The Creatives Project Announces 2015-17 Artist-In-Studio Recipients
Cartwheel Art and Cartwheel Art Tours founder, Cindy Schwarzstein, who is on the advisory board for The Creatives Project (TCP) is excited to announce their third group of “Artist-in-Studio” Residents for 2015-17. Each of the selected artists will serve Atlanta, Georgia’s community as mentors and teachers through TCP’s Community Arts Program (CAP) to provide arts education and outreach for youth and adults throughout the community. Residents will complete much of their outreach service in partnership with TCP’s nonprofit beneficiaries Drew Charter School, Operation PEACE, and VSA Arts of Georgia over the next two years.
Chosen from a talented pool of over 80 applicants by TCP’s Review Panelists, these finalists represent a true extension of the organization’s spirit! As respected creative professionals, each artist shares a deep desire to help mold the future of Atlanta’s young artistic minds. Stylistically they are quite unique as each possess a distinct aesthetic voice.
The 2015-17 Artists-in-Studio recipients are:
Joseph Dreher
I plan on giving to the community by creating projects that celebrate people and encourage collaboration and personal expression. By making art that is inclusive and interactive it invites everyone in to participate and share in the experience. I hope to teach and mentor young artists and especially artists with special needs. Being the father of a special needs child I have a unique understanding of the challenges they face everyday and I hope to use the knowledge to help others.
Rachel Garceau
Teaching is a fluent language to me—it comes as a natural rhythm. I connect through sharing and wish for this aspect of my career to be life-long. Again, being new to a city, I have not yet been able to find structured opportunity to do so, and this position as an Artist-in-Studio will start me on that path—it will give me a platform to not only continue teaching and sharing in ways I have done in the past, but also allow me to test-drive my ideas of integrating movement and making.
Meta Gary
Whether it is offering artists studio space or providing a platform for artist and community networking, programs like this are incredibly valuable to working artists, as both are essential to full career development. Likewise, TCP in particular, offers involvement back to the community to kids who may one day be part of the residency themselves.
Shanequa Gay
I am excited about being a part of The Creatives Project for many reasons, but most specifically, the opportunity to spark social change in surrounding communities through the arts and collaborating with the youth is what makes this initiative so appealing to me. I also look forward to the opportunity to create and connect with the other residents to create something from multiple perspectives, thought processes, backgrounds, and cultures.
Margaret Hiden
I’m excited about the opportunity to also share my love for education and helping others understand the power of art through the various outreach programs that engage with the Atlanta community. There’s nothing more joyful than giving others the tools and aiding in planting the seed that lies within young artists in order for them to express themselves with confidence.
Meredith Kooi
I plan to use this opportunity as an educational platform to encourage younger artists, especially girls, to explore and experiment with new media, performance, and other “non-traditional” mediums. I hope that in some way I can be a proponent for new media and transmission art work that is critical of itself and committed to complicating codified gender roles in artistic practices.
William Massey
Being able to teach, collaborate, critique and problem-solve with the other creatives will be a priceless and massive boost to widening artistic scope and tenacity. Furthermore, the most important aspect to art in my opinion is sharing it with and empowering others through creativity; connecting with Drew Charter School is a tremendous aspect of this opportunity, I can’t wait to get in there, empower the children, collaborate with young minds, and see how it unfolds.
Scott Silvey
I am eager to begin making three-dimensional work again. Having a studio at The Goat Farm will allow me to finally realize a wealth of ideas I only investigated on paper during the past nine years abroad. I always endeavor to do my best and act in a professional manner and I hope to show that TCP is an organization which supports this. I’m also excited to work with the various outreach programs to promote the idea that creativity is not for artists alone but a central part of all professional fields and the act of living itself.
John Tindel
I want to create like I have never before… break my boundaries and open up new ones. I will use my studio as a place where I can share my progress, thoughts and work with others… broadcast from a beacon that creativity is forming and coming alive from myself, the goat farm and TCP. I want to be influenced by the amazing artists that TCP has enabled to come together in this way. I want to help TCP grow, educate and inspire the upcoming generations.
VIEW FULL PORTFOLIOS + ARTIST STATEMENTS HERE
Photo above: TCP’s newest crop of resident artists Joseph Dreher, Meta Gary, Meredith Kooi, William Massey, Shanequa Gay, Margaret Hiden, John Tindel, Scott Silvey, and Rachel Garceau hanging out at the Goat Farm Arts Center. Photo by: Neda Abghari
About The Creatives Project: A vital force in Atlanta’s arts community, TCP strengthens and unites arts, education, community and commerce by creating an arts ecosystem that empowers eager citizens to recognize Atlanta’s potential. They accomplish this goal by engaging fresh resources, implementing crucial and deliberate arts and culture initiatives and leading arts-based education. TCP patrons donate subsidized housing and free studio space to support our artists as they serve Atlanta neighborhoods by generating vibrant and fertile communities poised for economic growth and development
About the Goats Farm Art Center: Hybrid developments that assemble Art, Performance, Science, Design, Technology & Small Manufacturing entities in Built Environments that simultaneously operate as Centers for Contemporary Art & Performance. This blending of disciplines seeks to increase Atlanta’s relevancy, economic opportunity and market competitiveness. Goat Farm environments look to the future to trigger new thinking, new technologies and linking innovation and invention to the City of Atlanta.