Bennett Cafarelli
Bennett Cafarelli is a craft artist living in West Philadelphia. They earned their BFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA. Since graduating, alongside their studio practice, Cafarelli has primarily worked in museums. They first worked as a special projects’ assistant at Fabric Workshop and Museum where they assisted resident artists such as Henry Taylor and Rose B. Simpson in finishing their exhibitions. They now also work in at the Museum of the American Revolution where they’ve expanded into the education sphere.
Cafarelli has also completed multiple art residencies and was most recently granted a fully funded craft fellowship at Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, NY. Cafarelli has spent their recent studio time exploring combining new techniques in fiber arts and stained glass. In 2026 they plan to continue using these processes, as well as implementing sculpture to explore the connections between creating craft arts and trans identity. Through their devotion to ongoing research and traditional techniques, Cafarelli continues to make space for craft arts in the contemporary art world.
Mecca Lewis
Mecca Lewis is a documentary filmmaker and visual artist led by truthful and grounded storytelling. Through alternative forms of nonfiction filmmaking, Lewis collages their findings with reflections on place, memory-making, and Afrofuturism. Often exploring the history and legacies of enslavement Maryland, Lewis’ methodologies in creating films center around conversation, experiential learning and serious play. She leads with curiosity and introduces the lens of their camera with an open mind, aiming to bring justice to histories central to her work. Lewis is guided by the natural world, community, and her divine creative expression.
Jonna McKone
Jonna McKone is an artist whose work combines photography, documentary and archives to explore the way place, material and form meet. She is interested in the fragility of truth, land and body as vessels of memory and histories of imperialism and empire. Her work often challenges perception, seeking to represent the invisible and incremental. Her work has been supported by Robert W. Deutsch Foundation’s Rubys Grant, the Puffin Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, and a Grit Fund Award from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She was a Center for Documentary Studies’ Lewis Hine Fellow, a Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow, an artist-in-residence at Monson Art’s Abbott Watts Photography Residency, Platteforum, Skidmore’s Storyteller’s Institute and an analog photo resident at Full Circle Fine Art. Her work shown at Goucher College (Baltimore, MD), Connect and Collect (Baltimore, MD), Candela Gallery (Richmond, MD), Hamiltonian Gallery (Washington, DC), Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ), Power Plant Gallery (Durham, NC), Resort (Baltimore, MD), The Walters Museum (Baltimore, MD), Interloc Projects (Thomaston, ME), VisArts (Rockville, MD), Zo Gallery (Baltimore, MD), SE Center for Photography (Greenville, SC) and the Midwest Center for Photography (Wichita, KS).
Jonna has taught at Skidmore College, Johns Hopkins University, MICA, University of Maryland-Baltimore County and developed community-based workshops at WNYC’s Radio Rookies, Appalshop, and the Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education in Western North Carolina. Alongside her studio practice she is an independent film producer whose work includes All Light Everywhere (Sundance Special Jury Award, 2021), To Use A Mountain (Special Jury Award, Visions du Réel), The Tallest Dwarf (SXSW, 2025, distributed by PBS’s Independent Lens), Margie Soudek’s Salt and Pepper Shakers (Sundance, 2023, distributed by The New Yorker) and Your Final Meditation (Rockaway, 2024). Her work as a filmmaker has been supported by Ford Foundation | Just Films, Sandbox Films, Sundance Institute, Points North Institute, SFFILM, Kenneth/Rainin Foundation, Cinereach, International Documentary Association (IDA) and ITVS, among others. Recently, Jonna directed a global series in collaboration with ART21 and Chanel’s Culture Fund.
Schedule:
The Kent Cultural Alliance offers several free opportunities for the community to engage with our resident artists. Some of those opprtunites include the following dates: All events at KCA’s Raimond Cultural Center, 101 Spring Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland.
- Monday, March 23, 2026 – MEET THE ARTISTS at KCA at 6:30 pm. This is a formal presentation by each of the artists about their work and lives as artists. There will be an opportunity for Q&E followed by a light reception.
- Saturday, April 11, 2026 – OPEN STUDIO at KCA from 11 am to 3 pm. This event provides the public an opportunity to engage with the artists while they are at work in their studio preparing for the HISTORY Exhibition.
- Friday April 24, 2026 – EXHIBIT OPENING at KCA from 5 to 8 pm. Join us for the opening of HISTORY: An SFW Residency Exhibit
- Saturday, April 25, 2026 – ARTIST’S TALK at KCA at 1 pm. Join us for this more formal presentation of new work created by these resident artists. The presentation will be followed by a light reception.
- April 24 – May 30, 2026 – EXHIBIT HOURS at KCA
- Wednesdays – Fridays 10 am – 4 pm
- Saturdays – 10 am – 2 pm