Family First: Textual Fragments

Join us as we create expressive text with our Inter | Sectionality exhibit featured artist Rosa Naday Garmendia.

This special Family First program will be led by artist Rosa Naday Garmendia, whose artwork is featured in our current exhibition Inter | Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City. We will focus on using text as an artform. Participants will create a positive statement or phrase that expresses something about themselves, their family, or what they hope for in the future. They can use readily available materials to add color and vibrancy to their statements.

Artwork is not always the manifestation of physical objects. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, conceptual art was a movement, and language was a central concern for artists during that time. Text and language are a crucial part of Rosa Naday Garmendia's artistic practice. Similar to her style, this Family First workshop will employ words and phrases to spark necessary conversations and evoke a personal narrative.

The supplies encouraged for this workshop are below:

• Paper 11" h x 17" w (ANY size will work, white or light color paper is preferred)
• Markers, crayons, color pencils, pastels, sharpies, and/or paint
• Tracing paper (not required)
• Any additional layers you would like to add to your text (magazine clippings, glitter, stickers, etc.)

Participants may download the following document to use during the workshop to create thier textual peices:

• Font sheet (PDF)

The workshop will be streamed live via Zoom. Use/enter the passcode "28202". Click/tap here to access and participate in the workshop on December 5.

Also, if you would like to watch the workshop live, please tune in to the Gantt Center's official YouTube channel here.

Rosa Naday Garmendia is a socially engaged, multidisciplinary artist who produces work at the nexus of contemporary art and activism. Her work is rooted in social issues, particularly the intersectionality of her identity as a multiethnic Cuban woman, immigrant, and industrial worker. Her personal relationship to colonization, experience of otherness, resilience and conflict have made it possible for her to identify with cross-cultural social issues. The driving impulse is her desire to use art as a tool to create discourse, challenge traditional views, and build understanding. She reflects on and analyzes norms and values in contemporary society. She focuses on projects that critically view the role of police, acts of racism, poverty, and U.S. foreign policy. She considers her artistic practice a daily act of resistance.

Rosa Naday studied at various universities and art institute's: University of South Florida, Parsons School of Design, University of Miami, Vermont Studio Center, and the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute. She has participated in International Cultural Exchanges and exhibition programs in the United States and across the Caribbean with DVCAI. Awards and residencies include; Wavemaker Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Artist Access Grant, The Ellies Creator Award, South Florida Cultural Consortium, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Equal Justice Thematic International Residency, Vermont Studio Center, ProjectArt, and Art Center South Florida. She is a member of Common Field and the National Performance Network and Visual Arts Network, (NPN/VAN). She serves as an artist on the board of Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI). Rosa Naday speaks English, Spanish and Haitian Kreyol. She is a teaching artist at the Perez Art Museum Miami since 2008. Through the discourse of artistic practice, she continues to reaffirm her place in a larger community that transcends socially imposed geographical and ethnic borders.