Studio Museum in Harlem announces Steffani Jemison, Jennifer Packer and Cullen Washington, Jr., as 2012–13 artists in residence. Since its founding in 1968, the Studio Museum has held a strong commitment to nurturing and advancing the careers of visual artists of African descent through the competitive and prestigious Artist-in- Residence program, an eleven-month studio residency awarded to three emerging artists each year.
Cullen Washington, Jr., Blue, 2012. Courtesy the artist.
Chosen from a pool of over 200 applicants, Jemison, Packer and Washington will join the ranks of over 100 highly regarded alumni of the residency program. Beginning October 1, 2012, each resident will receive a free non-living studio space on the Museum’s third floor, a $20,000 fellowship, and a $1,000 materials stipend, along with access to Studio Museum staff and other scholars and art professionals, both formally and informally. All three artists are participants in The Bearden Project, (2011–12) and will be included in the Museum’s upcoming group exhibition Fore (November 8, 2012 to March 10, 2013). An exhibition of their work, curated by Haynes, will be presented at the Museum from July to October 2013.
Steffani Jemison was born in Berkeley, California, in 1981. She holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a BA from Columbia University (2003). Informed by her background in literature, Jemison creates work in video, photography and mixed media, often using language or story as a foundation for conceptual investigation. Jemison contextualizes her studio practice through curatorial and social projects including Future Plan and Program, a publishing project she founded in 2011, and “Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet,” an ongoing collaborative project in the form of a reading room and discussion group. Jemison’s work has been exhibited nationally at venues including LA>