SAAC Fellowships

Meet the nine fellows leading this charge for change. 

Noël Kassewitz, Visual Artist, Leonina Arismendi, Multi-Disciplinary Artist, Lynda Andrews-Barry, Artist, Murat Cem Mengüç, Ph.D., Artist, Billy Frieble, Multimedia Visual Artist, Sherri Roberts Lumpkin, Doll-maker / Mix-Media Collage, Melani N. Douglass, Curator/ Socially Engaged Artist, and Jaren Hill Lockridge, Community Storyteller + Memory Keeper. 

In response to NASA's alarming findings regarding record-breaking temperatures in the summer of 2023, the Fifth National Climate Assessment showing D.C. region climate risks, and the recent release of Carbon Free DC strategy, Social Art and Culture, in collaboration with the Arts Program at the Aspen, is pioneering a sustainable economic framework where artivists play a pivotal role alongside scientists, researchers, and climate experts to confront the impacts of climate change and environmental injustice in the District. This dynamic call to action manifested in the Environmental Justice Artivist Fellowship® 2024 (EJA Fellowship).  The fellowship's significance is further underscored by support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, East Arts grant, highlighting the crucial role of artivism in driving social change.  Under the theme of Community Resilience, these fellows will collaborate over nine months [March 11-November 14, 2024] to develop innovative approaches to climate and environmental justice through artistic practice. Their focus areas include Clean Air, Water Quality and Safety, Clean Energy, Equity in Food Systems, and Land Pollution and Waste to deliver impactful capstone projects alongside engaging residents of Wards 5, 7, and 8.