Since 1998, Kansas City-based visual artist Chris Dahlquist has exhibited extensively throughout the United States. Committed to the accessibility of art for all, Dahlquist exhibits in a variety of traditional and non-traditional settings and creates large-scale public installations allowing audiences to encounter and interact with her photographic objects in unexpected ways. Her works are held in hundreds of public and private collections around the world. Dahlquist also lends her passionate pragmatism to a community practice of helping artists and creative entrepreneurs develop sustainable careers. Using curriculum development, workshops, lectures, community building, and one-on-one mentoring, she has worked with hundreds of individual artists of all disciplines to develop strategies and business skills to support their practices. With the perspective of a practicing artist, stories from the artists she has worked with, and a guiding principle that the artist must be at the center of a strong arts ecosystem, Dahlquist works with municipalities, organizations, and businesses to develop strategies, programs, and policy to support individual artists. Most notably, Dahlquist partnered with Kansas City, MO, the Kansas City Economic Development Council, and AltCap: Alternative Capital for Community Impact to develop and launch the first artist-centered microlending program in the country.