announcing 2012 charlotte street art omi resident – sonie joi ruffin

Kansas City based artist and 2010 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award Fellow Sonié Joi Ruffin has been selected to attend the prestigious Art Omi Artists Residency program this summer in Upstate New York. This three week residency program provides visual artists from around the world with a studio, living quarters and meals in a stimulating atmosphere where exchange, experimentation, discourse and collaboration are encouraged.

Born and raised in Joplin, Missouri, Sonié Joi Ruffin is a fourth generation quilter story teller, whose quilts incorporate cut fabric, paint, and/or screen print on fabric to create images and communicate stories. While attending the Art Omi residency, Ruffin plans to work on her next quilt book project, “My Mothers’ Club,” for which she will be creating quilt blocks, dyeing fabrics and writing stories that will share a personal and overall history about African American social clubs as pertaining to women’s experiences.

Through an ongoing partnership with Art Omi, Charlotte Street sponsors one Kansas City based artist to attend Art Omi  International Artists Residency each summer. Each year, a different critic-in-residence lives on campus with the artists, leading discussions and making one-on-one studio visits. Because of the proximity to New York City, residents are also visited by many prominent critics, gallerists, curators, and artists who travel to Art Omi. The residency culminates with an Open Studios day open to the general public.

Learn more about the artist and the partnership with the Arti Omi International Artists Residency program.