ICA Publications Celebration: ‘Living to Learn’ & ‘Dear Mazie,: Sanctuary, Speculation, and Sky’

We are pleased to mark the publication of two new books, Living to Learn: Art and Education for the Common Good, edited by VCU Associate Professor of Painting and Printmaking Noah Simblist, and Dear Mazie,: Sanctuary, Speculation, and Sky, edited by ICA Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs Amber Esseiva, both leading contributors to the ICA and VCUarts community. Produced in-house by the ICA at VCU, these books join a growing catalogue of ICA publications that pay close attention to learning as a social practice and to the institutions, spaces, and relationships that make it possible. Join us for a reception and remarks. Both books will be available for purchase.

About the Books:

Dear Mazie,: Sanctuary, Speculation, and Sky (ICA / CARA) is an experimental illustrated reader exploring the work and legacy of American educator and artist Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), a trailblazer who was the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States. With the eponymous exhibition curated by Esseiva in 2024 as its starting point, Dear Mazie, takes the architect’s letter-writing practice as a conceptual framework for epistolary responses in the present, plotting Meredith’s life and work within themes of placemaking, gender, sexuality, and Black love, with a focus on how she built sanctuaries (homes, institutions, and communities) for herself and other people of color to foster rigorous artistic pursuit, free of persecution. In addition to letters from former students of Meredith, the book features contributions from Mario Gooden, Charisse Pearlina Weston, Craig Wilkins, Colson Whitehead, Emanuel Admassu, Jen Wood, and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo.

Living to Learn: Art and Education for the Common Good (ICA / Inventory Press) presents the work of artists, curators, collectives, and scholars who address contemporary art as a site of learning in the twenty-first century. Building on earlier histories of education as civic service for the common good, it focuses on the last twenty-five years, as well as the question of the future of art education―as a practice that unfolds both in and beyond school. The book constructs an impressionistic constellation of case studies to see how innovations in education have had a dynamic relationship with artistic practice, alternative arts organizations, universities, and museums. Featuring contributions by Helmut Batista, Jonathas de Andrade, Magnus Ericson, Gordon Hall, Pablo Helguera, Prem Krishnamurthy, Marilia Loureiro, Lola Malavasi, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Sarah Rifky, Pelin Tan, Christine Tohmé, Jalal Toufic, Dominic Asmall Willsdon, and Caroline Woolard.

Earlier in the day, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Simblist will lead a small-scale “Living to Learn” workshop inspired by the book.