Join us every Wednesday at the downtown public Library from 4-6PM and Saturday at the CAC from 1-3PM for our Artist-in-Residence program where artist Micah Mickles will practice their art alongside the general public, educating and inspiring along the way!
The residency is called "What's Worth Keeping."
The public library workshop will be all about 2D collage. Participants will have access to the public archives and can scan and print images from books, magazines, and newspapers — basically hunting for the perfect imagery to cut up and piece together into their own personal memory collage. I think people are really going to enjoy the digging around part.
The CAC on-site workshop is where things get a little more tactile. Participants will pick out a bottle from my collection, coat it with mortar or a mortar-like material, and then dig into a bin of found objects I've been gathering throughout the residency — pressing things directly into the surface so they cure right into it. It's hands-on in the best way. I'd estimate anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours of working time depending on how deep someone wants to go. And for folks who can't stick around as long, there'll be a 2D option available in the CAC activity space too.
About Micah
Micah Mickles is a Cincinnati-based artist originally from St. Louis, MO. Micah collects found materials and turn them into assemblages that function like memorials. It all really started in grad school when he became a little obsessed with going through my late father's belongings that had been sitting in his family home for about 20 years. What started as sorting through stuff slowly turned into building a shrine in his father's memory, inspired by the craft traditions of Black people in the American South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A big part of that work connects to the tradition of memory jug making — the practice of covering a clay vessel with personal objects and mementos to honor someone who has passed. It's a tradition that has evolved a lot over time, with different makers bringing their own meaning to it.