This past summer we took 86 artists up to Troy, NY, for a four-day retreat at EMPAC on the RPI campus. Throughout the weekend, they gave presentations to some of the country’s top curators and arts organizers about the projects they are developing with the help of Creative Capital.
We’ve uploaded the presentations to our YouTube page. If you have some down time during the holidays, it’s a perfect moment to binge watch these amazing videos! 
Click here to view our playlist on YouTube, and read on below for some featured videos.

Brittany Nelson is dangerous. Literally. To make her stunning photographic art works, she uses hazmat suits, toxic chemicals and incredible expertise. Despite that, she can guarantee her pieces will be OSHA-certified when they arrive at your door. Her project, Alternative Process, incorporates photographic chemicals and processes to create a stunning body of images.

Is there any other artist that is as bad ass as Cassils? Has any other artist both set their body on fire or frozen themselves into a solid block of ice? The Resilience of 20% will see Cassils attack a massive block of clay as a representation of the kind of violence transgender bodies have experienced throughout the course of history.

Ivan Velez, Jr. is a comic book artist that has written for DC and Marvel comics, but has never seen someone like himself–a Puerto Rican-American gay male–represented in the medium he loves. So, he is working on a series of comics that does just that: The Ballad of Wham Kabam! will tell the story of America’s diverse and often oppressed families in a superhero context.

Queen GodIs is a poet, performance artist and art therapist, and she totally rocked her presentation. Using the screen as a performative device, Queen spoke about her past and her project The Book of Lyte, meant for those who identify as women and gender non-conforming MC’s.

Ry Russo-Young is an accomplished director, but her personal story has yet to be told on the silver screen. Her two mothers were sued by their sperm donor for custody of Ry in a case that captured the attention of the nation at the time. Ry will mix documentary with fictional storytelling to fully capture her traumatic and heartbreaking experience.

Chris Shellen and Jeff Malmberg first caught our attention when they made a documentary, Marwencol, about the man who used dolls and photography to deal with a traumatic experience. Now, they’re heading to Italy to tell the story of one small community that uses theater to work through financial ruin, death and their personal struggles.

Robert Karimi, “The People’s Cook,” embeds himself in communities of color to provide education about diabetes and healthy ways to cook without abandoning traditional recipes. He has cooked for tens of thousands of people in performances across the nation, using the framework of a cooking show–and his skills as a public speaker are palpable in his Retreat presentation!
Click here to view our playlist on YouTube