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-fifth Britt Nelson Visiting Artist is Rena X Rong
In the winter and spring of 2023, Gordon students will work with sculptor Rena X Rong on a collaborative project to be permanently installed at Gordon. Rong’s visit is coordinated in partnership with the Steel Yard, a public-access industrial arts center in the Valley neighborhood of Providence.
Rong works in metal, ceramics and furniture, with a vision that is rooted deep in two-dimensional drawing. More on her work at www.renaxrong.com. Her visit will include hands-on demonstrations of the Steel Yard’s plasma cutter and their portable blacksmith set.
The residency will produce work that will include designs from first to eighth graders, each remixed in an iterative process that will include every student’s ideas while allowing those ideas to evolve in parallel to the entire project.
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 |
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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 |
2020 and 2021 |
Ceramicist and screenprinter David Allyn more about the 2020 and 2021 program |
2022 | Screenprinter Jazzmen Lee-Johnson more about the 2022 program |