Katrina Kerstetter
TUCSON 2025 - 2026
Katrina Kerstetter was born in Louisiana and raised in Tucson, Arizona. She later spent 20 years teaching in South Korea, teaching English through mindful-learning skills and exposure to cultures and art from around the world. Kerstetter is a mixed-media artist who worked with refugees in Korea, helping them adjust to a new culture and environment, while encouraging and preserving their own culture through the arts. When Kerstetter returned to Tucson, she began a nonprofit library, Koru Multicultural and Diverse Library, with the same focus. At the same time, she began volunteering at Iskashitaa Refugee Network, which combines artistic expression, education, and community building to encourage refugees and asylum-seekers to maintain their heritable pride and courage while adapting to new environments, challenges, and cultures. Kerstetter enjoys bringing people together to share stories and experiences, giving voice to their communities through artwork. This has developed into becoming a resident artisan with Iskashitaa’s Refugee Garden Art Program (RGAP).
COMMUNITY PROJECT
Katrina is working with Iskashitaa Refugee Network on the Refugee Garden Art Program (RGAP) to expand and strengthen art engagement events with people of all ages. Through this work, she is supporting refugees, volunteers, asylum seekers, and staff to develop their own artistic voices and promoting healing through creative means, understanding that acculturation in a new country can bring many challenges. Participants come together in creating art in order to build connections across the Tucson community and create a safe, empowering, healing, and joyful environment where all are truly welcomed and involved. Katrina’s intention is to have the art programs become increasingly refugee-led by establishing a space where the participants can feel comfortable sharing with others, leading projects which are representative of their culture, and offering an opportunity where all are being heard.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
Founded in 2003, Iskashitaa Refugee Network is an intergenerational network of volunteers and UN refugees who is dedicated to improving the lives of refugees and the broader community through sustainable food initiatives, hands-on educational programs, and community partnerships. We create opportunities for refugees to share, learn, work and build meaningful connections while fostering a more resilient and inclusive local food system and community integration.
Refugees and resident asylum seekers from all corners of the world are at the heart of everything we do. We foster belonging and empowerment through community integration, cultural exchange through the arts, and meaningful connections. We teach sustainable practices and divert untapped food from landfills through a “People – Pets – Planet” framework.
Education is the core of our programs, fostering bidirectional learning where refugees share their culture, art, and experience while building life skills for their future.
We create a safe space for global friends at our weekly arts focused Refugee Garden Art Program. We have resident artists curate art projects including a monthly Drum and Music circle, Movement and Body Art, and art projects with Katrina Kerstetter, a mixed-media artist helping refugees by combining her artistic expression, education, and community building to encourage refugees and asylum-seekers to maintain their heritable pride and courage while adapting to new environments, challenges, and cultures. Kerstetter enjoys bringing people together to share stories and experiences, giving voice to their communities through artwork. For over 22 years with the help of over hundreds of community volunteers, we’ve used innovative food-based programming to empower underserved communities to develop the skills necessary to grow towards deeper community connection and integration.