Floyd Newsum Summer Studios

2024 Mentorship Begins!

The Floyd Newsum Summer Studios Program provides an opportunity for emerging, socially engaged artists to create and exhibit work that respond to and/or is reflective of the community. For the first time in this program’s history, Summer Studios is taking a special turn and highlighting time-based media and digital artists alongside a group of visual artists who will install artwork in the seven row houses located on Holman Street.

This year’s program took place over six weeks and included 14 students from various local universities including, HCC, UH, Rice, and Prairie View A&M. Resulting in a showcase of visual art, the Floyd Newsum Summer Studios is now on view until September 8, 2024.

Meet the Mentors

Andrea Venson will serve as the mentor for visual arts students. Drea the Artist is a multi-faceted creative based in Houston, Texas. Her creative endeavors transcend conventional boundaries, delving into the profound interplay between spirituality, nature, and the human form. Her canvas comes alive with a symphony of vibrant colors and surreal compositions, offering viewers a captivating journey into the depths of her inner visions. Beyond her role as an artist, Drea serves as a meditation guide, crafting transformative experiences that blend the spiritual and the artistic. Simultaneously, she imparts her creative wisdom as a high school art instructor, nurturing the next generation of imaginative minds.

Regarding this year’s program she says, “I am excited to pour into young artists and engage in their creative expansion!”

Tobaric Atkins-Montana will serve as the mentor for time-based and performing arts students. “Toba” is a Houston based modern and contemporary professional dancer and dance educator with 6 plus years of professional performing work, during this time he’s worked and still works for companies such as, Urban Souls, Holding Space, Pilot Dance, and Alas dance; Toba attended Stephen F. Austin University and Houston community College where they majored in Dance.

Since then, they have had the opportunity to perform and choreograph at mind the gap and other local festivals. Through establishing they’re own company “IMU dance,” and after years of training and determination, Tobaric felt as if they’ve grown to a point that now Toba can freely express his love and passion for dance through classical, innovative, and challenging choreography. With the mission to spread love, “one-ness”, compassion and understanding through dance. He embarks on this new chapter, as he shares his love for dance.

Regarding this year’s program, Toba says, “I am most excited to welcome in new artists of multiple backgrounds and to see their interpretations of our beautiful community. I’m also excited for the journey that we will take as me and fellow mentor Drea, pour in our knowledge and experience to help cultivate and nourish their creativity. We have an exciting, educational and immersive program lined up for the artists and we can’t wait to explore and create.”

Meet the Jurors

Billion Tekleab is a former Summer Studios participant and one of three jurors for this year’s selection panel. Billion Tekleab (b. 2000, Houston, Texas) is an Eritrean-American interdisciplinary artist working to address the dispossession of self, particularly occuring to Black people across the diaspora, Tekleab works through poetry, sculpture, performance, and sound. Her practice explores the materiality of objects, disassembling wood and steel, and building with dirt and paint, seeking to make visible the experiences of resistance, grief, joy, and softness.

Zhaira Costiniano is one of three jurors for this year’s selection panel. Zhaira Costiniano (1995, Manila) is an active body in Texas’s cultural landscape where she currently resides. Her background centers on creating and sustaining artist-centered environments, prioritizing indisciplinary and collaborative curatorial approaches. She is interested in the complex dynamics that shape identity and the threads that connect individuals, places, and stories.

Jeremy Johnson is one of three jurors for this year’s selection panel. A native Houstonian, Jeremy recently took on the role of Operations & Exhibitions Manager at Lawndale Art Center, where he works with the Lawndale team to develop exhibitions and projects that center artists of the Gulf Coast region. Jeremy has worked in the arts at various types of institutions across Houston and is currently a writer in residence at the University of Houston Coastal Center in partnership with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.