#bossbabesATX is proud to be partnering with visual artist, community organizer, and creative entrepreneur Mercy Emelike in presenting CHATROOM, an art conversation series featuring Black women and non-binary artists. The conversations are more sitting-in-your-friend’s-living-room than panel presentation.
CHATROOM exists to facilitate warm dialogue between artists and the community with the belief that art communities thrive when there’s healthy exchange between artists and audience. The second installment in the series will be facilitated by Virginia Cumberbatch and features Deborah Roberts, a mixed media artist living and working in Austin, Texas.
If you’re an artist, an art enthusiast, or just like to chat, we’d love to have your voice there!
— MEET THE FEATURED SPEAKER —
Deborah Roberts: Deborah Roberts is a mixed media artist whose work challenges the notion of ideal beauty. Her work has been exhibited internationally across the USA and Europe. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; The Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey; and The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York. Roberts is the recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Grant (2018), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2016) and a Ginsberg-Klaus Award Fellowship (2014). She received her MFA from Syracuse University, New York. She lives and works in Austin, Texas. Roberts is represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
Virginia Cumberbatch serves as director of the Community Engagement Center (CEC), a part of The University of Texas at Austin (UT) Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE). Cumberbatch has used her years of academic and professional experience to facilitate conversations about diversity, inclusion and equity throughout the Austin area. In her current capacity, Virginia ensures that the center continues to develop new and sustain mutually beneficial partnerships between the University of Texas and diverse communities, improving systems to be more accessible and equitable for historically underserved communities. She received her bachelor’s degree in history at Williams College and her master’s degree in Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Austin Anti-Defamation League’s Social Justice Award.
— HOW TO RSVP —
As a part of the CHATROOM series, this event is the second of three discussions held at the #BBATX Headquarters on November 18, December 2 and December 14. This series is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department and is free and open to the public.
— VENUE ACCESSIBILITY NOTES —
This event is located within Canopy. A parking lot is available and the venue is accessible by public transportation. This venue is wheelchair accessible and all activities will occur on the ground floor. ASL interpreters can be provided upon request. :) If you need accommodations, you can let us know by emailing thebabes@bossbabes.org.
— MEET THE PRODUCERS —
About #bossbabesATX: We’re a Texas-based nonprofit that amplifies and connects women and nonbinary creatives, entrepreneurs and organizers. We create space to share our crafts, catalyze multi-industry coalitions, promote intersectionality across disciplines, seek guidance and provide each other with practical and emotional resources. Anyone interested in our mission, core values, and initiatives are invited to participate—and learn more about how intersectional gender equality can improve their daily lives. We provide 1500 opportunities to women and nonbinary creatives, entrepreneurs and community organizers per year. More than 15,000+ community members also annually attend our showcases, markets and dialogues—and in the last three years, our programs generated an additional $1million for the Austin economy. So, whether you apply to participate in one of our programs, attend our workshops, conferences and dialogues, or come out to a festival or market to support the community we’re building, you’re a member of this movement. All babes, all people, are welcome. :) Learn more at bossbabes.org.
About Mercy Emelike: Mercy Emelike is passionate about the visual arts, community/economy, and business. She mostly paints, thinks about business, and brings people together to talk about art. Her artwork centers on patterns, and she believes that pattern-finding/creating smoothly spans disciplines. Mercy spends 8+ hours a day helping businesses grow and playing with data. In her remaining time, she works on her art and organizes art events. She is also the co-founder/textile surface designer of MARIELLE|EJIAMA. Find her on Instagram or Twitter: @mercyejiama.