📅July 20 h. 6.00 PM | Melody Overstreet
📅July 27 h. 6.00 PM | Ruth Jeyaveeran
📍Palazzo delle Papesse – Via di Città 126, Siena
🎟️Free entry, no reservation required
On July 20 and July 27, from 6.00 PM to 7.00 PM, Palazzo delle Papesse will host two more StARTers events of the season!
Two artists in residence selected through the Siena Art Institute’s Artist Residency Program will share their artistic practice and research in an open conversation with the public. The event is free and no reservation is required.
- July 20, h. 6.00 PM | Melody Overstreet: Melody Joy Overstreet is a Jewish, Iranian-American poet, artist, printer, weaver, and community educator based in traditional Awaswas Territory, presently tended by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. She double majored in Studio Art and Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she focused on Printmaking, Public Art, and Peace Studies. She has exhibited her work locally as well as internationally, and has pieces included in numerous public and private collections. Melody has participated in residencies with The Bolinas Commons, Kala Art Institute, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a tiny casita in Abiquiu, New Mexico, Casa Regis, The Center for Culture and Contemporary Art in Italy, and the On Being Project. Her work has been shared through numerous galleries and museums including the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Gospel Flat Farms Gallery, the Natural History Museum, Radius Gallery, Madrone Arts Collective, LA HomeFarm, and Esalen Institute, among others. In addition to her work as an artist, Melody is a teacher of many years. Her educational approach emphasizes the importance of connection to our origins, one another, and place. She is also a co-founding member of Little Giant Collective, a community-run print studio located in Downtown, Santa Cruz, California. She is the recipient of a Gemological Award and a Peace Studio Fellowship for her work at the intersection of art, teaching, and land stewardship.
- July 27, h. 6.00 PM | Ruth Jeyaveeran: Ruth Jeyaveeran lives and works in Brooklyn (NY). Her work is rooted in traditional material practice and shaped by her experience within the South Asian diaspora. She uses textiles to examine shared histories of alienation, dissociation, and displacement. Through felted wool drawings, soft sculptures, and installations, she explores porous boundaries between human, animal, and flora, reflecting themes of isolation, migration, and evolution. Her first solo exhibition was presented at Field Projects in 2023. Other notable exhibitions include a two-person show at Fjord Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and a solo installation at Main Window Dumbo. Her work has been featured at Transmitter Gallery, Smack Mellon, Fridman Gallery, Kapow, 81Leonard, the Brattleboro Museum, Queens Botanical Garden, All Street Gallery, ABC No Rio, Westbeth Gallery, and Bronx Art Space, among others. Jeyaveeran has been awarded residencies from the Siena Art Institute, Ucross Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Residency Unlimited, Lighthouse Works, Marble House Project, Willapa Bay, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, PADA Studios, and La Napoule Art Foundation. She has taught textiles and fibers at Parsons School of Design and frequently leads workshops on felting and the therapeutic potential of craft. She is currently an Associate Professor of Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
