The Windgate Project Grants were established in 2015 on the 10th anniversary of CCCD’s Windgate Fellowship program. The Windgate Project Grant program awards $10,000 grants to three former CCCD Windgate Fellows to embark on a project of their choosing. The award will culminate with presentations by the grant recipients at CCCD’s Benchspace Gallery & Workshop in Asheville, NC at the end of the grant period.
This month we checked in with grant recipient Aaron McIntosh. Here is his story: 2006 Windgate Fellow, Baltimore, MD
Invasive
Invasive is well under way after three months of project development, event promotion, traveling workshops and studio work. I have been greeted with very positive responses from community workshop participants, and made numerous contacts along the way that are already growing the project’s reach. Capitalizing on Gay Pride season (May-Oct), Invasive has been focusing on the community workshops and story leaf events. After the official Invasive launch event at Red Emma’s Bookstore in Baltimore, MD (July 18), the project traveled south to the Asheville Art Museum (July 26) and then to the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC (July 31). These three successful community workshops saw a combined 130 participants, who contributed around 213 kudzu story leaves. Recently, Invasive was featured at Baltimore’s EMP Collective Pulse Salon (Sept. 2). Other upcoming workshops/events include Richmond PrideFest (Sept. 25-27) and various locations in Houston, TX (Oct. 15-22). While the collection of stories of contemporary LGBTQ is one branch of the project, the documentation of stories, lives and ephemera of previous generations of gay and lesbian Southerners is another branch. After much research, I have compiled a list of 22 LGBTQ archives and special collections that I will begin visiting this winter and spring to document such lives. I am working to make the Archives section of my website an educational resource for Southern LGBTQ who are looking for more historical information; this is one small way I’d like the project to give back to the queer community. Meanwhile, in my studio, the Invasive vine grows, one story leaf at a time. To learn more about Invasive, check out the website, invasivequeerkudzu.com, blog, Facebook, and Instagram. |
Join us for upcoming Made in WNC installations and events
|
________________________________________________________________________
|
All events are free and open to the public
|
On view: September 4, 2015 – January 9, 2016
Tue – Sat, 10 am – 6 pm
An exhibition examining the legacy of craft-based industry (textiles, pottery, and furniture) in Western North Carolina and its influence on artists and designer-makers working in the region today.
|