‘Unexpected’ artist returns to Fort Smith for residency program

Houston-based artist Ana Maria will return to Fort Smith as the Unexpected Artist in Residency for 2016, during which she will work with high school and college students, according to a news release from 64/6 Downtown.

The Unexpected Artist in Residency is an extension of The Unexpected mural festival where a featured artist will have an opportunity to “live, work, and play” in Fort Smith, the release stated. 64/6 Downtown is the organization that produced the inaugural murals festival in downtown Fort Smith.

The inaugural festival was held Sept. 6-13 in downtown Fort Smith with seven well-known international street and urban artists painting or creating large and unique murals on several buildings in the area. Part of the festival included partnering with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith in the opening of the university’s new Windgate Art & Design building. Event organizers said it resulted in more than 1 million reaches worldwide on social media.

During the six-week residency, Maria will create works in-studio and a new mural. She will also be a guest lecturer and teacher at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s (UAFS) Windgate Art and Design building, and hold workshops for students at Northside and Southside high schools.

Ana Maria hails from Puerto Rico, but relocated to Houston and has since cultivated a national reputation for her work that includes the creation of characters with mixed phenotypes — animal, mechanical, and human, functioning parallel to a story that is open to viewer interpretation.

“We are thrilled that Ana Maria is returning to Fort Smith,” said festival organizer Claire Kolberg. “She made many personal connections with people in the community that it seemed natural to invite her back. I’m looking forward to seeing how our community continues to inspire.”

Don Lee, head of the Art Department at UAFS, believes the association and collaboration of UAFS art students and recognized mural artists “is a mutual experience and, for art students, game changing.”

“What our students learn and what they accomplish through this partnership motivates their thoughts and deeds ever after,” he added.

The position is in partnership with JUSTKIDS, an organization that works with artists, curators, designers, and art consultants to produce large scale art events, gallery shows, and design spaces.

Charlotte Dutoit of JUSTKIDS credited Fort Smith for being welcoming to artists during The Unexpected festival and said the city has proven “the dynamic development of its downtown and the new UAFS Windgate Art and Design building, to name a few, that they have the resources to become one of the most important centers for art in the region.”

64/6 Downtown, an organization committed to the revitalization of downtown Fort Smith, has scheduled the weeklong Unexpected festival for September. The 2015 event brought in seven internationally renowned urban artists painting on some of downtown’s most iconic buildings, garnering over a million reaches worldwide on social media.