Resident Artists – CLIMATE
The Kent Cultural Alliance is excited to announce the second class of artists 2025 SFW Resident Artist Program. Working under the theme of CLIMATE, and in partnership with Eastern Shore Land Conservacy and Center for Environment and Society at Washington College., these artists will explore relevant topics.
Primary among the goals of the SFW Residency are community engagement and arts education. There will be several opportunities for local artists and the general public to meet and interact with the artists. While school may be out, summer camps are in, and KCA is excited to partner for the second time with HORIZONS of Kent and Queen Anne’s County. KCA’s summer artists will each lead two workshops with campers on the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on the art world.
A “Meet the Artist” event will take place at KCA on Monday, June 30, at 5:00 pm.
Exhibit Hours: Wednesdays – Fridays from 10 am to 4 pm, Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm through Sept. 6.
Evan Kassof
Evan Kassof, PhD (b.1988) is a composer, conductor, sound artist, and labor organizer living in Philadelphia. He makes operas as the Music Director of ENAensemble, and has had operas premiered and performed in Philadelphia, Budapest, and London. His music sits at the intersection of science, labor organizing, and dramatic expressionism – meaning his music is often microtonal, written in Excel, and made in genuine collaborative partnership with others. He jointly-made, ecologically-informed augmented reality works installed in Wyoming and Philadelphia, residencies at Pine Meadow Ranch (Oregon, 2023), Tongue River Artist Residency with flutist Chelsea Meynig (Wyoming, 2024), and the Kent County Cultural Alliance (Maryland, 2025). When not making music, he’s winning strikes and transformative collective bargaining agreements as an organizer with the Philadelphia Council, AFL-CIO. More at evankassof.com and @evankassof.
Marty Two Bulls, Jr.
Marty Two Bulls Jr. is an artist and educator based in Rapid City, SD. Two Bulls is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and was raised in the high plains of South Dakota. Two Bulls comes from a family of diverse artists. His father, Marty Two Bulls Sr., is an accomplished artist and was Two Bulls’ first art instructor. Two Bulls grew up in his father’s studio where he learned the fundamentals of sculpture, illustration, graphic design and most importantly how to make a living as a creative person. Two Bulls eventually went on to study printmaking and ceramics at The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM where he earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts in 2011. After graduation, Two Bulls spent several years in Santa Fe developing his art practice and working in contemporary art galleries where he worked with a plethora of contemporary artists from around the world. In 2017 he was offered a full time faculty position with Oglala Lakota College (OLC) to teach art. Two Bulls jumped at the opportunity to return to his homelands and work with his tribal community. Since returning home, Two Bulls has created a Graphic Arts program at OLC and continues to work as a positive force for the arts in his communities both near and far. Two Bulls is the Artist Laureate for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and a 2022 United States Artist Fellow.
Tory Tepp
Tory Tepp is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of land art, agriculture and community engagement. In 2009 Tory attained his MFA as part of the inaugural class of Suzanne Lacy’s Public Practice Program. Shortly after, he served as the driver and public representative for Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project, driving a vintage armored car 19,000 miles around the country to engage with over 100 schools, museums and community centers. This developed into an itinerant art practice for Tory, doing projects and residencies around the country, in predominantly rural or wilderness areas such as Death Valley, the High Sierra mountains, Florida and the high plains of Colorado. The Road came to an end in Sauk County, Wisconsin where Tory regrouped with Wormfarm Institute, resulting in the establishment of creative roots there and several rural, land art projects. Currently Tory splits his time between Wisconsin, working with farmers and Kernza, and Florida where he has created two food forest installations at Hillsborough Community College campuses.
Ashley Minner Jones (Baltimore, MD)
Ashley Minner Jones is a community-based visual artist and folklorist from Baltimore, Maryland where she has lived on the same block her entire life. Her interdisciplinary practice is deeply rooted in place—usually within the context of the U.S. South—and is focused on honoring and celebrating everyday people by lifting up their stories. Ashley is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She earned an MFA in Community Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art and a PhD in American Studies from University of Maryland College Park. As an artist, she has exhibited widely and her work is represented in several prominent collections. Her research is being archived as “the Ashley Minner Collection” in the Albin O. Kuhn Library of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her most recent project is a reconstruction of East Baltimore’s historic American Indian “reservation.” A monograph on the same is forthcoming.
ashleyminnerart.com / @ashleyminnerart
SCHEDULE:
Important Dates:
The Kent Cultural Alliance offers several free opportunities for the community to engage with our resident artists. Some of those opportunities include the following dates: All events at KCA’s Raimond Cultural Center, 101 Spring Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland.
Monday, June 30, 2025 – MEET THE ARTISTS at KCA at 5 pm. This is a formal presentation by each of the artists about their work and lives as artists. There will be Q&A opportunity followed by a lite reception.
Saturday, July 26, 2025 – OPEN STUDIO at KCA from 11 am to 2 pm. Open studio provides the public an opportunity to engage with the artists while they are at work in their studio preparing for the CLIMATE Exhibition.
Friday, August 1, 2025 – OPENING NIGHT at KCA from 5-8 pm. Join us for the opening of CLIMATE, An SFW Residency Exhibit featuring KCA’s resident artists
Saturday, August 2, 2025 – ARTISTS’ Talk at KCA at 1:00 join us for this more formal presentation of residency work by KCA’s artists. The presentation will be followed by a lite reception.
- Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 7:00 pm
“Meet the Residents – Artist Talk”- Free. Come meet our resident artists, and learn about their practice and past projects. Lite reception to follow. - Saturday, April 27, 2024 from Noon to 3 pm
“OPEN STUDIO” – An opportunity to see our artists at work on their “LAND” project. - Friday, May 3, 2024 from 5 – 8 pm
EXHIBIT OPENING – Come see the work created by our resident artists and learn from our partner organizations about this social practice residency experience. - Saturday, May 4 at 1 pm
ARTIST TALK – Join our artists one last time and hear about their work related to this residency. - Friday, May 3 – Saturday, June 1
The LAND residency exhibition will be open to the public for four weeks. Gallery Hours will be Wednesday – Friday from 10 am to 4 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm.