FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, February 22, 2022
S.O.U.R.C.E., an artist-centered and action-oriented studio, announces the 2022 Corrina Mehiel Fellows: brontë velez (they/them) and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter (she/her). Both recipients will be awarded an unrestricted $10,000 grant in addition to a partnership program with S.O.U.R.C.E Studio that is responsive to the individual artist.
S.O.U.R.C.E. (Sustained Operations Utilizing Resources for Culture, Community and the Environment) was founded in 2017 by artist Mel Chin, Amanda Wiles and the founding Board to support artistic and socially-engaged approaches that emphasize social justice issues, experimentation, and creative methodologies. Since its inception, the fellowship centers women, trans, and nonbinary artists engaged in creating alternative visions and meaningful interactions through their creative practices. The fellowship is named after friend and collaborator Corrina Mehiel, an artist and educator who committed herself to social practice, and who died prematurely due to violence.
brontë velez describes the fellowship: “I felt really drawn to the language of S.O.U.R.C.E. and that is really the prayer of my year in the midst of climate collapse. That is doing work that draws my attention closer to source, closer to the land, to my own body, my ancestors. I also felt drawn just being in the lineage of Corinna Mehiel’s work and the protection of our people. The interruption of violence is close to my heart…I’m grateful to receive this and honor her and her life. Also making sure nothing like that happens again.”
Mary Baxter states, “Advocating alongside Black women and girls is a fundamental component of my work as a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and educator…Whether it’s creating works that align with reproductive justice rights for incarcerated women or investigating the impacts of adultification bias on young Black girls, my art and practice remains committed to utilizing my own personal experience as a point of reference to connect and engage with the unique challenges faced by these particular groups.”
Led by Amanda Wiles, S.O.U.R.C.E.’s executive director, and collaboratively shaped by many advisors, the fellowship is not project driven; the purpose is to support artists with financial resources, allowing time and space for an artist to develop ideas, research, and for opportunities to arise. Wiles notes, “We embrace the many possibilities and forms that this commitment takes, such as participatory engagements with the public or through the intentionality that the artists bring to their practice, production, and distribution.”
This year’s fellows were chosen based on the boldness and quality of their work, uniqueness, and alignment with S.O.U.R.C.E.’s values. The fellows were selected by a predominately BIPOC advisory and selection committee of five: Muse Dodd, 2020 Corinna Mehiel Fellow; Emily Hopkins, director of sidestreet projects; Esther Park, vice president of the Oolite Arts Center; Stephanie Adkins, director of local programs at the National Performance Network (New Orleans); and Amanda Wiles, director of S.O.UR.C.E. Studio. A six-member committee that provided nominations for potential 2022 fellows included jackie summell, 2020 Corrina Mehiel Fellow; Pia Agrawal, curator at The Momentary; Niama Safia Sandy, cultural anthropologist and curator/essayist; Jordan Martin, curatorial production manager for Washington Project for the Arts; Reuben Tomás Roqueni, director of transformative change projects, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation; and Denise Brown, director at Leeway Foundation.
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning Philadelphia based artist who creates socially conscious music, film, and visual art through an autobiographical lens.
Although it has been a decade since her release from a Pennsylvania prison, Mary’s time spent on the inside continues to shape the direction of her art and practice. Her entertaining but poignant works offer a critical perspective on the particular challenges women of color face when they become immersed in the criminal justice system. Her work has been exhibited at venues including MoMA PS1, African American Museum of Philadelphia, Eastern State Penitentiary, Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury Vermont, Martos Gallery and HBO’s The OG Experience at Studio 525 in Chelsea among others. Ms. Baxter is also 2017 Soze Right of Return Fellow, 2018 and 2019 Mural Arts Philadelphia Reimagining Reentry Fellow, 2019 Leeway Foundation Transformation Awardee, 2021 Ed Trust Justice Fellow, 2021 SheaMoisture and GOOD MIRRORS Emerging Visionary grantee and 2021 Frieze Impact Prize award winner.
brontë velez’s (they /them) work and rest is guided by the call that “black wellness is the antithesis to state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson). as a black-latinx transdisciplinary artist, designer, trickster, educator and wakeworker, their eco-social art praxis lives at the intersections of black feminist placemaking, abolitionist theologies, environmental regeneration and death doulaship.
they embody this commitment of attending to black health/imagination, commemorative justice (Free Egunfemi) and hospicing the shit that hurts black folks and the land through serving as creative director for Lead to Life design collective and ecological educator for ancestral arts skills and nature-connection school Weaving Earth. they are currently co-conjuring a mockumentary with esperanza spalding in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony and stewarding land with their partner in unceded Kashia Pomo territory in northern California.
Mostly, brontë is up to the sweet tender rhythm of quotidian black queer-lifemaking, ever-committed to humor & liberation, ever-marked by grief at the distance made between us and all of life—
Media contact:
Amari Keller
akeller@sourcestudio.org
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