 6 public lantern workshops, culminating in the Radiant Waves Lantern Parade on the Midtown Greenway, in July of 2024.

With support through Lake Street Lift in 2025, 8 public lantern workshops and the creation of 3 additional lantern bikes were supported during May and June. Through an MRAC Creative Individuals Grant, the second Annual Radiant Waves Lantern Parade was activated in September.                                                 

In December of 2025, 6 community public workshops at 3 separate locations culminated in the Solstice Lantern Parade on December 21st at Powderhorn Park. Collaboration from Semilla Center, Art Start, Heart of the Beast, Barebones, Sister’s Camelot, and Powderhorn Park with funding from the Minneapolis Foundation made this event a success.