2023 Artist-in-Residence: Yanira Collado
Yanira Collado (b. 1975, Brooklyn, NY) is a multimedia cultural practitioner, based in Miami, working with site specific installations that encompass painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and audio. Collado’s practice considers the restoration of histories and preservation of cultures. Interested in how diasporic and cross-cultural movements shape languages, practices, architecture, and textiles, her work details fuller pubic and personal histories of power.
For her residency, Collado is exploring the transformative healing power of movement, working closely with groups who have experienced traumas that may have impacted their own sense of self. Collado hopes to empower participants to work toward healing and joy through music and different forms of collective movement, like social dance, a term the artist has coined to describe her process. First working on a mind-body connection, participants focus on building confidence; later, participants advance toward building connections with one another and improving intimacy through dance.
2023 Artists-in-Residence: Sarah Jené and Jasmine Williams
Sarah Jené is an inspired multidisciplinary artist who uses visual art to highlight Black joy as resistance. She encapsulates the art of Blackness and the beauty of interpersonal relationships to reimagine and celebrate the Black experience. Sarah Jené does this through curated events and her art brand, Thee Black Card, digital and paper collage art. Whether it’s through an installation or conversation, her goal is to connect and create soft spaces for Black people to feel seen and celebrated. Sarah desires to use her various art-forms as a vehicle to enlighten and embrace her community by showcasing Black Culture.
Jasmine Williams is a writer, creative producer, and curator whose passion is creating programming and digital media to highlight the Southern Black experience. Using art as a tool to connect communities and share stories, her goal is to inspire everyday folks to see the art in their existence. Jasmine is the creator of ‘Sipp Talk Media, a digital platform that uses storytelling to shift the narrative of Mississippi, by centering Black experiences and culture. Exploring themes of language, food, history, art, and lifestyle, Jasmine is committed to the visibility of Black Southern stories and our creative legacy.
For their residency, Jené and Williams created We Grow On, an outdoor installation that reminds us we don’t get rid of grief; we grow through it. Through the incorporation of naturally occurring plants, flowers, and other organic materials, the installation created a meditative place to consider grief and how we continue to grow in the wake of those experiences. The installation also included a moss couch symbolizing a place of rest, respite, and recovery, a stained-glass installation, and signage with meditative quotes and works of art to aid in contemplation and remembrance. We Grow On was a place to express grief and help in the healing experience through the installation along with programming and events. Both artists were invited to participate in Art Basel Miami in 2024.
