Visiting Artist
Susan Cooley-Gilliom Artist in Residence and Teaching (ART) Program
ART Program
The Susan Cooley-Gilliom Artist in Residence and Teaching (ART) Program is a lasting gift to the many artists, arts educators and students, and arts enthusiasts we are fortunate to have in our community. The program represents a significant part of Susan’s lasting legacy–as a beloved local artist and environmental advocate.
The ART program works to develop and enhance the visual arts through short-term residencies and workshops taught by nationally-established and highly reputable artists who create in a range of media. Past visiting artists include: Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, Michelle Ross, Richard Notkin, Katherine Ace, Laura Ross Paul, Tip Toland, Sergei Isupov, Phoebe Toland, Michelle Gregor, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Jason Walker, Mark Abildgaard and Jennifer Rugge, Marsha Godoy-Schindler, Ruth Ellen Hoag, and Ray Gonzales, Jane Ingram Allen, Jori Phillips. Set to come in the fall of 2026 is artist M. Florine Démosthène.
This program is offered in partnership with Blue Line Arts. To learn more about open Calls to Artists click here.
2026 VISITING ARTIST
M. Florine Démosthène
The Susan Cooley-Gilliom Artist in Residence and Teaching (ART) Program recipient for 2026 is artist M. FLORINE DÉMOSTHÈNE.
Hosted by Blue Line Arts, Florine will be offering two hands-on workshops, a lecture and open studio hours.
To see the schedule of events during the residency, click here.
Artist Statement
Demosthene’s artwork examines how black culture is commodified and fetishized. Whether through paintings or drawings, she seeks to magnify the subtlety of racial constructs and how viewers have become comfortable with derogatory images. Her most recent work, The Capture, delves into the subconscious mind of a black heroine and the ephemeral quality of her thoughts and experiences. As she uncovers her special abilities, through a succession of serendipitous events, she comes to understand how these moments of self-realization can be so very temporal. With this new series, she has been intrigued by the black female body as an icon in contemporary imagery and how her physical size is supposed to dictate a certain set of ideals and behavior. The Capture is the initial phase to constructing a non-typical black female heroine persona.
Florine Demosthene earned her BFA from Parsons the New School for Design and her MFA from Hunter College. She has shown extensively through group and solo exhibitions in USA and London. She was a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2011 and she was featured in the premiere issue of Arc (a magazine dedicated to highlighting emerging and established Caribbean artists). She’s a 2012 Keyholder resident at the Lower East Side Printshop in New York.
