The Britt Nelson Visiting Artist program
This program brings professional artists into Gordon’s classrooms. Students work alongside these artists, who lead them through projects that mirror the process of the artist’s own work. While learning new skills, students draw larger lessons from these professionals, individuals who have found a way to stay engaged in the arts, and in the world of ideas, throughout their adult lives.
As part of the residency, each visiting artist gives a presentation to all three divisions of the school. These presentations are open, so that parents, alumni and the general public can share the Gordon students’ experience.
The Britt Nelson Fund was established in 1996 in memory of Britt Nelson, the mother of three Gordon students and wife of a Gordon graduate. Income from this fund provides for an annual visiting artist, giving Gordon students an opportunity to immerse themselves in one of Britt’s quiet passions: the creative world of self-expression. The fund also provides for two annual faculty travel grants.
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The twenty-fourth Britt Nelson Visiting Artist is Jazzmen Lee-Johnson
above: Ms. Lee-Johnson in class with Gordon sixth graders
Gordon is thrilled to welcome Jazzmen Lee-Johnson this year as the Britt Nelson Visiting Artist. She will be on campus this spring, working with students and drawing on her rich background in printmaking, painting, and textiles as well as performance and music.
This was the twenty-fourth residency sponsored by the Britt Nelson Fund, which was established in 1998 to support Gordon's commitment to hands-on art education.
Lee-Johnson is based in Rhode Island, with strong connection with present-day communities and deep roots in local history. She recently served as the 2020 Artist Fellow at the RISD Museum, creating work in response to the collection, and she has been a a Public History of Slavery Fellow at Brown University Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, a music mentor to teens at New Urban Arts and the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Rhode Island Department of Health utilizing the arts to confront health disparities and shape health equity.
Her recent projects include a commission as the inaugural Fitt Resident artist at the Nightingale Brown House, reimagining the problematic historic wallpaper Vues d’Amérique du Nord, and a permanent installation for the Joshua Hempsted House—a historic house museum in New London—where Joshua Hempsted kept an extensive diary of Adam Jackson, an enslaved Black man who lived in the attic of the house and worked for and alongside Mr. Hempsted.
Her work can be explored at www.jazzmenleejohnson.com
The twenty-third Britt Nelson Visiting Artist was David Allyn
David Allyn (above center) was at Gordon in 2020 as the
twenty-third annual Britt Nelson Visiting Artist.
David Allyn is a visual and performing artist whose work has rich connections to the Providence arts community. While earning an MFA in ceramics at RISD, he discovered Providence's lively, interdisciplinary arts community. He founded the ceramics studio at the Steel Yard, a nonprofit serving the sculpture and industrial arts community, and his ceramics draw on Providence's rich architectural history.
This is the twenty-third residency sponsored by the Britt Nelson Fund, which was established in 1998 to support Gordon's commitment to hands-on art education.
An excellent short documentary on David and his work is at https://networksrhodeisland.org/david-allyn/
Below is a summary for each week of Dave’s residency:
- Week one: April 6-9
- Week two: April 13-17
- Week three: April 20-24
- Week four: April 27-May 1
- Week five: May 4-8
- Week six: May 11-15
- Week seven: May 18-22
Week one: April 6-9
Week two: April 13-17
Week three: April 20-24
Week four: April 27-May 1
Week five: May 4-8
Week six: May 11-15
Week seven: May 18-22
Since 1998
Since its founding, the Britt Nelson Fund has brought the following artists to Gordon’s classrooms:
| 1998 | Painter Melissa Miller |
| 1999 | Glass artist Ursula Huth |
| 2000 | Storyteller and illustrator Baba Wagué Diakité |
| 2001 | Architect Roddy Langmuir |
| 2002 | Textile artist Jeung Hwa Park |
| 2003 | Sculptor Allison Newsome |
| 2004 | Sculptor Kitty Wales more about the 2004 program |
| 2005 | Photographer Marian Roth more about the 2005 program |
| 2006 | Puppeteers Dusan Petran and Aniece Novak |
| 2007 | Designer Gunnel Sahlin |
| 2008 | Painter and printmaker Joseph Norman |
| 2009 | Sculptor Ben Anderson Illustrator Amy Bartlett Wright Illustrator Julie Ann Collier more about the 2009 program |
| 2010 | Illustrator Bert Kitchen |
| 2011 |
featured in this video
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| 2012 | Metalworker Jim Reynolds |
| 2013 | Bookmaker Rebecca Goodale more about the 2013 program |
| 2014 | Ceramicist Seth Rainville more about the 2014 program |
| 2015 | Animator Hayley Morris more about the 2015 program |
| 2016 | Textile artist Hiroko Harada more about the 2016 program |
| 2017 | Designer Gunnel Sahlin more about the 2017 program |
| 2018 | Textile artist Brooke Erin Goldstein more about the 2018 program |
| 2019 | Goldsmith Steven Lubecki more about the 2019 program |