A mother-daughter duo from Concord is working to build community through a virtual art show exploring the intersection between COVID, climate change and disability.
Amaranthia Sepia and her mother, Claire Jones, created Art & Mind to highlight the experiences of those with disabilities or who are immunocompromised. It’s a fully remote showcase of BIPOC artists and activists who will be facilitating conversation around the ways climate change is touching our lives.
The virtual program, on Sept. 25 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., will take place over Zoom and include a short documentary, panels, speakers, and a masked fashion showcase. Sepia said the event is a way to foster community from the safety and comfort of peoples’ own homes.
Both Sepia and Jones are disabled and continue to mask for health reasons. They said New Hampshire can often feel insulated from the effects of a changing environment, but poor air quality is a frequent challenge for those with preexisting conditions.
“I think there's not enough people who realize [climate change is] starting to affect people in the U.S., and they don't realize that it's here. It’s not just overseas,” Sepia said. “You're not just seeing this on the TV and somewhere else. It's coming to where we live because people are not paying attention that this is a serious issue.”
The artists and performers in the show will include, a drag artist, a tattooer, an Indigenous musician and medicine woman, and there will be captioning for those with auditory impairments.
Sepia and Jones said they have already seen support for the idea of a virtual art show over social media. Sepia said people are relating to their experiences.
“Just sharing our story has brought people to us and be like, ‘Hey, I feel less alone because you're sharing what's happening to you and why you've had to deal with isolation because of these health health issues going on,’” Sepia said.
This is the third iteration of Art & Mind. It started as a grassroots effort with no sponsors. This time, Sepia and Jones have crowdfunded and secured support from several organizations, and will be able to disburse microgrants to the artists they’re working with.
“[We are] continuing this theme of helping disabled artists, helping artists of color who aren't getting a lot of support, who aren't getting the funding that they need, who are being shut out from spaces,” Sepia said.
“Maybe they're not able to go do things in person like us, because it's not accessible. So we're like, well, let's create a funding opportunity and a way for them to share their stories and continue that storytelling tradition that so many BIPOC creatives do and give them a space to do it safely. It's been a long journey to get here.”
In putting together the show, Sepia connected with artists all over the country, and internationally, through her social media presence to get them on board. Sepia hopes panels will provide food for thought, and the fashion show, a creative and positive way to think about masking. Fiscal support from the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation and NH PANTHER have given the project momentum.
“There has just been so much support here,” Sepia said. “That is really unbelievable for us. It's totally changed. And we're just excited for what's going to come next from that.”
Sepia has been an artist her whole life. She faced racism and bullying in the school system in New Hampshire and found art as a refuge, starting to show her work at libraries and galleries around the state. Art has been part of her healing process. And she says now that Art & Mind will be able to give back, including financially, to the people involved and help them continue their work, it feels like a full circle moment.
“We just meet so many diverse, cool people who are doing awesome work in their communities and being able to have a chance to fund them with some seed funding for anything that they need [has] just been really, really healing for us; my mom and I,” Sepia said.
Watching her daughter put together a project with so much personal meaning, and knitting together a community at the same time, has been rewarding for Jones.
“It's been great to see her opening,” Jones said. “She was this little seed and I’ve seen her develop her trunk and the branches and the blossoms. And now she's fully blossomed. It's just really satisfying for me.”
Free tickets for Art & Mind can be reserved here.
