The Future of Art and Artists in a Post-COVID World

Gallery Night Providence hosts a digital gathering of artists sharing their aspirational visions for the future of visual art access. Given the cyclical challenges of the economic landscape, the lack of affordable spaces and housing, and the limited exhibition opportunities for artists and aspiring artists, what place does art have in a pandemic-exhausted society? Where can art be made, seen, and shared in 2021 and beyond? What are the possibilities and new perspectives that inspire exciting and equitable spaces and platforms? Bob Dilworth moderates the discussion with local artists AGonza, Brian O’Malley, Toby Sisson, and Nafis White. Attendees' voices will be included in this dynamic discussion exploring imaginative approaches to the future of art and artists in Providence and the greater art community.
Free. Registration required.
AGONZA is a Latina Activist Artist and Providence native who as a child was in and out of the DCYF system. She then spent 8 of her teenage years living in the Dominican Republic. In her early years of muralism, she has displayed work at shows in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and won 2017- and 2018-People’s Choice Awards at the Salem Mural Slam. She then has been on multiple newsletters and front pages. In 2020 AGONZA was Breaking News in Providence RI for the George Floyd and Brianna Taylor BLM protest. Where businesses began boarding up their storefronts due to riots. AGONZA was one of the first artists to paint on a wooden panel to demonstrate her solidarity with the Nation for support of Police Brutality. Then in 2021 AGONZA made History in Providence Housing Authorities to paint 2 exterior walls on the residency building. AGONZA has been a social worker since 2014 as her daytime job. Nights and weekends, she creates murals around the city to create conversation on topics of concern. She also is a Board member at the Avenue Concept since 2019. She continues to use her knowledge with social working and her personal life to connect with her community. She shares all her artwork via Social media Platforms mostly on INSTAGRAM where she is known as @AGONZAART.
Nationally recognized and exhibited, Bob Dilworth’s works on canvas and paper, and assemblages, have won many awards including the 2014 recipient of the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Fellowship in painting, and grants from the Rhode Island Foundation, University of Rhode Island Center for the Humanities, the University of Rhode Island Council for Research, and the National John Biggers Award in drawing, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. His work has also won fellowships from the following artist residencies: Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming; Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts in Saratoga, Wyoming; Angels Gate Cultural Center in association with Marymount California University in San Pedro, CA; Playa Artist Residency in Summer Lake, OR; Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snow Mass CO; Hambidge Creative Center for the Arts and Science in Rabun Gap, GA; the Klaus Center for the Arts, San Pedro, CA; Contemporary Artist Center in North Adams, MA; the African American Master Artist in Residence Program (AAMARP), Northeastern University in Boston, MA; and Le Cite International des Artes, Artist Residency, Paris, France. His work is included in corporate and private collections including many Chicago libraries and public institutions. Bob earned a Masters of Fine Art degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Bachelors of Fine Art degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has taught art and design at colleges and universities throughout the country, including, Princeton University, Brown University, Columbia College in Chicago, and Professor of Art in Painting, Drawing, and Design, in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Rhode Island. Between 2010 and 2013 he served as chair of that department. From 2014 - 2018, Dilworth served as Director of the URI Main Art Gallery, where he curated academic centered exhibitions by local, regional and national artists. He was Director of Africana Studies at URI from 2018 – 2020. He retired from the University of Rhode Island in the spring of 2020. Bob works as a full-time artist. Currently he is on the Board of Directors of the Jamestown Art Center, and he is represented by Cade Tompkins Project. https://bobdilworth.com/
Brian C O’Malley is a multimedia artist who lives and works in Greenville, RI, USA. Brian has shown his short films in Greece, Russia, Chile, Canada, Switzerland, France, Venezuela, Uruguay, and all over the United States. In 2016 Brian received a Fellowship in Film& Video from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts. He has also received fellowships to attend  artist residencies at Ragdale Foundation, Brush Creek Foundation, Playa, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Brian is the curator of RIIA shorts 2020 (Rhode Island Independent Animators), a series of live screenings of short animated films, shown around the state of Rhode Island.  The screenings were unfortunately cut short in March because of the Covid Pandemic. Brian also curated, digital breath: video and sound art in the age global connectivity, an exhibition of new media at the Newport Art Museum from February 6-June 6 2021. (https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/digital-breath/) https://bomaomalley.myportfolio.com
Toby Sisson is Associate Professor and Director of the Studio Art Program at Clark University. In addition to her studio practice in drawing, painting and printmaking, Sisson’s areas of specialization incorporate community-based service learning, collaborative public art and curatorial projects. Her creative research focuses on issues of history, place and identity within the context of race and ethnicity. She has exhibited widely, including the Tinjin Art Museum in China, Concordia University, Provincetown Art Center and Museum, Hunterdon Museum of Art, the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute, Louisiana State University, Rhode Island College, St. Thomas University and The Montserrat College of Art. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, among them Brown University and the Worcester Art Museum. Toby Sisson’s home and studio are located in Providence, Rhode Island. https://tobysisson.com
Nafis White is an interdisciplinary, multihyphenate artist whose recent body of works are created from objects commonly found in beauty supply stores, industrial sites and the seemingly limitless horizons of our global and political landscapes. Through weaving, hairdressing, sculpture and installation, White centers the uncanny audacity of self-affirmation and love by means of repetition as a form of change. She uses concept as anchor and medium as message in her work moving within conceptual and durational realms. Community engagement, beauty and the political root deep in White’s work. Her work is in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum and University of New Mexico Art Museum. White holds MFA and BFA degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and is based in Providence, Rhode Island.