Marking our sixth year of partnership with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, A4A is thrilled to welcome these nine talented Rhode Island artists into our Capacity-Building Grant Program! We hope you’ll take a few minutes to read, meet and follow them as they progress through our program!
Lucas Baisch
Lucas Baisch (Providence) is a Guatemalan-Mexican-American playwright and artist, originally from San Francisco. His work has been read and developed at The Goodman Theatre, The NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights' Workshop, Chicago Dramatists, SF Playground, and elsewhere. Lucas is a recipient of a 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award and the Kennedy Center's 2020 KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award. He was most recently awarded a 2021-22 Jerome Fellowship through the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. Lucas has taught writing at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and as a teaching artist through Chicago Public Schools. Outside of writing for theatre, his artwork has been presented at Elsewhere Museum, the Electronic Literature Organization, gallery no one, and the RISD Museum. He has held residencies through ACRE, Elsewhere Museum, the Goodman Theatre's 2016-17 Playwrights Unit, as a 2018 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, and The Millay Colony for the Arts. As part of A4A's Capacity-Building program, Lucas will draft a new play that envisions an alternate history of the Silicon Valley.
Jobanny Cabrera
Jobanny Cabrera (Providence) is an Afro-Dominican artist and youth mentor from the Bronx, NY, with experience in music production, silk-screen printing, and crocheting. Across these disciplines, Jobanny’s work focuses on both social justice and community building. As a self-taught artist, the theme of community is important to Jobanny, as they have learned most of their skills through skill trades and mentorships with friends, family, and educators. Since they were fifteen, Jobanny has been involved in the organization New Urban Arts, first as a student, then as a volunteer, and now as the youth program assistant. Their goal is to some day create a shared studio for artists of color to have a safe space to make and connect. As part of the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, they aim to gather the skills necessary to make their art their full-time practice.
Credit: Richard W.P. Huang
Damon Campagna
The work of painter and printmaker Damon Campagna (Wakefield) is informed by his experience working in the museum field, specifically documenting 9/11 World Trade Center-related artifacts for the New York City Fire Department. This experience intensely shapes and affects his practice, which involves the analysis, logging, and curation of self through mark-making, and the ramifications of that pursuit. His more recent work spans between printmaking and immersive installation. Damon is a recent MFA graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and recently exhibited at Providence’s AS220 and Chazan galleries and was included in Abigail Ogilvy Gallery’s 2019 Fresh Faces exhibition in Boston. Most recently, he was part of an online show with the Boston-based BOSSCRIT artists group. During the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, Damon plans to learn more about the financial/accounting side of being an independent artist and to purchase his own printing press.
Credit: Dannie Harris
Marisa Finos
Sculptor and multimedia artist Marisa Finos (Providence) sees clay and other materials as an extension of her own body, while her performances seek to explore thresholds of consciousness, body, and space. Her work draws inspiration from her own reflections on the role of death and dying in contemporary culture, challenging current attitudes about mortality. Marisa received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Vermont Studio Center, and the Arteles Creative Center in Finland. In 2019 she was a Shortlist Artist for the 2019 American Craft Council Emerging Voices Award, and published in American Craft Magazine. Marisa currently teaches ceramics to adults and children at the Artists' Exchange in Cranston. During the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, Marisa plans to develop a more sustainable studio practice and create financial stability through her work.
Matt Garza
Matt Garza (Providence) is a Queer Tejanx/Latinx performance artist, contemporary Afro-Latin choreographer, healer and educator. Matt’s work explores the relationship between the individual human body and the collective body. Recently named the Inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Providence Arts + Culture + Tourism Department and Parks Department for the Historic Esek Hopkins Homestead & Park, Matt was also awarded the 2019 RI State Council for the Arts Fellowship in Choreography. A founding member of the Glitter Goddess Collective & Haus of Glitter Dance Company, they are also a Senior Company Member of New Works/World Traditions Dance Company; an adjunct professor in the Theatre Department for CCRI's program in the men’s and women's prisons; and a community organizer and resident artist for PRONK: Providence Honk Fest. During the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, Matt will engage with a fundraising consultant to create a strategic plan for funding Haus of Glitter’s largest project to date.
Jon Hope
Jon Hope (Providence) is a musician, writer and educator whose latest album is titled Hope All Is Well. As a first-generation African immigrant who grew up in Providence, Jon’s work shows influences across cultures and disciplines. Throughout his career, Jon has collaborated with a number of artists, including Statik Selektah, Nas, and Bongo By The Way. He’s released five independent projects and has written/produced over 30 visuals and short films and launched a multimedia company, Zayn Butler. Jon’s strong belief in community advocacy has led to the launch of the Hope Scholars Initiative, which provides Hip Hop-focused programing in and out of the classroom. In 2018, Black Enterprise Magazine featured Jon as part of their ‘Be Modern Man’ campaign, which highlighted 100 black men for their contributions and innovative approach to their craft. During the A4A Capacity-Building Grant Program, Jon will strengthen his management system for his brand’s growing team.
Credit: Erin X. Smithers
Keri King
Keri King (Providence) is a cross-disciplinary artist whose practice incorporates illustration, public art, storytelling and the occasional foray into performance. In 2016, Keri self-published her first narrative picture book Spectacles & Spectators and was awarded a grant from Providence Art, Culture + Tourism to create a multi-site installation for PVDfest. In 2017, she wrapped up a yearlong Creative Fellowship at Providence Public Library and installed a series of murals along the waterfront and Armory neighborhoods of Pawtucket, RI, for the city's annual arts festival. In addition to her studio work, Keri is a dedicated educator and an active member of her arts community. Keri currently teaches integrated arts to students at the Wolf School. She has also taught performing arts workshops on the subjects of vaudeville entertainment and the “Roaring Twenties.” During the A4A Capacity-Building Grant Program, Keri will strategize how to expand her base of illustration clients and pursue more public art opportunities.
Credit: Beck Jones
MJ Robinson
MJ Robinson (Providence) is an author-illustrator, educator, and community organizer who encourages creative play and art-making in movements for social justice. Their activism supports prison abolition, LGBTQIA2S+ rights, and racial and environmental justice. MJ's illustrations and comics - inspired by nature, histories and futures, folklore, ghost stories, and everyday weirdness - create windows, mirrors, and portals into real and imagined worlds for kids of all ages. MJ works in both traditional media and digital illustration, often hybridizing the two. They hold a certificate in Children’s Book Illustration from RISD and a BA in Studio Art and Creative Writing from Oberlin College. MJ is a member of SCBWI. They have worked as a colorist for children’s comics published by Henry Holt & Co. BYR, Farrar Strauss & Giroux, and Drawn and Quarterly. During their time in the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, MJ is developing ways of working that will sustain their core practice as they transition into and build their business as a freelance creative worker.
Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez
In her photography, painting, film/video installation and performance art, Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez (Providence) explores the proximity between daydreaming and reality, as well as life and death through themes of otherness, resistance, nostalgia, and feminist discourse. Often taking a historical, mythological and/or sociological point of view, Anabel positions her work in relation to her own body and identity as a Puerto Rican woman living in New England. Her most recent solo exhibition, TRÓPICO AMARGO, shifted the The William Morris Hunt Memorial Library at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston into a space for participatory actions and performance. In addition to being an artist, Anabel has developed an extensive career as a curator and cultural organizer, curating and programming for nearly two decades nationally and internationally with an intersectional lens. During her time in the A4A Capacity-Building Grant program, Anabel aims to strengthen her financial resiliency as she focuses on her creative practice full time.
In addition to the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, our 2020 programming in Rhode Island is possible because of our wonderful funders & partners, specifically the United States Department of Agriculture.