Welcoming Our New Team Members
We’re excited to introduce the newest members of the Wise Fool team. Alishiya & Alexis have been carrying this organization through the last year between just the two of them, and are SO excited to have more support as we re-expand our programming offerings back to where they were before the move.
Christiana Barnett-Murphy
Programs Manager
Christiana Barnett-Murphy has spent a lifetime in the arts, primarily as a dancer, dance educator and choreographer for the last sixteen years. One highlight of her life in teaching was directing Cirque De Danse – a circus themed dance camp for children for the Durham Arts Council/Triangle Youth Ballet in Durham, North Carolina. Most recently she has been the ballet instructor for Moving Arts Espanola. She currently works for the Santa Fe International Film Festival as their Office Manager. She is also the producer of Dancers at the Crossroads – a documentary exploring the history of New Mexico’s unique dance styles.
Christiana has a unique perspective on circus life, as her grandparents were well known circus performers in the 1930’s/1940’s and beyond. Hailing from both Southern California and North Carolina, she has called Santa Fe home since 2019. She is thrilled to be joining the Wise Fool team and helping to continue the organization’s mission!
Katie Viers
Studio Manager
Katie (she/they) is a circus artist, storyteller, and community organizer whose work centers creativity, connection, and collective liberation. Her circus practice weaves together flow arts, acrobatics and costuming, with growing enthusiasm for aerials, stilts, and crafting performances that spark wonder and tell human stories. Katie is passionate about seeing circus arts used as a tool for empowerment and building inclusive spaces where people can move, play, and imagine new possibilities together.
As Wise Fool’s Studio Manager, she hopes to create a space where artists, students, and community members feel supported, welcomed, and included, and where circus can flourish as both art and community practice. Her approach is to nurture connection, creativity, and shared vision within the studio.
Beyond the circus world, Katie is an herbalist with years of experience supporting community wellness through accessible plant medicine. She also finds joy in climbing, traveling, skating, hiking, and backpacking, drawing inspiration from the land and the resilience of the natural world.
She is committed to art that builds community, challenges systems of oppression, and helps people reconnect with themselves and with each other.
Hannah Wilber
Office Manager
Hannah (she/her) discovered Wise Fool – and circus arts – in the summer of 2022, and has been an avid student and occasional performer since then, with a special affinity for static trapeze and fabrics. Through her decade-plus career in marketing and communications, Hannah has gained extensive experience in project management, event coordination, and digital marketing, all of which she’ll be leveraging in her role as Office Manager for Wise Fool.
When she’s not at the studio, you can find her out on the trails or occasionally at art markets around town connecting with folks over her landscape photography.