In partnership with the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Assets for Artists is thrilled to welcome ten talented Connecticut 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!
Amee Hussey & Magaly Del CAstillo(Ahmee Ceramics) (stonington)
Ahmee Ceramics is a creative collaboration between Amee Hussey (she/her) and Magaly Del Castillo (she/her). Their story goes back to their roots. Amee was born in South Korea and Magaly is originally from Peru. They formed a long-standing friendship in the seaside town of Stonington CT, where their studio is currently located. Their diverse cultural backgrounds are ever-present in their artistic process. They specialize in making dinnerware, lighting, and other tactile objects for the home and commercial spaces. Amee is self-taught and continues to learn with every pound of clay that is touched. All of the ceramic pieces are either formed by hand or on the potter’s wheel. They aim to find balance in the overall form and its functionality while maintaining a minimal and harmonious design aesthetic. Magaly is passionate about design. She collaborates with other local artists and businesses to grow Ahmee Ceramics while cultivating a brand that celebrates diversity and supports the community.
thomas carruthers (Bethel)
Thomas Carruthers (he/him) grew up in a household where the virtues of the visual and performing arts were integrated into every aspect of family life, so much so that creativity became part of the family’s DNA. As a young person, Thomas found himself immersed in art projects with his mother while also learning to develop an ear for music and a lifelong love of Jazz, from his father. This led Thomas to an early career as a professional musician and band leader and a subsequent pathway producing and promoting live music and film events. During this time, he never lost sight of his love for printmaking and strong visual messaging and continued to channel his passion and sense of connection to color, composition and imagery to create the graphics for his company’s marketing materials. Now eager to focus that passion into a career in the visual arts, Thomas is honing his printmaking skills and working on a collection of collagraphs, monoprints and etchings.
sophia de jesus-sabella (hartford)
Sophia De Jesus-Sabella (she/her) is an artist, weaver, and educator based in Hartford, CT. Influenced by her blue-collar upbringing, her woven and sculptural works interrogate class, gender, queerness, and utility by combining traditional hand weaving with found construction materials. Deeply rooted in an appreciation for and curiosity about objects, materiality, and craft, Sophia’s work invites explorations of multiplicity and material lineage, by creating objects with both explicit and ambiguous functionality. Combining handwoven cloth with synthetic construction materials allows Sophia to work in the space between the provisional and the durational; that which is found and assembled out of necessity, and that which is labor intensive and craft-oriented, thus giving validity to many types of making and labor. Sophia’s work celebrates humility and failure as inherent qualities of queerness and reflects her attempts to unlearn shame and embrace the expansiveness of hybridity. Sophia is currently preparing work for several upcoming exhibitions while also expanding her teaching practice at Hartford Artisans Weaving Center.
sandra guze (east hartford)
Sandra Guze (she/her) has been creating mixed media sculpture and sewn paper forms for about three decades. Born of second-generation immigrants whose survival skills shaped her religious reuse and reverence for the discarded, Sandra acquired the passion to make and to remake objects. Alongside her father, she apprenticed in the art of fixing and grew up taking great pride in making something from nothing—or more accurately, from a well-established collection of junk. Her mother mentored her in sewing and mending, initially learning to guide the sewing machine’s path on a sheet of plain white bond paper. Thus, stitching paper and the scavenging of detritus became part of the fiber of her being. Her process involves the intuitive exploration of materials and objects, and importantly, their juxtaposition. While raising her family as a single mom, as well as juggling careers in art education and arts administration, she has continued to produce works that are at once tactile, visceral and metaphorical-- often mirroring the relationships and life stages through which she has passed.
dylan healy (West hartford)
Dylan Healy (he/him) is a composer, performer, record producer, curator, entrepreneur and educator from West Hartford, CT. Dylan's work is rooted in connecting people with the resources and opportunities they seek. He is the founder of Funnybone Records, an independent record label representing an international roster of emerging artists. He is also the founder of Import Sky, a community journal that publishes artwork and literature by creatives around the US. Dylan has been booking concerts, festivals and community events around the Northeast for the past decade. He records and performs with his seven-piece band, Stadia, as well as with a multitude of other musical collaborations. He aspires to synthesize his work by opening a production house, which would serve as an innovative artistic hub for his community. Outside of the arts, Dylan's full-time job is modifying and teaching curricula to high-school students with accommodations.
lauren horn (West hartford)
Lauren Horn (she/her) is a movement and text based artist originally from Windsor, CT and now based in West Hartford. She graduated from Amherst College with degrees in Psychology and Theatre and Dance. Lauren’s work explores identity and the ways it can be uncovered, marginalized, highlighted, and erased. By utilizing movement and text as means of fostering a more welcoming form of vulnerability, the work creates a space for self-reflection and conversation for both the performer and viewer. Another aspect of Lauren’s work is entrenched in creating a dialogue around our current society’s relationship to technology. From the Silent Generation to Generation Z, she wants to understand how groups of individuals, in each living generation, feel that technology has affected their expression of their true self. Lauren’s choreographic work has been showcased at The BAM Fisher Theatre in Brooklyn, NYC, The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, Hibernian Hall in Boston MA, as well as numerous venues across New England and the Pacific Northwest. Lauren studied under several noted dancers, and has performed with numerous esteemed dance companies.
jasmine jones (Hartford)
Jasmine Jones (she/her) is a photographer, filmmaker, curator, and publisher from Hartford, Connecticut. She is the founder and publisher of Aislin Magazine, an arts & culture magazine focused on emerging and underground artists. Her work documents daily life, overlooked moments, and ignored communities. Her goal is to showcase those who should be seen and heard and to use her art as an outlet for them to tell their own stories. Jasmine’s journey as a photographer began at a young age while exploring different art forms and further evolved while studying at UConn where Jasmine’s photography provided a dual purpose, allowing her to create art while documenting and archiving her life and the lives of those around her. This led to Jasmine’s first solo exhibition in 2016 where her first funded, short documentary film, Voices: Volume 1, Ballroom was screened. The film highlighted voices from NYC’s Ballroom scene and explored its history, the appropriation of Ballroom, and whether or not sacred cultures should be shared on a mass level.
keila myles (hartford)
Keila Myles (she/her) is a multi-talented independent artist, band leader, singer, songwriter, rapper, and visual artist hailing from New Haven, Connecticut. She is the frontwoman and band leader of Keila Myles and the Moose Knuckles, a punk soul band that blends elements of punk, soul, and rock into a unique sound. Myles' music is characterized by her powerful vocals and introspective lyrics that explore themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. As a visual artist, she creates bold and colorful paintings and illustrations that reflect her passion for music and hip hop culture. Myles' DIY approach to her art and music has led to the release of several singles, an EP and several collaborations. She has gained a reputation for her unique style and voice and has been featured in several exhibitions and galleries throughout Connecticut. With her talent, dedication, and passion for her craft, Keila Myles is sure to continue making her mark on the music and art world.
línda perla-giron (new haven)
línda perla-giron (they/elle) is a first generation queer American Salvadoran artist currently based in New Haven, CT who aches through the written word, performance, and the visual. they are a dedicated lover seeking to transform the anger that boils their blood into the joy + pleasure that fuels self discovery and community action. Born and raised in the Bible Belt of the United States, they dance alongside marginalized and inherited narratives that care for and contextualize a landless existence: the being ni de aquí, ni de allá. they bilingually (Spanish/English) investigate hunger as the state in which one finds themselves when experiencing spiritual, mental, physical deficit: how/why it drives us towards action or inaction – madness, pleasure, depression, starvation, revolution – ultimately an undeniable need to live, by whatever means. their creative practice is made rich by the practical community work they do by means of dispelling myths surrounding those of us who are and go throughout our lives hungry.
they are the earth that has helped make ends meet by way of farming and grounding in desperate times of questioning.
they are they company they keep.
they are their hands + feet, eyes + nose, tongue + knees, ass + vagina
they are a stranger at coffee shop, a survivor of violence, the splinter in your palm, a shoulder to lean on
maya rogers (mansfield center)
Maya Rogers (she/her) is an award-winning songwriter, vocalist, educator, author, and music therapist who believes deeply in music's power to heal, uplift, and transform. The intention to create inspiring musical experiences lies at the heart of her work. Maya's music is soulful, universal, and timeless. She released her most current solo project in 2019, “The Gathering”, a collection of songs centered around healing and rising above life's challenges. Her songs and voice appear on documentaries, television, feature films, and podcasts. Maya holds a dual bachelor's degree in Songwriting and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music and a certificate in Music Therapy from Howard University. In 2017, she was given the honor of Formation Scholar by Beyonce Knowles Carter and Howard University for her excellence in her studies. Her path to music therapy began when she experienced a traumatic brain injury and used music to help restore her mind, body, and spirit to a state beyond her wildest expectations.