MEDIA CONTACT
Wando Okongwu, wokongwu@projectrowhouses.org
Comms and Marketing Manager, 713.526.7662
Houston, Texas. Project Row Houses (PRH) and the University of Houston Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts (KGMCA) announce the artists participating in the 2022 Suzanne Deal Booth Fellowship: local artist Jody Wood and non-local artist Nadine Nelson.
The Suzanne Deal Booth Fellowship is administered jointly by KGMCA and PRH and was created to invite artists and cultural practitioners to the Third Ward to work alongside urban planners, educators and policy makers. The fellows will engage in creative collaborations that involve the Third Ward community and address issues important to them.
Nelson and Wood will receive mentorship from project administrators. Local artists, faculty members, community members and selected leaders will offer their support during this process.
Nelson shares that it is “a delicious blessing to get to use food as a vehicle and building-block in the historic Third Ward, the most diverse black neighborhood and a microcosm of the larger Houston community which is the 20th most diverse food landscape in the country.” She is looking “forward to co-creating a space where creative, interactive, and communal dialogue can thrive and evolve while making plates and sharing tables.”
“Project Row Houses is one of the most powerful models for sustaining socially engaged art that exists in the United States,” Wood shares. “It’s a huge honor to learn from this model as a Project Row Houses and University of Houston Suzanne Deal Booth joint fellow.” Wood goes on to express her gratitude and explains that “this fellowship award will give me the support and freedom to pursue more challenging research and connect with a brain trust of community leaders.”
The fellows will be introduced at the opening artist talks, where they will share information on their work focus and the questions that will guide their research throughout the year. At the conclusion of their fellowships, the two will also present lectures/performances that encapsulate their year of research.
ABOUT THE FELLOWS
Nadine Nelson
Non-local artist Nadine Nelson is a socially engaged educator, entrepreneur, chef, artist, and activist who uses food, sustainability, wellness, and domestic arts to foster community fellowship, strengthen connections, and promote food sovereignty. Inspired by her birthplace of Toronto and her Jamaican heritage, her belief is that food is a powerful tool for social justice. She uses culturally relevant programming to address preventative health measures and empower people to use cooking to cultivate well-being. She produces community food events and installations that bring people together through sharing cuisine, storytelling, and art inspired by culture and the potency of gathering. Her creative process involves working with community members, organizers, activists, and artists to collaboratively co-create social sculpture.
The kitchen table is our path for reconciliation, liberation, and sustenance of ourselves, our communities and the environment. Her work has been commissioned and exhibited in Boston with the Design Studio for Social Intervention, ArtSpace, New Haven Public Library, and John Ely House in New Haven. She has received fellowships from Yale University, Laundromat Project, and Center for Arts and Activism. Her writing has appeared in Plate Magazine,Yankee Magazine, Farmer’s Almanac, Kwanzaa Culinarians and more. She has a teaching certificate from Tufts University, has studied cooking at the Ritz Escoffier in Paris and the New School in New York, and farming at Sterling College and with Soul Fire Farm. She is an avid novice gardener and budding homesteader looking for land to start the ultimate ecologically conscious culinary art center.
Jody Wood
Local artist Jody Wood is an artist working in mediums of social practice, video, photography, and performance. Her recent work re-imagines routines in human service agencies, aiming to shift power dynamics and resist stigmas surrounding poverty and care. Her community-based work has been supported by prestigious institutions including A Blade of Grass, Esopus Foundation, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, an ArtPlace America Initiative at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, and through residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, Yaddo, and Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been presented internationally in solo exhibitions at Skövde Art Museum and Norrtälje Kunsthalle in Sweden, and group exhibitions and screenings at Manchester School of Art, UK; Parrish Museum of Art in Water Mill, NY; and Oakland Museum of California. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Atlantic, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, and MSNBC. She has given public talks hosted by Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland, Hunter College in NYC, University of Lisbon in Portugal, and San Jorge University in Zaragoza, Spain. She is based in Huntsville, TX and teaches at Sam Houston State University in the Art and Social Practice MFA program.
