Later, from September 23-25, students at Burlington Technical Center, taught by Ashley Stagner and Jason Raymond, worked with multi-disciplinary artist Sarah Stefana Smith for three afternoon sessions. Smith taught weaving techniques while also encouraging students to experiment with “weaving” in another medium of their own interest, such as audio. She also led them through conversations about their own emerging identities, as creators living in Vermont here and now. NEA Resident Artist Sarah Stefana Smith leads a discussion about art and identity with students at Burlington Technical Center. ArtLords created a commissioned work for BCA’s Fall 2024 group exhibition, Passages: Identity, Memory, and Transformation, designed deliberately to support Becoming/Vermont. Their collaborative painting recalls their public art work in Kabul, where they transformed the city’s blast walls–symbols of violence and social division–into canvases for paintings projecting dreams for peace, social justice, and civil rights for everyday citizens.
Their art in Kabul promoted the need for citizens to talk about what they wanted their city and public life to become in the future. The group attracted women to join public art projects alongside men, a statement on the rights and dignity of Afghan women. With the return of the Taliban in 2021, members of the collective were forced to leave the country. A group of ArtLords members arrived in southern Vermont, where they have collaborated on public art in their new communities, blending their own history and culture with the contributions of Vermonters. The group also welcomed a new member, Sean Kiziltan, a US-born Turkish-American artist who will co-teach the BHS group.
ArtLords’ new artwork at the BCA Center is a three-panel painting that depicts the passage of a striking female figure toward an uncertain future on the world stage. The central figure was initially proposed by ArtLords member Zuhra Nadem, who will help lead the October residency.
 Members of ArtLords stand before their commissioned artwork at the BCA Center. Pictured left to right are Sean Kiziltan, Abdul Hafizi, Zuhra Nadem, Negina Azimi, and Marwa Safa Azimi. Photograph by Stephen Mease. Ferrell observes that connecting Vermont high school students with talented professional artists, in a structure where they can create and learn from one another, is central to BCA’s mission.
“From their personal journey from Afghanistan to Vermont to their collaborative creative practice, ArtLords exemplify the transformative power of art within communities, as well as art’s intrinsic role in exploring ideas around identity and belonging," Ferrell says.
“Learning in the arts is especially important for community-building,” says Kristin Dykstra, who coordinates Gallery Learning programs at BCA. “It asks us to imagine how we can see and think from multiple perspectives, and how we might see things from a new perspective tomorrow.” As lead artists, Im, Smith, and the members of ArtLords each embody this possibility for students in their own ways.
For more information:
John Flanagan
Communications Director
802.865.5355
[email protected]
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