Open House 2024
The Hambidge 2024 Open House was held on May 11 12-5pm. A once-a-year opportunity to tour our historic private campus, the day included tours of the new Antinori Village, which hosts workshops and accommodations where attendees can embrace their own personal creativity in a small-group setting with world-class leaders.
The soundscape for the day included improvisational cello by Sister Sai; the gentle vocal melodies of The Peter Webb Trio, featuring John Gregg and Jared Pepper; and local favorite Mark Eskew a.k.a. Elvis. Visitors took a self-guided tour of the current artists-in-residence studios, including painter Marinelly Piñango; photographer Richard DuCree; writer and community builder Nedra Deadwyler; musician Nicole Chamberlain; multidisciplinary artist and textile designer Malene Barnett; and culinary artist Hannah Spiegelman.
Read more about our Performers and Residents below.
The Weave Shed Gallery offered an Invitational Show & Sale and Hambidge-branded items for purchase. We served up house-roasted pork BBQ, yummy sides, woodfired pizza, and veggie Skye Burgers. Art-making activities included cyanotype mask-making; wax-resist post cards; and U-Do-Raku (glaze your own pot and watch it be fired).
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
This year, we celebrated acclaimed ceramicist Rick Berman, a longtime friend of Hambidge, for his dedicated service of over 50 years. Many know him as the legendary leader of our Angama and Raku firings. Rick is one of the many members of our supportive Hambidge community who have made a significant and long-lasting impact on our organization.
Rick’s ceramic work was displayed in the Antinori Village with some pieces available for purchase.
Sponsors
Raku Sponsors
First American Bank & Trust + Dorothy Kirkley + Lynn Pollard
Village Sponsors
Turner Ball + Rush & Erin Battle + Linda Gober + The Good Life Foods Company
Hosts
Rick Agel + Arte GA + Judy Barber + Temme Barkin-Leeds + Lisa Bartlett & Lloyd Fruchtman + John Bluhm & John Gibson + Thayer Coll + Margaret & Dallas Denny + Liz Gillespie + Abby Friedman & Harry J. Heiman + Greg Head & Keisha Burnette + Danielle Howard + Melissa Bunnen Jernigan & James Jernigan + Ann Johnson + Judy & Scott Lampert + Bari & Russell Love + Gordon Mansergh + Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel + Kristin Mueller + The Nickerson Family + Margaret Patterson + Ideal Woman by Allie Pohl + Jaclyn Proctor + Belinda & Ken Reusch + Paula Francis Rogers + Karen & Clay Rolader + Karin Schaller + Angelique Shaw + Barb & Thom Williams + Kathy & David Williams + Michelle & Jonathan Williams + Woodie & Steve Wisebram
Live Music Performers
Sister Sai is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Atlanta GA. My work primarily takes the shape of experimental music, but when given the opportunity, my compositions take on new dimensions through video, printmaking, installation, performance, and storytelling. My work spans many themes including the human relationship with change, our ideals around perfection, and speculative futures of spirituality and community. I am grateful to have had the support of many of Atlanta's arts organizations through grants, residencies, and fellowships. Of particular note, I was one of 3 emerging artist residents at Atlanta Printmakers Studio (2016); I was selected for the 2018 cohort of WonderRoot's Hughley Artists Fellowship Program; I have received several grants to produce public art performances for Art on the Atlanta Beltline (2015-2020); and I received the Margaret and Lee Echols Scholarship for Music Composition to attend a residency at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts (2018). My music releases have been recognized by local arts publications like Creative Loafing and Immersive Atlanta among annual "best of" Atlanta selections (2014-2019). Most recently, I have enjoyed creating music in collaboration with exceptional filmmakers in the Southeast US such as Roni Nicole Henderson, Melissa Alexander, Lev Omelchenko, Anicka Austin, and Annette Brown.
The Peter Webb Trio
featuring John Gregg on drums, Jared Pepper on bass, and Peter Webb on guitar/vocals
Peter Webb is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Decatur, Georgia. The songs he finds are inspired by landscape, flowing water, the natural world, and the lessons and experiences of life as a human. Teeth cut in the experimental and DIY scenes of Atlanta and Athens, playing with groups like Faun and a Pan Flute, Hello Ocho, Lily and the Tigers and IMA DO, Peter continues to evolve as a solo and collaborative artist.
Jared Pepper and John Gregg are musicians whose presence has been deeply and steadily felt in the Atlanta music scene for over a decade. They each are steeped in the arena of both composed and improvised music. John, drummer and percussionist, can currently be found playing with Mute Sphere, Mick Mayer, and the Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra. Jared, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer, currently plays drums and tours with Rose Hotel, as well as hosting a monthly open jam at Eyedrum.
Mark Eskew a.k.a. Elvis
A local favorite for his velvet-smooth voice, Mark Eskew and his reflections of Elvis will make you think you’ve gone back in time to see the Legend grace our stage.
Residents
Our current artists-in-residence will be their studios 1-4pm for the Studio Tour.
Marinelly Piñango, in Brena Studio, is a self-taught painter. Born in Caracas, Venezuela. She has lived in France, Spain and the USA and completed her PhD in Cognition, Communication and Interculturality at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2015 –with Outstanding Achievement. Marinelly is no stranger to dislocation, upon arriving in the USA in 2013, with her husband and one-year-old son she decided to take this new disruption to heart and become an artist. She sought out an artistic community, and found it at The Goat Farm Arts Center (GFAC), a local cultural and artist-led community in Atlanta. There she sought out mentorship, and was subsequently invited to join a female-identifying-led critique group at the GFAC, which she is still a part of today.
She consistently pushes the limits of her practice, participating in rigorous mentoring programs and being active in local and online artist communities. She is currently part of the 2023-24 cohort of The Canopy Program, a year-long mentoring initiative where graduate-level critique seminars and incubators take place, engaging in rigorous discussions around the practice of painting. She has also participated in the NYC Crit Lab and the Thrive Together Network, both online artist platforms. In May 2022 she co-curated her first group show at Spruill Gallery. This exhibition’s goal was to create greater visibility for female-identifying artists and according to local art critic Jerry Cullum, “succeeded brilliantly.” She continues to seek out opportunities to exhibit and remain engaged in contemporary conversations about art.
Richard DuCree, in Fisher Studio, is a photographer, architect, historian, and visual artist whose work focuses on social, political, spiritual, and historical content. DuCree is passionate about blending all three disciplines in his work as an artist, bringing forth a unique photographic style. He approaches the subject like a photojournalist, telling the story and capturing a moment in time to evoke a spiritual emotion. DuCree has traveled throughout North America, Europe, and Africa, bringing a unique global perspective to his work. DuCree’s interests have broadened recently to include documenting the environment and the human condition. His most recent significant projects include “I Bear Witness,” a visual retrospection that investigates the modern Civil Rights Movement, and “Americana: Black Rodeo Riders,” a photo book in progress that documents Black and Native American Western culture in the United States.
DuCree received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design and African American Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Master of Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture from 2005 -2010, where he taught architectural design, focusing on architectural problem-solving in the City of Atlanta.
Nedra Deadwyler, in Foxfire Studio, an innovative public historian who centers Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Gender Queer and Gender Expansive Folx, Refugee and Immigrant in narratives about place and history. Her working style is grounded in community care, and deep-rooted connectedness, and embodies justice. Two of her main projects are Civil Bikes and Save Your Spaces, both are designed to build a collective understanding of the historical past and engage Community to co-design how that knowledge will be used to design the future. She holds a Master of Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University, a Master of Social Work from New York University, and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Georgia. She was Scholar in Residence in 2021 with The Atlanta Beltline. She published a chapter, Civil Bikes: embracing Atlanta’s racialized history through bicycle tours. (Routledge, 2016, Bicycle Justice and Urban Transformation: Biking for All? Edited by A. Golub, M.L. Hoffmann, A. E. Lugo, and G. F. Sandoval), book review, Whose Bike Lanes, of “Bike Lanes are White Lanes: Urban Planning and Bicycle Infrastructure and Advocacy", and an article, “There is a Tremendous Untold Story of Black. People on Bikes” in Bicycling Magazine, August 2020. In 2022, became a member of the inaugural Beauty Turner Oral History Corps and the Archive Apprenticeship with the National Public Housing Museum. And attended the Highlander Education and Research Institute summer programs for community organizing and memory worker summers. She consults on projects in public history, placemaking, tourism, and heritage preservation.
Nicole Chamberlain, in Garden Studio, has been flexible in carving out her own path in both her life and career. At age 32, she left a career in web and graphic design to pursue a financially insecure life as a full-time composer and flutist. Fourteen years later, she plows ahead realizing this is the adventure she really craved.
She earned a B.M. in Music Composition and a B.F.A. in Digital Media from the University of Georgia. At UGA, she learned how to craft music compositions from Dr. William Davis, how to be a joyful and determined flutist from Dr. Ronald Waln, how to use technology to her advantage, and how to find her own unique voice in a crowded field. In 2018, Chamberlain collaborated with flutists Dr. Mary Matthews and Matthew Angelo to release a debut album of her music on the MSR Classics label titled Three-Nine Line. The album received excellent reviews including: "The music of Nicole Chamberlain is exciting and vibrant." (The Flutist Quarterly) Chamberlain's music "heavily utilizes extended techniques [that] play into the theme or story of each piece to sonically enhance its meaning." (The Flute View) Her music has won several National Flute Association Awards, including Newly Published Music and Flute Choir Composition Competition.
Chamberlain won "Audience Favorite" at the Atlanta Opera's first 24-Hour Opera Project for her opera "Scrub-A-Dub Raw." This resulted in the Atlanta Opera's first-ever commission of Chamberlain's "Rabbit Tales," which received over 50 performances. Chamberlain has been commissioned by ensembles such as the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Fort Dodge Area Symphony Orchestra, Gonjiam Music Festival, Maryland Chamber Winds, and the Hopewell Middle School Symphonic Band, among others.
Malene Barnett, in Margaret Studio, is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile designer, and community builder based in Brooklyn, New York. Malene's work examines throughlines across the African diasporic experience, which define Black narratives and stories of liberation both in the past and present. As such, her artistic work is often inseparable from her work as a community builder and storyteller. She shares her African Caribbean heritage with a global audience through archival mixed media, focusing on ceramic art installations. Through various mediums, Malene can communicate different concepts and ideas. She engages a research-based approach to understanding how the use of materials and material culture played a role in moments of the Black experience that created paths to liberation, recognizing that these tools and materials are still crucial for our continued push for sovereignty today.
Barnett exhibits nationally, gives talks, and publishes work raising awareness around Caribbean makers and ceramic art traditions of the Black diaspora. She is working on a forthcoming book with Artisan Books, which explores the studios of contemporary Caribbean artists. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture and undergraduate degrees in Fashion Illustration and Textile Surface Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has participated at Anderson Ranch, Watershed, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, and Haystack residencies. Malene is also a grantee of a Fulbright to Jamaica and founded the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a collective of independent Black makers.
Hannah Spiegelman, in Mellinger Studio, creates ice cream flavors inspired by histories and stories that have been neglected in traditional education spaces. By using ice cream as both an art medium and educational tool, Hannah produces ephemeral experiences that encourage discussion, curiosity, and commensality.
Hannah started her ice cream concept A Sweet History in 2017 and quickly began sharing her flavors through pop ups, workshops, and commissions. After being featured in NPR’s The Salt, Hannah gained an instagram following. In 2020, Hannah graduated with a Masters in Gastronomy from Boston University with a focus on food history and culture. After defending her thesis on 19th-century ice cream consumption, Hannah has taught classes on storytelling with ice cream with Gastro Obscura. She has also presented as a food scholar at the Association for the Study of Food and Society’s annual conferences. Hannah has produced ice cream flavors for private dinners, zines, and collaborated with other artists for larger culinary projects. Hannah has created over 240 ice cream flavors inspired by history, art, mythology, and personal storytelling. Each ice cream flavor begins with intensive research on its inspired story. From the research, Hannah pulls out ingredients, flavor profiles, colors, and textures, and weaves them together in a composed dessert. Ice cream, whether it is consumed or considered theoretically, opens viewers up to more dimensions of the story.