The School of Social Work, in partnership with the U-M Arts Initiative, has announced the selection of the Pan-African Creative Exchange as the featured artist residency for 2024.

This is the first artist residency at SSW and the second iteration of the Arts Initiative’s Visiting Artist Integration Program, designed to infuse the University of Michigan’s engagement and learning processes with the dynamic creativity of artists.

The 2024 artist residency will feature a bi-coastal duo — arts advocates Nike Jonah and Erwin Maas — who specialize in art consultancy across multiple creative sectors worldwide.

Their residency, taking place Feb. 8-14 and April 10-15, will encompass master classes, workshops and conversations aimed at enriching the U-M community and the southeast Michigan region.

The Pan-African Creative Residency will build capacity for art-centered social justice practice in SSW and other U-M units, including the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, LSA, Residential College and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Rogério Meireles Pinto, a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work and professor of social work in SSW, and professor of theatre and drama in SMTD, is the architect of the PACE visit.

In collaboration with Kathryn Grabowski-Khairullah, program curator for the Arts Initiative, Pinto conducted six planning sessions that included the artists and nearly 50 faculty members, students and staff from across U-M.

“I first met Erwin in New York City where he directed my one-person play, ‘MarÍlia,’ which I subsequently presented at the Vrystaat Arts Festival in Bloemfontein (in South Africa). There I met Nike in the first meeting that gave rise to PACE,” Pinto said. “Ever since, I have witnessed how PACE has elevated and amplified discourses around ‘African art’ and helped artists to develop visibility in the global stage.”

Read the full story at The Record.