"The Cookout: Radical Equity in Action" featured in FEB 2024 Ceramics Monthly
February 2024
Ceramics Monthly Article Highlighting “The Cookout” by Fellow Yinka Orafidiya
“This residency was, for me, a rebirth and recommitment of my work further ignited by the camaraderie of working with other Black artists,” said Edna Knox-Davin, who was recommended for The Cookout by renowned artist Winnie Owens-Hart. “I feel like we, as Black artists, have created a safe space, a family, where we will always be a part of each other’s creative life.”
In the summer of 2023, OYA Studio (pronounced “Oh Yah”) invited fourteen Black ceramic artists to participate in a two-week wood-fire residency and retreat at the Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia.
OYA Studio
OYA Studio launched through a GoFundMe campaign in October 2021 and the very next year welcomed its first longterm resident artist, acquired its first artwork for the permanent collection, and debuted its first exhibition, a show that featured over twenty Black ceramic artists in the Philadelphia region in which OYA’s physical studio space is located.
Radical equity is the driving force behind the organization, whose mission is to amplify Black ceramic artists and become custodians to the definitive collection of their artwork. In its second year, OYA Studio increased its presence within the ceramics field by hosting events at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference and also expanded its programming, which included organizing The Cookout residency. (continue reading via link below)
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Image: The Cookout participants, Ceramics, 2023
photo: Staff