WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The newly-renovated Norton Museum of Art has its first artists-in-residence, with plans to welcome four artists each year.
The artists are selected and welcomed to live and work in renovated historic cottages near the museum for six weeks, and they will each offer programs and foster relationships with museum staff and the community at large.
Textile artist Addoley Dzegede and video artist Jaye Rhee are the first two.
Dzegede is a Ghanaian-American artist who currently lives in Portland. She spent the first half of her life in South Florida. Her artistic themes often explore the connections of family and culture in time, place and society, which has made her journey back to Florida an interesting one.
"I came here from Portland Oregon, so just the shift in the environment and the weather and the plants has me thinking differently," Dzegede explained.
Jaye Rhee was born in Seoul, South Korea and currently lives in New York. Her first museum show was at the Norton and she has felt a deep connection to the museum ever since. She believes her time living in West Palm Beach will become embedded in her work in the future.
"Even if I don't realize it at the moment, you get the inspiration all the time, but you don't know when it's going to come to you," Rhee explained.
Dzegede has noticed the clothing of people living in South Florida, which may inspire her work in the future.
"You can't get away with these colors anywhere else. These, like, pastel pinks and light turquoise and so a lot of those colors I think of as Florida," Dzegede said.
Rhee said the experiences of the artists are also likely to also benefit the community they're near.
"Just to have artists in one place it makes the community more vigorous so I want to see the changes," Rhee said.
Artists Jessica Ingram and Lavar Munroe will be the next artists living and working in the cottages.
