Martin House Announces Two Creative Residents for 2024

The Martin House, considered a cultural hub in North Buffalo, has identified its next two creative residents who will not only live on site for the next few weeks, but also produce works inspired by their experience.

Writer and poet t’ai freedom ford and multimedia artist and furniture designer Cheryl R. Riley have both been given the “keys” to Martin House, where they will be able to get acquainted with this architectural masterpiece, including the spectacular gardens and outbuildings. Ultimately, the artist-in-residence program is a great way for artists to share their Martin House-inspired processes and works with the community through free public programming.

“Hundreds of applicants submitted ideas from a wide variety of disciplines. While narrowing the field was challenging, our two creative 2024 residents identified projects that align closely with Martin House’s core themes,” said Martin House Executive Director Jessie Fisher. “We look forward to welcoming t’ai freedom ford and Cheryl Riley in 2024 and experiencing Martin House through their eyes and work again.”

• Martin House will welcome its first creative resident of 2024, t’ai freedom ford, who will reside on campus for a two-week residency beginning in July. ford is an English professor, writer, and poet who has received awards and fellowships from the Camargo Foundation, the Center for Fiction, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Poetry Project. Her Martin House project will lead to the creation of a multimedia collection, “Façades,” that will examine the structural and interpersonal facades of the Martin House campus through the development of ten new poems. ford’s project will culminate in a community poetry writing workshop that explores personal feelings around the house.
• In September, the Martin House will welcome its second 2024 Creative Resident, Cheryl R. Riley. An accomplished multimedia artist and furniture designer based in Jersey City, New Jersey, Riley’s project, “The Wright Design,” will produce a series of sketches and drawings for a new furniture suite inspired by Wright’s Martin House. Riley will reimagine Wright’s idioms at the 21^st century by drawing on its cultural influences, materials and manufacturing methods. The project will culminate in a proposal for a future Martin House commission, as well as art-making workshops for local students of color.

“I’m looking forward to exploring the parallel narratives of the construction of Martin House with the construction of a Black Buffalo population and politics. I want to understand the ways in which these parallels converge, intersect, overlap, collide,” Ford said.

“I am fascinated by the materials, stories, cultural tropes, ornaments, and unorthodox art that shape what I imagine and what I render,” Riley said. “My sketches will not necessarily be a visual response to Wright’s architecture, but a form of preserved narrative.”

Martin House will provide more information about the 2024 Creative Residents, the progress of individual projects, and upcoming public programs as plans are finalized. For general information about Martin House and the Creative Residency program, visit martinhouse.org.

Main image: Wikimedia Commons