March marked three years for me at the helm of @macdowell1907 . It is a place where art is made and artists build intentional community.
The question of ‘what’s next’ for America’s oldest, largest, and most prestigious (fight me) artist residency, is something I have been in a happy tussle with for the last three years. Grappling with this question is a journey that has taken me to art communities across all disciplines and geographies.
I’m happily immersed in building partnership and community in the worlds of literature, film, visual arts, architecture, music composition, theater, all the things. I’ve also travelled everywhere from Detroit to meet with artists from MacDowell Fellow @chido_johnson 's community to Marrakech and Miami and currently now at @madamekoyo 's Venice Biennale, supporting our incredible artist community who are here representing national pavilions and in the main exposition. Next up is a trip to see Lalovavi, MacDowell Fellow @kevindaymusic new opera set to be performed at the Cincinnati Opera.
MacDowell fellows are everywhere and at the highest level of their practice, or aspiring to be. Thanks for taking us all along for the ride.
@lavar.munroe.studio@kambuiolujimi@ninakatchadourian@wallenmapondera
A very quick spring break trip to see my folks. Just keeping it simple in these troubled times. Me and the boys, some sun and fun, strolls at dusk in my mum's garden, gin and tonics with my dad on the verandah, my dad waking us up to watch Artemis at 2am and, yes, standing once again in the spray of the mighty Victoria Falls, something that for me will never, ever get old. 🖤
You might be surprised to know that women visual artists remain vastly underrepresented in museum collections the world over. How this changes is not just more support for women artists but more women in positions of real power across the artistic sector starting from artist residency to museum and every institution in the pipeline. It matters who gets to run influential arts organizations and what the board composition is, because at that level policy is made and the tone is set.
My grateful thanks to @komalshahgarg whose @makingtheirmarkorg Foundation is network building in the most vital way. It was a beautiful few days of joyous inspiration and a reminder, in these deeply troubled times, of things worth fighting for.💕 📷 Mark Bukowski BFA #internationalwomensday
Sunday morning ritual when I'm not traveling, is me walking my puppers, making a cuppa and then reading Enuma Okoro's column in the @financialtimes . Thank you lovely @enums for suggesting that a five day sidequest to Marrakech was just what I needed. My gratitude to powerhouse @meryanneinspired and renaissance man @claudegrunitzky and @mame_fatouniang for having me @thediasporasalon . Intentional gathering and community building is just what we need right now.
And why have one side quest when you can have two? The team at @154artfair Marrakech are producing a global, small but mighty art fair built on community and love--two words that get lost in the shadows in the often very transactional and cliquey global art fair scene.
And, yes, very soon what was sometimes referred to as 'the west', won't be the center of anything. Not culture, not commerce, not ideas. What is impossible to imagine for many of its citizens, is so self-evident to the rest of the world and the more you travel, the more this simple truth sinks in.
#marrakech
#154artfair
#ubuntu
My sister and I desegregated our elementary schools. Read that again. My sister and I desegregated our private elementary schools, which in 1980 Zimbabwe were all white. In those early post-independence days, bitter teachers and fellow students reminded us daily that we and other newly enrolled African girls like us, were occupying spaces in which we were very much not welcome. And, I've said this before, we are not old.
This isn't ancient history.
I've taken a few trips with my mum and dad these last couple of years to the American South. In 2023 we did Louisiana and the plantations (that was quite something--skip everything and go to @whitneyplantation ) and in 2025 we did the civil rights trail to Montgomery, Alabama and Georgia (Sidebar: Bryan Stevenson's @legacysites are a MUST see).
One moment stands out--my dad at the civil rights museum taking in the the devastating photo of Emmett Till's lynched body in an open casket. Emmett would have been 85 had he lived. My father is 85.
This is not ancient history.
America has ghosts that have never been laid to rest. There has never been a reckoning and the willful erasure of the past is, in a word, shameful.
If you catch my mama in a quiet moment, she might tell you about when she was 17 and moved from a small African town to London to study to become a registered nurse. She couldn't find anywhere to live because people wouldn't rent to Africans in the early 1960's in London, but an elderly h o l o c a u s t survivor called Mr. Schatten took her in, and rented his bedsit (studio) to her at 32 Brewster Gardens, in a city foreign to them both.
But that was 60 years ago and today is today and my mum just got back from a trip with my 85 year old dad where they celebrated the new year in Ethiopia on a week long trek from Addis Ababa to the thousand year old underground churches of Lalibela in the south of Ethiopia. Pretty amazing in the worlds second oldest Christian country.
Wishing you all fortitude & grit, resistance & revolution for 2026 and beyond.
❤️
Don't blink. Happy F I F T E E N to my son, Zuva, whose name literally means SUN (ok, fine, or 'energy' but same same). I'm just happy he still likes me as much as he likes Drake. Love you the most, Z ❤️
So many highlights at Art Basel Miami including meeting Madame Nike herself @nikeartgallery , seeing the DOZENS of MacDowell Fellows (hey @lizzycollins7 !) with work across all the major fairs (SCOPE, NADA, ABM and Untitled). So many new friends and loved seeing old ones.
It's a hectic week, but so fun. Art life is L I F E
Lovely family time over the holiday. But, but, but...here we are again, my sister and I at our Big Age, Zermatt to Banff and every mountain in between, still finding courage and grit and throwing ourselves off mountain tops even if we can't ski for shit after 20 years of trying. Honestly it's terrifying but we've never given up. Yay, us !! 😂
My congratulations to Team Book led by my friend illimitable @ruthdickey206 . Thank you for including me on the host committee, led by honorary chair @priyaparker .
The National Book Awards really are the Oscars of the book world. Powerful acceptance speeches that carried essential messages for our times and celebrated in a room of literary superstars, book citizens, publishers, agents and readers.
In a pool of worthy nominees, huge congratulations also to winners MacDowell Fellows @pswordwoman and @beirutiguy for their win.
And, yes, I danced like I was at a wedding 💃🏾💃🏾
As ever, the MacDowell Gala (2025 edition) was a who's who from the worlds of visual arts, theater, literature, music and architecture. We honored two New York legends @joseph_mizzi1 and @toshiko.mori_ both people who have made inedible impacts on our culture. And it's just such a great party. Thank you to the (glamorai!) village that helped us raise scads and scads of bands to support art and artists everywhere ✨✨ 📸 @amirbangs@beowulfsheehan it's all love 🖤
