Welcome Nyssa Collins to the UT School of Art MFA in Time-Based Arts Program. Collins comes from Burlington, NC. She has a BA in Piano Performance (2016, Cal Poly Humboldt), and is a largely self-taught multimedia artist. Collins has created several semi-permanent pieces of public art in North Carolina and worked as a giant puppet maker and performer with Paperhand Puppet Intervention for five years. She has also performed puppetry, stilts, and/or music with Fox and Beggar Theater in Minneapolis, The Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, and Busch Gardens. She is the founder of the experimental puppet company, Deep Time Puppet Co.

Her research includes many different inquiries into public art and sculpture, including temporal, sustainable, and living design, kinetic sculpture, and interactive pieces. Other subjects of interest include new music, natural science, multimedia storytelling, and creative youth pedagogy. In addition, she loves trail running and her clown dog, Laika.