MONICA HILL
MISSISSIPPI DELTA, 2022 - 2023
Monica Hill is a multifaceted artist that grew up in South Jackson, MS, in the performing arts. Her work aims to reflect human experience, bring comfort, push her personal boundaries, and invoke dialect. She wants to bring awareness to how art can translate into healing—just as it has done for her.
Working with Sipp Culture and the Utica Institute Museum, Monica spent the year building bridges with community members to gain a better understanding of the campus and surrounding area. Through a series of interviews, Monica documented the oral history of the town of Utica and the Hinds Community College. From these interviews, Monica co-created a shared textile work with each community interviewee that will be presented in a culminating exhibition.During Monica’s time with AAW she was also able to produce work that will be featured in the Mississippi Museum of Art and is curating her solo exhibition titled “Tours Of My Heart”!
CULTURE HUB
The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) was founded in 2017 in Utica, Mississippi, to champion arts and culture as a foundational element in building community health and wellness in the rural South. At its core, the organization’s work is about restoring hope and possibility to the rural Black southern landscape through supporting creativity, imagination, remembrance, and the fostering of new relationships. These approaches are tactical; the goal is to transform communities and support the regeneration of rural spaces as spaces for cultural production.
For more information, visit sippculture.org.
SOCIAL IMPACT INITIATIVE
More information on Monica’s partner Social Impact Initiative, the Utica Institute Museum, coming soon.