Our Story
“From the mid-16th century through the late 18th century, the transatlantic slave trade transported millions of enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold for labor at ports across Latin America, North America, and the West Indies. Despite being uprooted from their native lands and dispersed across thousands of miles, cultural traditions were retained and passed down intergenerationally into modern day.”
-Angela N. Carroll
About Us
Mare Residency is a nomadic initiative aimed at uniting artists of the African Diaspora in the Americas: South, Central, North and the Caribbean. Our model centers on partnering with Black spaces in historically Black communities and locales. We look to highlight and uplift the artist as well as the community.
Mission
We look to develop artistic practices and connect emerging artists of African descent throughout the Americas and the Caribbean through imaginative and inventive residencies.
Vision
Inspiring and connecting artists beyond colonial borders and understandings of Blackness.
From our Founder,
I founded Mare (Mare, Latin for Sea) Residency in 2019 with the goal of celebrating Blackness in all of its facets. In the two years prior, I facilitated interviews with artists about their experiences in residencies and what their ideal residency would entail. I wanted to create a space that would be artist responsive and specifically supportive for Black artists. I decided that the residency should be roving because I think the communities Black people have built hold significance. I also wanted all of the participants to connect with the local art scene, which is why every residency session has an artist from the local community. In the future, we will expand beyond our national border and connect with artists in the Caribbean and Central and South America; locating the residency in each continent.
In my years working within the art world as both a curator and a writer, I have found that limitations on Black and Latinx identity are prevalent and structurally reinforced. I have met artists from Brazil, the Caribbean, and the US for example who explore similar themes of their Black and Indigenous identities in their work. However, differences in language and location often place their works in different spaces. Black, Latinx, Latin American, and Afro-diasporic can all have disparate meanings depending on the audience, but Mare Residency aims to connect artists based on our shared experiences as descendants of the African diaspora. I look to highlight the ongoing cultural and artistic contributions we have made in the world and broaden the conversations between us.
Each residency features a carefully selected group of artists and guests whose work speaks to each other in dynamic ways.
-Tiffany Auttrianna Ward