S.O.U.R.C.E. STUDIO launched the inaugural Corrina Mehiel Fellowship in 2020 as an annual award to support women, trans and non-binary artists engaged in pressing social issues, specifically those who offer alternate visions and meaningful interactions through their creative practices. Given in the name and spirit of the late artist Corrina Mehiel, the purpose of the Fellowship is to allow time and space for an artist to reflect and evolve their creative practice, develop ideas and engage opportunities.
The Fellowship was conceived as a way to honor the generous spirit of the late artist Corrina Mehiel, to be proactive and life affirming in the face of tragedy, to recognize the benefits that we all gain in collaborating with Corrina and all of the artists on our team in our creative practice, and to directly resource other artists who engage in pressing social issues and embody values of care, community and integrity. Corrina collaborated with the students at AAC as an Adjunct Professor from 2013-2015 and worked with the OTR neighborhood through her empathetic and thought-provoking public interventions. The Art Academy of Cincinnati extends an invitation to Fellow recipients of the S.O.U.R.C.E STUDIO’s Corrina Mehiel Residency to continue their work to share with the AAC community and the City of Cincinnati.
The Corrina Mehiel Residency at AAC is generously supported by Four M Investments, LLC.
The Office of Engagement is thrilled to host jackie sumell as the second Corrina Mehiel Artist in Residence from July 15 – July 18, 2022 and October 9 – 20, 2022.
jackie sumell is an American multidisciplinary artist and activist whose work interrogates the abuses of the American criminal justice system. She is best known for her collaborative project with the late Herman Wallace, one of the former Angola 3 prisoners, entitled The House That Herman Built. (Wikipedia)
While in Cincinnati, sumell will be working with community to create and build a Solitary Garden in Camp Washington.
The Solitary Gardens, are constructed from the byproducts of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and indigo- the largest chattel slave crops- which we grow on-site, exposing the illusion that slavery was abolished in the United States. The Solitary Gardens utilize the tools of prison abolition, permaculture, contemplative practices, and transformative justice to facilitate exchanges between persons subjected to solitary confinement and volunteer proxies on the “outside.”
Watch jackie sumell’s “Abolishing Prisons One Garden at a Time” :
Breaking the Binary System
“While in residence at The Art Academy, I will use my time to build connections with students and faculty and explore how we can be in better relationship with ourselves and our community,” said Muse, who is from Severn, Maryland, now based in New Orleans. “I will do this through a series of screenings, workshops and performances that reflect on history while also envisioning the future.”
Muse holds a BA in Film Production from Howard University and studied at the Film Academy in Prague. Muse is a S.O.U.R.C.E Studio Fellow and recipient of the Corrina Mehiel Grant. Muse is a 2019-2020 Leslie Lohman Museum Artist Fellow and was the 2019 DCAC Curatorial Fellow. A former Artist-in-Residence at the Flux Factory, they were also a 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the ARoS Museum in Denmark. Muse’s video work has been commissioned for performances at The Shed, Mabou Mines Theater, and Dixon Place. Muse has also screened and exhibited work at Lincoln Center, The BWI Marshall Airport, Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center, The DC Arts Center, and The Flux Factory. Through their work, Muse hopes to create space for Black bodies to be free, if only for a frame.
