TEEN ARTIST RESIDENCY WORKSHOP SERIES

APPLICATIONS TO OUR TEEN RESIDENCY WORKSHOP SERIES ARE NOW CLOSED. SCROLL DOWN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM.

The Nicholson Project invited DC-based teens to participate in our 2023 Teen Residency Workshop Series. Ten teens were awarded this unique opportunity to take part in three two-day workshops led by established artists of different artistic backgrounds. Additionally, each workshop featured a guest speaker who works in different fields of the arts. The goal of this Workshop Series was to facilitate the development of creative practices by providing hands-on experience with new mediums and offering a fresh perspective of what a career in the arts can be. This program was generously funded by a Community Grant from EventsDC.

• Applications were open to all individuals ages 14-18 living in Washington, DC, with priority given to students from/living in Southeast DC;

• Applications included a short online form, one letter of recommendation and up to four artwork portfolio images;

• The workshop series was offered at no cost and all materials and lunch were provided;

• Awardees had to commit to attending both days of all three workshops;

• Upon completion of all three workshops, the teens received a certificate of completion that could be used to build their resumes, provided opportunities to expand their portfolio of work, and bolstered college applications.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:

WORKSHOP #1 Details
Description: Close Study Focus Francis Bacon: Two Studies for Self-Portrait Diptych
In this workshop, students explored a dichotomy of fear and love through the use of various artistic photography and mixed media to create self-portrait diptychs, reflecting the interactions of these two emotions.

Teaching Artists: Beverly Price & Shaunté Gates
Beverly Price and Shaunté Gates are The Nicholson Project winter 2023 Artists-in-Residence. Price, a photographer, began documenting the rapid effects and progression of gentrification around her in 2016 so that her fellow DC natives could read a story told by one of their own. Her documentation grew from pure interest to powerful storytelling as visually explores adolescence and the black boy experience in Washington, DC. Gates’s use of found materials evokes the energy and cultural relevance of their site of origin and the popular culture referenced within these works. He refers to these mixed media landscapes as “Land of Myth,” layering mythologies within the materials which he describes as psychogeography, an intersection of psychology and geography.

Guest Speaker: Nehemiah Dixon
Senior Director for Programs and Community Engagement at The Phillips Collection.

WORKSHOP #2 Details
Description: “Levitate” Poetry and Creative Writing
Merriam-Webster defines “levitate” as “to rise or float in or as if in the air, especially in seeming defiance of gravitation.” In this workshop, participants delved into what it meant for young, gifted, and Black people to rise above any barriers that sought to limit their freedom of choice or movement. We accomplished this by exploring multiple modes of learning and creation via music and archival film and video. Participants left this workshop with at least three new pieces of writing, a packet of curated poems and prompts, a notebook, and more.

Teaching Artist: L. Renée
L. Renée is a poet and nonfiction writer, living in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Her work, nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and a Pushcart Prize, has been published in Tin House Online, Obsidian, Poet Lore, the minnesota review, Southern Humanities Review, Water~Stone Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Indiana University Guy Lemmon Award in Public Writing, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Alumni Award, Appalachian Review’s Denny C. Plattner Award, 2022 Rattle Poetry Prize, 2021 Rattle Poetry Prize finalist, and second place for PLUCK! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture and New Limestone Review’s Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize. She has received support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc., Oak Spring Garden Foundation, The Peter Bullough Foundation for the Arts, The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, Lafayette Flats’ New River Gorge Creative Residency, Prairie Ronde Artist Residency, Monson Arts, Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. She has earned fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation, The Watering Hole, and the dots between. L. Renée holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University, where she was the Nonfiction Editor of Indiana Review and Associate Director of the Indiana University Writers’ Conference, and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Moore Fellow. She is the Assistant Director of Furious Flower Poetry Center and Assistant Professor of English at James Madison University. She believes in Black joy, her ancestors, wondering, and wandering. IG: @lreneepoems

Guest Speaker: Carolina Meurkens
Multicultural Marketing Manager at Penguin Random House

WORKSHOP #3 Details
Description: Exploring Intersections of Built and Natural Environments
Participants explored the Fairlawn neighborhood where The Nicholson Project is based, delving into the intersection of the built and natural environment. They collected and arranged natural materials, transforming them into illustrative compositions.

Teaching Artist: Nekisha Durrett
From vast freestanding sculptures to intimate gallery installations, Nekisha Durrett’s work leverages unexpected materials to make visible the historical connections and connotations that places and materials embody, but are overlooked in our day-to-day lives. Whether reimagining pre-colonial landscapes, bygone Black communities, or family lore, Durrett’s research-driven practice strives to carve out contemplative spaces and offer opportunities for viewers to consider what is revealed or concealed when information is filtered across time. Durrett earned her BFA at The Cooper Union in New York City and MFA from The University of Michigan School of Art and Design as a Horace H. Rackham Fellow. She is currently the 2022 Howard University Social Justice Consortium’s (SJC) Artist in Residence Fellow. Her work is included in numerous private collections and public institutions, including The National Museum of African American History and Culture and The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Durrett’s current works in progress investigate individual and collective histories while mining the leavings of our built and natural environments to confront instances of erasure. Queen City, a forthcoming permanent work for Arlington, VA will allow parkgoers to reflect on a forgotten history of displacement while it stands tall and vigilant in a busy metropolitan park. Genius Loci, a sculptural work in progress, redirects the ancient meaning of the word “genius” back to landscape and spirit while celebrating Black contributions to music and architecture in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Guest Speaker: Jaynelle Clarke Hazard
Executive Director & Curator at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

Interested in more community-minded workshops and events?

TEEN ARTIST RESIDENCY PILOT PROGRAM
JULY 3 - AUGUST 21, 2021

The Nicholson Project was founded with a deep commitment to providing artists with space and support to create and further their practice. Our 2021 Pilot Teen Artist Residency program was no different. Selected participants were awarded an artistic stipend, time and space to create, and mentorship from teaching + established artists and art practitioners from the DC arts community.

The Teen Artist Residency Pilot program was generously funded by a Community Grant from EventsDC.