Nicole Gagner is an artist living and working in Bismarck, North Dakota. She has studied and worked all over the world, including Georgia, Utah, New Zealand, and the Voices of the Wilderness Artist Residency in Selawik, Alaska. She works as a teaching artist with a wide variety of students of all ages and abilities. Her work began with Vietnamese Student Association of Notre Dame and Options Community Services, bringing art to students living with disabilities, which has informed her practice as a teaching artist and the belief that art is for everyone.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gagner has worked to make residencies and workshops available online, including live video classes and completing a collaborative mural while maintaining safe social distancing. She started the Bismarck-Mandan Studio Virtual Crawl and Meadowlark Mercantile Art vending machines as new ways for artists to sell their creations. She was selected as a Change Network Cohort for 2021 and was selected to participate in the Springboard for the Arts Creative Community Leadership Institute.

Gagner is a passionate community development organizer and rural arts activist. She is influenced by a childhood watching people connect over creative pursuits like woodcarving, lacemaking, quilting, pickle-making and other ways of preserving historic traditions and outlets for self-expression. This has led her to become a board member of BisMarket, the regional farmers market, and has manifested in collaborative artist residencies and facilitating the organization of a collaborative touring art show with the BisMan Writers Guild.