janet e. dandridge
Primarily using performance art, interactive installations, and abstract photography, janet e. dandridge explores trauma, resilience, empathy, and the power of Black women. Spirituality, the personal empirical, and collective actions are key components that guide janet in her creations. She is a 2023 Arts and Humanities Fellow for the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts & Humanities, and in November 2020, janet was awarded an inaugural Washington Project for the Arts Wherewithal Research Grant to explore Perpetual Traumatic Stress Disorder in American Black women. In 2017 and 2018, janet was named Artist Laureate by Institut Français, Paris. She was a keynote speaker for Population Connection Action Fund’s 2019 Capitol Hill Days in Washington, D.C., supporting their initiative #Fight4HER, and is the co-host of Re – Flect / Calibrate, the podcast on The Genealogy of Artivism. Her work has been exhibited at national and international art institutions including the Abrons Arts Center, LA Louver, photoLA, Consortium for Research of Women, DC Arts Center, and National Steinbeck Center, and is included in the collection of The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. In 2017, janet formed fluidity, an art-centered educational experience that guides the public in artistic development of collaborative projects that positively æffect social and political change. To participants, janet poses the question, “What are you actively doing to activate space as an Activist; as an Artist; as an Advocate?”
janet earned her Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and her Bachelor of Science from St. John’s University in New York City. janet has worked as a panelist and consulting artist for artist grants and exhibitions in Washington, D.C., Vermont, and Los Angeles. She is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Art for George Mason University instructing students on Artivism practices via New Media in the Creative Arts. She exhibits, performs, lectures, and teaches globally.
Michael Massenburg
Michael Massenburg was born in San Diego, raised in South Central Los Angeles, and lives and works in Inglewood, California.
Michael pursued his studies at California State University, Long Beach, and the Otis School of Art and Design. He began his career at the Watts Towers Arts Center, influenced by the Watts Rebellion and the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. With Massenburg’s interest in historical, cultural, and personal narratives, he would develop his social practice through art making, teaching, lectures, community organizing, and activism for various organizations and causes.
His personal art process fluctuates between drawing, painting, collage, photography, digital, and assemblage. He incorporated various materials from found objects with traditional practices. Michael has exhibited in galleries, universities, and museums, completed private commissions, and created public art projects throughout the United States and abroad. One of his most recent exhibitions was for the Dak’Art 14th Edition Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal. Some of his public art commissions include Kaiser Permanente, Metro, DCA, Kia Forum, and the new Intuit Dome for 2024 in Inglewood. Michael created these works in paintings, mosaics, ceramic tiles, and concrete. He also received various grants and awards, including the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation, the Art Matters Foundation, New York, the design award from the California Preservation Foundation, and the California Arts Council. He was recently honored by the city of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs 2023 COLA Individual Master Artist Project Grantee.