In the Making: Stephen Hamilton
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In the Making“My work can’t be separated from craft. Because every time I’m weaving, every time I’m carving, every time I’m dyeing things, it is an act of reclamation of ancestral art forms.”
On Thursday, October 26, 2023, we hosted a virtual event with artist and arts educator Stephen Hamilton, in conversation with Ja’Hari Ortega JM ’24, In the Making Exhibition curatorial intern and NBSS Jewelry Making & Repair student.
Stephen is an artist and arts educator living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen’s work incorporates both Western and African techniques, blending figurative painting and drawing with resist dyeing, weaving, and woodcarving. Each image is a marriage between the aesthetic perspectives and artistry of both traditions.
They met at The Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, a former plantation dates back to the 1800s, when the Royalls, a prominent slaveholding family in the Commonwealth, held at least 60 enslaved individuals. Stephen recently completed his inaugural “Reclaiming Our Hands” summer program there—a paid art program for youth of African descent ages 14-19 to learn histories and techniques related to traditional African textiles, and their relationships with histories of slavery in the Americas.
“In the Making” is a public programs series where we connect with a range of new voices, fields, and perspectives. Learn more and view a full list of events on the series homepage.
With thanks to our underwriters
Massachusetts Cultural Council
Holt & Bugbee
Adams + Beasley Associates
Feinmann, Inc.
Platt Builders
Columbia Contracting Corp.
F.H. Perry Builder
Firestone & Parson Inc.
Inland Underwriters Insurance Agency
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