The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is thrilled to announce Jackie Hoysted, Kirsty Little, and Joanne Miller as the artists selected to inspire environmentally friendly living through the Sustainable Environmental Public Art Project Initiative (Initiative). A collaboration between AHCMC and the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), this Initiative facilitates our community’s collective reflection on the state of our environment regarding climate change, waste reduction and water quality.
“Issues surrounding today’s environmental concerns are top-of-mind nowadays” says Suzan Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council. “No matter which side of the aisle they may be on, people are discussing the current climate crisis. The arts are an incredible vehicle to bring attention to these challenges while also providing messages of hope and inspiring change.”
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2035 and aiming for zero waste, Montgomery County has set ambitious goals to address growing climate concerns. For these objectives to succeed, all those who live and work in the county must do their part. “Technological improvements, financial incentives, and progressive policies will be essential to meeting our environmental goals. But on their own, these interventions will be insufficient” states Doug Weisburger, Sustainability Programs Manager of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. “Art has the power to spark a heightened sense of emotional engagement in a way that graphs, data and scientific analyses cannot.”
Artists Hoysted, Little and Miller will create temporary public artworks that increase awareness of county objectives, demonstrate the environmental consequences of human actions, and encourage behavioral change. “Around the globe, artists are participating in the cultural movement to champion a clean future” Jenkins says. Studies show similar projects, like the 2016 ArtCOP21 festival in Paris, have positively impacted audiences. “We at the Arts and Humanities Council are elated to join this conversation and inspire county residents to take action.”
For more information about the Sustainable Environmental Public Art Project Initiative, visit: https://www.creativemoco.com/experience-art-culture/public-art/sustainable-environmental-public-art-project-initiative/
Click here to learn more about Montgomery County’s Public Art Collection and the Public Arts Trust: https://www.creativemoco.com/experience-art-culture/public-art/
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ARTIST BIOS
Jackie Hoysted
Jackie, (b. Dublin, Ireland) based in Montgomery County, Maryland, is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, curator and activist. She has had solo exhibitions across the US and has been featured in the: Washington Post, Washington City Paper, HuffPost, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Reno Gazette-Journal. She is the recipient of grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Vermont Studio Center and multiple grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
She is co-founder of ArtWatch, a DC artist collective focused on positive political activism that realized the One House project (2017 & 2018) – a collaboration of 300 DMV artists standing up for equality and inclusion. Additionally, she is curator for the DC organization Solas Nua that focuses on presenting contemporary Irish art.
Jackie has a degree in computer science from Trinity College Dublin and a fine arts degree from the George Washington Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
Kirsty Little
Born in England and presently living in DC.
Kirsty Little is a former Circus aerialist based in the UK for two decades when a move to USA in 2011 led her to find a new path in the art world and change her style of performance. She is drawn to working with themes of womankind, organic anatomy and the struggling environment. She makes sculpture with porcelain, wood and wire, and more recently plastic installation. She is focusing on raising awareness of the world plastic pollution crisis. By collecting single use plastic with the community, she has made various installations. ‘Refuse?REFUSE 1T,’ has been on display at Red Dirt Studio, Harmony Hall and presently UP studio in Silver Spring. ‘Refuse?REFUSE 35 Billion+’ - a commission from Visarts for their Podspace has also been displayed at the Katzen AU. She has taken this work into her daughter’s school, helping the students to collect plastic and make an installation.
Kirsty is Artist in Residence at Otis St Studios. She teaches aerial dance and yoga at Upspring studios, both in Mount Rainer. She is in the Guinness book of World Records for directing the most aerialists choreographed on silks. She performed at The Theatre Project in Baltimore in aerial collaboration with Jayne Bernasconi. She is a founding member of Ch/Art – Chevy Chase artists group. Her first solo show of fine art ‘Feminine Peculiar’ is presently on display at The Fisher Gallery NOVA.
Joanne Miller
Joanne Miller is an accomplished visual artist, photographer and educator. A recipient of the Sustainable Environmental Public Arts Project Initiative, Joanne has appeared in The Washington Post and been featured on WUSA9. Her photographs have been showcased in over 50 exhibitions nationally, including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and are held in museum, public and private collections.
A frequent educator and lecturer, Joanne has taught at the National Portrait Gallery and presented at the Walters Art Museum. Certified in arts integration and STEAM, she is on the Teaching Artist Roster with the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. Over the last decade, Joanne has developed and taught cutting-edge transformative programming, intersecting arts education, creative youth development and community arts.
Joanne’s passion for exploring the connections between wildlife and urban landscapes began more than 25 years ago while living on a houseboat on an estuary of the Potomac River just 10 miles from the Nation’s Capital. For 4 years she focused her lens on the wild animals common to an urban river. “Living on the Edge”, her long-term black and white series, provides a window into the interrelationships between nature and urban civilization.