FREE | Every Friday: May 10 - October 11 | 5 PM - 6 PM
Join us throughout the residency season for our free public series of short and informal artist talks, readings, and presentations. We’ll learn about works-in-progress from our artists and scholars-in-residence with informative and inspiring presentations in all disciplines. This is a wonderful way to kick off your weekend! Bring a friend, all are welcome.
Location: Main Campus. Look for Craigardan Event sign at the end of Main Campus driveway (two “doors” west of the farm store, towards Keene). Google Maps Link
Leena Janmohamed
Leena Janmohamed is a ceramic artist and visual designer currently working and living in Los Angeles, CA. In her ceramic practice, she primarily works with large-scale sculptural depictions of the human form. Her work centers around the human experience: deliberations on the overlap of mind and body, conversations about the ways that humanity and technology stifle and amplify one another, and simply— her own emotional and physical experiences translated tangibly. Leena is drawn to the human form in its ability to deeply capture and relay emotional ideas; every gesture, bend, and fold can be laced with meaning that is innately understood by viewers.
She started working with clay and focusing on the figure in 2020 but has oscillated between artistic mediums for most of her life. From spoken word poetry to ballet, creation has always defined her experience in the world and served as an outlet and form of expression.
Leena completed a double degree program at the University of Washington Seattle in 2022, graduating with a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and a BBA in Marketing. Recent group exhibitions include “The Collaboration: LA” in Los Angeles, and “Tidal 3” and “Am I Unmuted?”, both in Seattle. Her most recent series, “Body Prison”, explores the constraints and freedoms of a physical body from the intersectional perspective of a brown woman in the US.
Jen Parsons
Jen Parsons is a Colorado-based writer and mother of two children who bear a strong resemblance to her but are infinitely wiser at a younger age. A selection from her memoir received the 2023 Tucson Festival of Books Nonfiction Literary Award. Jen’s work has brought her residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Wellstone, and Writing by Writers. She also participated in the Writing by Writers DRAFT program. She has received awards for her humor from The Erma Bombeck Writing Workshop, which she brings up at the dinner table when her kids let her know she is not, in fact, funny. She is at work on a pre-invention memoir: after the loss of her young husband, she took her kids to the mountains where she first found love, to show them how to find a life they could love, too.