In honor of International Women’s Day, Vanessa Johnson is presenting an Artist Talk to discuss her current exhibition Unwrapping Vanessa: Fiber Memory Art by Vanessa Johnson Her exhibition is a new body of work that honors the voices of women and girls who continue to influence the artist’s life, and speaks to her own transnational experience through the women who inspire her.

Vanessa Johnson has been quilting for over 20 years and has exhibited throughout Central New York including at the SUNY Oswego Metro Centro Tyler Art Gallery and Syracuse University’s Community Folk Art Center.

Johnson has been a professional storyteller since 1999 and has performed throughout CNY. She has performed at Syracuse University, The Red House Arts Center, the Schweinfurth Art Center, throughout the Onondaga County Library system and at many other K-12 schools and colleges throughout Central New York. National engagements include Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, University of Indiana, Miami University in Ohio, and at the Annual Underground Railroad Conference at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

She founded the Harabee Youth Tent, an interactive visual art and music space in the Pan African Village at the New York State Fair and has acted as coordinator for the past 16 years. As the Education Director of the Onondaga Historical Association she founded their youth theatre program.

In 2014, Johnson premiered her first full-length play “Doors” with the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company at Jazz Central. In October 2016, Johnson premiered a new one-women show, “I’m Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired- a tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer” which combined song and storytelling at ArtRage Gallery to a full house.

Free to the public