March 14, 2018
Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) is pleased to announce the next participant in our Artist-in-Residence program: Kelly Taylor Mitchell.
Kelly Taylor Mitchell will research Minnesota’s “Pilgrims,” a group of formerly enslaved Civil War soldiers and their families who fled the south for Minnesota. Mitchell will create a limited varied edition suite of three artist books as well as an in-response open edition of zines and poetry chapbooks which will work to historicize the present by sharing oral histories and decentering narratives of colonization. Mitchell’s project will explore how the stories of the Minnesota “Pilgrims” contextualize place-making in Minnesota for new and diverse populations, and inform a collective history of community building, confronting obstacles, and reciprocity in the state.
Kelly Taylor Mitchell is an installation, book, and print artist currently based in Rhode Island. Mitchell’s work recontextualizes oral histories in order to navigate the intertwined decolonial landscape of “Black” trauma and “Black” joy. Concepts of land tenure, territorial claims, community autonomy, inherited identity, and maronage act as an anchor in a cobbling of identity. Mitchell holds a BFA in printmaking from Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and in May will receive an MFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program is designed to support selected artists by providing financial and community resources, space, and equipment to assist in the creation and promotion of their work. Residencies may be from two weeks to three months in duration. Studios and equipment are available to facilitate work in papermaking, printing and bookbinding. Artists-in-Residence also receive a stipend of $2000 to be used at the artist’s discretion for supplies, travel and/or living expenses. Participation in the program is based on the artistic merit of proposed projects as well as the degree to which artists further MCBA’s artistic mission: to lead the advancement of the book as an evolving art form.
Image: Of John: A Story in 13 Pockets by Kelly Taylor Mitchell.