Read

Think Ahead: Learning & Public Practice | Art & Resilience

Dionne Custer Edwards & Tracie McCambridge

Jan 04, 2023

Children's book illustration of a school hallway. A group of white children talk among themselves in the left background. In the right foreground, a Black boy with an Afro puts his palm to his head in frustration.

For a head start on what's coming, we're devoting the first week of January to recommendations from our curatorial team, intended to help you get better acquainted with some of the artists and programs on tap—or get you caught up on what the artists have been working on recently.

For this entry, Learning & Public Practice Director Dionne Custer Edwards and Art & Resilience Director Tracie McCambridge have reading assignments to share about upcoming programming and current Wex initiatives.

Learning & Public Practice

A Black man stands at the center of a space with black walls and a gray stone tile floor. He has a short, blonde-dyed Afro and is wearing a paint-covered sweatshirt and overalls with new red ankle boots. He's turned slightly away from the camera but looks directly at the viewer.

Anaïs Duplan photo: Elias Williams

A Boy and His Mirror by Marchánt Davis, Illustrations by Keturah A. Bobo
For the Wex's annual family film and book festival, Zoom, the Wex's Learning & Public Practice, in partnership with Wex Film/Video, featured a conversation and art and drawing demo with Keturah A. Bobo, cocreator of the New York Times bestseller I Am Enough. This spring, the Wex will again collaborate with and feature Bobo, this time highlighting her forthcoming children's book A Boy And His Mirror. One of her illustrations for it is featured at the top of this page.

Anaïs Duplan, Black Visionaries grant recipient
We're thrilled to share that Duplan was recognized by Instagram in late 2022 with a Black Visionaries award and grant. Duplan first worked with the Wex when we featured him as a panelist for our Director’s Dialogue: 400 Forward. Duplan continues this year as a Wex collaborator across program areas, writing an essay for the Meditation Ocean gallery guide, and as a part of the Wex’s interactive Breathe series featuring Duplan, Hope Ginsburg, and Cadine Navarro engaging with creative practice and breath work and mediation.

—Dionne Custer Edwards

 

Art & Resilience

A paint-spattered work table holds markers and blank name tags. Individuals seen from shoulders down hold markers as they embellish the name tags. A small sign on the table reads, "You are enough just as you are."

Sanctuary Night clients participate in art making activities, photo: Tracie McCambridge

Matter News, 'To remember that I have an imagination'

Check out this recent article by Suzanne Goldsmith that highlights some of the powerful outreach work we've been doing with the amazing Sanctuary Night drop-in center for vulnerable womxn. This ongoing work is part of our Art & Resilience department's lineup of programming, leveraging the arts as a foundation to support and enhance wellbeing in our community. You'll hear more from the first Sanctuary Night residency artists, April Sunami and Aimee Wissman, in a podcast coming to the Wex blog later this month.

—Tracie McCambridge

 

Top of page: Keturah A. Bobo illustration from Márchant Davis' A Boy and His Mirror, image courtesy of Penguin Young Readers Group

Blog home

Like this? Give these a try.