06/29/2026
“Maybe community is all the plants in your garden, whether or not you're trying to cultivate or w**d them, and it's your ultimate job as a gardener to try and keep balance.”
Artist Cecilia Karoly-Lister spends much of her time creating spaces where people can gather around food, creativity, and connection. During the growing season, she helps run the Grow North Farm & Market in Mountain View through Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services. In the winter, she facilitates art projects and supports community programs. At home, she’s raising a growing family of her own while squeezing in time for her studio practice whenever she can.
“I think most of what I do is try to make nice spaces that have food access and commensality at the heart of their creation,” she said.
Born in Fairbanks, Cecilia moved to Anchorage when she was seven and has called it home ever since.
While her work is rooted in relationships and place-making, defining community isn’t simple.
“I feel like I used to define community as a supportive group. But I am lovingly in community with folks who don't always think the highest of me, some who aren't very nice, some whose values are in direct opposition to mine, some folks I'd really like to slap but would also go to bat for!”
In this way, Cecilia thinks of community as more like a garden—full of plants that require care and attention, each with different needs but that meaningfully contribute to the whole. And everyone can help nurture their community.
“I hope to strengthen the communities I’m part of by working very hard to make other people feel funny, smart, impressive, sexy, or whatever it seems like they’re going for,” she said.
Representation has also played an important role in Cecilia’s life. As a self-described “third generation lesbian,” she grew up surrounded by women who showed her there was no single way to live or love.
“I got so many examples growing up of how a woman can be and love,” she said. “That kind of representation opened up a lot of possibilities for my little heart. I feel so lucky that I saw from a young age that you can be gay and live a long happy life.”
When Cecilia thinks about Anchorage’s future, she imagines a city where everyone has a place to live, neighborhoods are connected by gardens and walkable streets, and people celebrate the things that make each other different.
Whether creating art, running a community farm, or making space for gatherings, Cecilia is cultivating the kind of Anchorage she hopes to see—one built on care, connection, and the understanding that every garden is stronger because of its diversity.
It’s a vision rooted in the same values that guide her work today: creating spaces where people feel welcome, cared for, and connected.
Cecilia Karoly-Lister is part of .
