Lead Artists
Whitney Frazier is an interdisciplinary artist, mother and educator with a community based public art practice in Baltimore, MD. She completed her BA in Painting, MA and MFA in Community Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). In 2019, she created WGF Studio, a community engaged public art business based in Baltimore.
Since 2002, Frazier has intentionally worked with diverse groups of people to implement community focused, concept driven public art projects that lead to relationship building, new resources for neighborhoods and bringing to life the shared vision of community leaders. Her work pushes the boundaries of what “public art” looks like by celebrating the unique cultures and site-specific needs of each community and by providing vibrant, bold and creative skills in design, painting, visual storytelling and outdoor placemaking.
Kirby Griffin, Photographer
Kirby Griffin is a cinematographer and street photographer from the West Baltimore area of Maryland. As a child of the arts, Kirby pursued filmmaking in his early twenties after initially chasing a dream of being a performance artist - spoken word/acting - searching for the perfect outlet to express himself as a storyteller. In the wake of the DSLR era, he set his sights on cinematography in 2011, with the help of a friend and fellow artist ‘Jerald Kerr’, also known as ‘Jay Mastermind’. Both motivated outside of the academic structure, they began teaching themselves the art and craft of filmmaking. They came away with countless hours of study by way of literature, youtube tutorials, lectures, networking, and a tremendous amount of trial and error, which proved essential.
Despite knowing that Los Angeles is still considered home base of cinema, Kirby made a conscious decision to stay in Baltimore and tell the stories of people who would otherwise have their image exploited or unrecognized. Due to the nature of the business though, he frequents Los Angeles quite often for work, and also tries to bring resources back home in an attempt to level the playing field. Kirby is still a vital part of SixPointPictures as they continue growing and work to demystify filmmaking for those throughout Baltimore City who are not able to afford schooling.
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Laurel Stewart
Studio Manager
Laurel Stewart graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, MD with a BFA in General Fine Arts and a Minor in Painting (2021). Using her natural environment as inspiration and source for materials, Laurel creates paintings that highlight the aspects of nature we tend to overlook. Abundant rocks, plants that grow from cracks in the sidewalk, and seasonal foliage are respectfully foraged to be showcased as art and used as a tool to educate others of the ecosystem in which they live and take part in.
In addition to her own studio practice, Laurel has been active in community arts since moving to Baltimore in 2018. She currently works for public artist Whitney Frazier assisting on large-scale murals, oral histories, and other ongoing public art initiatives that aim to uplift and give a platform to marginalized voices across Baltimore and Maryland. She has also volunteered at numerous arts nonprofit organizations around Baltimore such as Baltimore Youth Arts, Make Studio, and at a local recreation center teaching therapeutic art classes to adults with disabilities. -
Christina Greene
Graphic Designer
Christina Yoshika Greene is a multidisciplinary designer and artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her Associates Degree in Fine Arts at Northern Virginia Community College and is currently pursuing her Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Christina’s design work is influenced by her background in painting, drawing, and photography.
Yoshika has spent her three years in Baltimore working with local businesses and nonprofits. Major projects include The Guardians of Baltimore and branding of the Promote the Vote Campaign with the Baltimore Banner. She has been featured in an interview with VoyageBaltimore Magazine.
Contributors
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Hannah Brancato
Evaluation
Hannah Brancato (she/her) is an artist and educator based in Baltimore, whose art practice is grounded in collective storytelling, and the creation of public rituals to bring people’s stories together. She is faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University and UMBC. In Fall 2021 she was a Studio Resident at VisArts, culminating in the solo exhibition, Inheritance of White Silence, a socially engaged project investigating ways to resist inherited white supremacy culture. Hannah is currently working to document the integral role of art in social justice work, through a series of interviews with anti-sexual violence activists called Move Slowly; and by teaching Art x Resistance, a collaborative research based course of her own design. She is a recipient of the 2021 Rubys Artist Grant for Dreamseeds, an installation of textiles, sound, and interactive components that will invite current and budding activists in Baltimore to develop visions for the future, co-created with Sanahara Ama Chandra.
Brancato is co-founder FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an art/organizing collective that produces creative interventions to create a culture of consent, best known for the Monument Quilt. She was a FORCE collective member from 2010-2020, is a 2015 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow, and as part of FORCE, is the recipient of the 2016 Sondheim Artscape Prize, awarded to one artist or collective in the Mid-Atlantic region per year.
Brancato’s work has received widespread media coverage, including Afterimage, Ms Magazine, Voice of America, Bmore Art, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Surface Design Journal, and Fast Company.