Every year, The Womxn Project Education Fund brings together a phenomenal group of artists, activists, and community organizers to curate our Advocacy is Love, Creative Postcard Exhibition, and this year is no different! Check out the 2026 Curatorial Team below.
Meet the 2026 Curators
Christopher Acevedo is a Providence, Rhode Island–based curator, collage artist, and graphic designer whose work is grounded in community care, accessibility, and collective storytelling. His curatorial approach centers on uplifting artists through supportive, low-barrier opportunities that honor lived experience, collaboration, and creative autonomy. Drawing from years of involvement in grassroots art spaces and local creative markets, he values art as a tool for connection, advocacy, and shared resilience. Through his curatorial work, he seeks to create inclusive platforms that amplify diverse voices and align creativity with social impact.
Krystal Barrett is a bi-racial artist and activist from Orlando, FL. Serving as the Programs Manager at the Center for Artistic Activism, she helps organizations, activists, and higher education institutions bring more creativity, joy, and innovation to their social justice and civic engagement work.
Fior De La Cruz (b.1997) is an emerging artist and creative artist based in Rhode Island. She graduated with a BS in Fashion Merchandising and Retail Marketing from Johnson & Wales University in 2019.
Fior has participated in various exhibitions throughout New England, including an 2nd and 4th annual community exhibit showcased at the Providence Art Club, Echoes of Belonging at the Pitcher-Goff House, The Stories that Entwine Us at No Mind Gallery and Celebrating Spring juried exhibition at Spring Bull Gallery in Newport.
"I create vibrant paintings that glow under UV black-light. While approaching a blank canvas intuitively, choosing color and composition is strictly based on mood. The brushstrokes remain playful and full of movement, while they can also be subdued and soft. The work is created by expressively layering paint, constantly leaving each part of the work busy. The vibrancy of the work is used to contrast the emotional depth behind the pieces, utilizing dreamy escapism to highlight topics of: mental health, identity, relationships, and connections within the world around us. I fuse various abstract styles with street art techniques, mixing both representational cues and nonrepresentational cues to put the viewer in a contemplative state. The paintings are meant to reflect feelings, stories, and memories and give a sense of nostalgia through the playfulness of light."
Fior's work is starting to be seen in different exhibitions, public spaces, businesses, markets, and the homes of various collectors in Rhode Island and across the nation.
Lesley Dill is an American artist working at the intersection of language and fine art in sculpture, printmaking, installation and performance, exploring the power of words to cloak and reveal the psyche. Dill has had over one hundred solo exhibitions. Her artworks are in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2017 she was named a fellow of The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and is a Joan Mitchell Foundation Creating A Living Legacy artist and grant recipient. Her opera, Divide Light, based on the poems of Emily Dickinson, was performed in San Jose in 2008. In 2018 the opera was re-staged in New York City and captured in an award-winning film by Ed Robbins. Dill was the recipient of the Emily Dickinson Museum’s 2019 ‘Tell it Slant’ Award. In her work, Dill transforms the emotions of the writings of Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Tom Sleigh, Franz Kafka, and Rainer Maria Rilke, among others, into works of paper, wire, horsehair, foil, bronze and music—works that awaken the viewer to the physical intimacy and power of language itself.
Dill’s latest solo exhibition, Wild Grace This Private Hallucinatory Moment, was presented at Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans from December 6th, 2025 through February 13th, 2026. The exhibition is a result of the research conducted with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of American History as a 2023-2024 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, examining themes of radiance and healing in seen and unseen energies. Dill’s exhibition Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me, organized by the Figge Art Museum, traveled to seven venues from 2021 to 2023. The exhibition amplifies voices of the North American past as they wrestle with divinity, deviltry, and freedom, including Mother Ann Lee, Black Hawk, Sojourner Truth, John Brown, Emily Dickinson, Horace Pippin, and Sister Gertrude Morgan.
Ms. Dill is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans.
She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Chris Donovan is a community organizer who uses storytelling and public art to build relationships, inspire, and make real magic in everyday life. The heart of Chris’ work is finding the fun in the serious, and taking the fun seriously.
With more than a decade of experience as a stage manager in the performing arts, Chris is no stranger to working behind the scenes to transform chaos into order. He now uses those talents to create meaningful, joyful moments of collective experience throughout Rhode Island.
He serves as Executive Director of PechaKucha Providence, Development Manager at WaterFire Providence, Board Chair of The Avenue Concept, and a board member of Providence Drum Troupe. He was also the creator of the RI Statewide Scavenger Hunt while serving as the Director of Communications and Events at Leadership Rhode Island. Across these roles, he builds platforms for people to share stories, activate public space, and imagine new possibilities for their communities.
Susan Dunnington (she/her) is a lifelong New Englander, but she’s not letting that hold her back! In fact she is often inspired by New England and its seasons. Passionate about the arts and crafting in any medium, Susan is inspired by the natural world and the feminist movement (feminist is not a bad word!). By traveling with fellow talented friends and by seeking out different approaches, Susan keeps expanding upon her skills and creative outlook. She graduated with a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art from Connecticut College.
Meagan Hepp (they/them) is a Providence-based artist, administrator, and educator with over 12 years of experience working in nonprofit ceramics studios. Formerly based in Boston, they now serve as the Ceramics Studio Manager at Jamestown Arts Center. Additionally, Meagan works as a freelance Art Handler and Preparator, installing artwork across New England, including at the Newport Art Museum.
Meagan’s artistic practice focuses on whimsy, color and texture. Their soft-curved, biomorphic ceramic forms, The Pet Rocks, are coated in a variety of combinations of colors and textures taken from natural, neon and synthetic inspirations. These unlikely combinations are a nod to both nostalgic references from their 90’s childhood, as well as influences from today’s queer culture. By putting the two together, Hepp is representing the amorphous possibilities of queer abstraction and joy. They are primarily interested in creating accessible public art. Notable projects include Rainbowland, a mural commissioned by the Boston Paintbox Program, and other temporary public art installations such as Pet Rock Pile (2023) at Beal's Preserve in Southborough, MA, and Shimmer (2020) at Monmouth Park in Brookline, MA.
As a solo artist, Meagan’s most recent exhibitions include Pet Rocks at Boston City Hall, Play Date: Companions Club at Kingston Gallery, and Companions at Shelter in Place Gallery—a miniature space created as a response to the pandemic. In 2021-2022, Meagan was honored as the Emerging Artist for Kingston Gallery.
Jonathan Izzard (he/they) is an illustrator and fine artist based in Chepachet, Rhode Island. His practice examines themes of queerness, spirituality, mythology, and identity through narrative-driven illustration and symbolic visual language. Working at the intersection of contemporary illustration and fine art, Izzard creates immersive works that draw from both historical mythologies and personal cosmology, emphasizing introspection, transformation, and storytelling.
Izzard is a full-time freelance artist and a BFA candidate in Illustration at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He furthered his studio practice through the New York Academy of Art’s Summer Undergraduate Residency Program in 2025, where he focused on technical refinement and conceptual development.
His recent exhibitions include Intermundium, an AFA Capstone Showcase at CCRI’s Flanagan Campus Gallery (February–March 2025); The Illuminated Chamber, a solo exhibition at AS220 (June 2025); and The Vestibule of Thread and Flame, a solo alumni exhibition at CCRI’s Flanagan Campus Gallery (October–November 2025). Additional exhibitions include The Art of Autonomy, a collaborative community-based project with The Womxn Project at Ritual Spaces (September–October 2025), and Femmesubstantiation, a duo exhibition at The Womxn Project’s ART Lab (October 2025–January 2026).
In addition to gallery exhibitions, Izzard is a published illustrator for advocacy and educational initiatives; along with highlighting expression, curiosity and self-empowerment. His illustration work appears in The Womxn Project’s Empowered to Advocate educational zine, as well as in children’s books including Maddie Loses a Tooth by Ace Aceto, Nicky’s Very Messy Room, and Nicky and the Night Noise by Cynthia DiFilippo Elomaa.
Rachel Gita Karp (she/her) is the Programs Director at the Center for Artistic Activism. The Center for Artistic Activism helps people use their creativity and culture to affect power and build campaigns that win. Rachel supports bold, strategic, and ambitious organizations, people, and projects that fight for progressive causes with creativity and innovation. She’s helped over 150 organizations and 2,500 individuals with training, community-building, mentorship, and more. This work builds off of and feeds Rachel’s background making activist performances in support of voting and voters, bodily autonomy, and increased gender representation in government.
Daria-Lyric Montaquila (she/her) graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a concentration in theatre. With a background in advocacy, organizing, and activism, she uses her education and life experience to deepen the relationship between storytelling and organizing for change. Her goal is to use art and story telling as a means of exploring the rich history of our people and creating creative messages to share about diverse experiences. As a former board member of The Womxn Project, she organized and spearheaded “Illuminating the Legacy of Slavery in Rhode Island,” a series of projections and performances that put a spotlight on the enormous impact of slavery on the ocean state.
Elvira Orozco is dedicated to building community through creativity, hospitality, and intentional experiences. She has worked across local government, arts organizations, and hospitality spaces, always with a focus on creating events and environments where people feel welcomed and connected. She cultivates strong relationships with artists, small businesses, and community leaders, supporting collaborative efforts that enrich Providence’s cultural landscape.
Most recently, Elvira founded Now or Never: Hobby Hub + Social Club, a space rooted in joy and accessibility where people can explore art, engage in workshops, and find genuine connection.
At the core of her work is a belief in the power of gathering: to heal, to inspire, and to make people feel like they belong.
Barbara Owen (b. Burlington, VT) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and teaching artist based in Rhode Island and Brooklyn, NY. Owen received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY and an Interdivisional BA in Sculpture and Poetry from Bennington College in Bennington, VT.
Her recent exhibitions include Art Cake (Brooklyn, NY), Spring/Break Los Angeles (CA), Untitled Miami (FL), Tiger Strikes Asteroid GVL (NC), Chelsea Walls (NY), Jamestown Art Center (RI), SVA Flatiron Gallery (NYC), Dedee Shattuck Gallery (MA), Redwood Library and Athenaeum (RI), Collar Works (Troy, NY), LabSpace (Hillsdale, NY), Bristol Art Museum (RI), Newport Art Museum (RI), UMass Dartmouth (MA), and Art-in-Embassies (Papua New Guinea and Suriname).
Her artistic and curatorial projects have been reviewed or featured in Art in Embassies Collection Catalogue; Studio Visit Volume 9; New Visionary Magazine; ArtScope Magazine; Take Magazine; Big Red & Shiny; Art New England; The Providence Journal; Newport Mercury; The Record Review; South Coast Today; the NetWorks Rhode Island Artist Video Portrait Series, and Repair: Sustainable Design Futures, edited by Markus Berger and Kate Irwin (Routledge), among others. Owen has served as a visiting artist critic at Rhode Island College (BFA Painting, 2022), the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (BFA, 2022), The Teaching Gallery at HVCC (2017), and RISD’s INTAR Summer Program (2016, 2017). In 2018, she was awarded the Evelyn Danzig Haas ’39 Visiting Artist Program at Wheaton College.
She has held residencies nationwide, including Millay Colony (Wintertide) (2019, 2021) Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts (2023), Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, CA (2000); Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY (2002); and MASS MoCA/Assets for Artists, MA (2015).
Mariana Paes is an artist, educator, event producer, and multicultural communications specialist committed to community transformation through art, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Her Brazilian roots with Spanish, Lebanese, Indigenous, and Black heritage, as well as her multiple dance and music trainings grant her a unique artistic vision.
La Mari founded Flamenco Rhode Island in July 2024, the first flamenco colletive in the Ocean State. She has been dancing flamenco for over 15 years and learned from multiple maestras such as Symone Coelho, Trini, Ale Kalaf, Clara Ramona, Triana Maciel, Nino de Los Reyes, La China, Carmen Talegona, Omara Amaya, Laura Sanchez, and Belen Maya.
Since the start of Flamenco Rhode Island, Mariana established partnerships with various local organizations and artists, performing and teaching in events led by Rhode Island Latino Artists, Mount Pleasant Library, Roger Williams Park, Teatro Ecas, Salve Regina University, Downtown Providence Parks, Hope Artiste Village, FirstWorks, YMCA, and Providence Tourism Council.
She also serves as a Curatorial Advisor for the Dance Complex, in Cambridge (MA) and Senior Specialist of Corporate Social Responsibility for North America at Experian. Her professional resume also includes serving as communications and DEI specialist at various companies such as Twitter Latin America, Shutterstock, Dance Complex, Sennheiser, New England Patriots, Berklee College of Music, School of Rock, and AVID.
Alicia Renadette is a visual artist whose work encompasses sculpture, installation, mixed-media drawings and performance. Her work has been exhibited nationally with shows at the Sculpture Center (NYC); Southern Exposure (SF, CA); Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (VT) and at the Governor's Island Art Fair (NYC). She holds an MFA in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA in Sculpture from the Hartford Art School. She is currently the Co-Director, and Curator at OVERLAP in Newport, RI. She shares a home studio with her cat Frank in Providence, RI.
Alejandra Spruill is an alternative process photographer, educator, and advocate whose work weaves intersects material exploration, tactile engagement, and a grounded sense of place. She pushes the boundaries of traditional image-making by blending analog photography with found materials and fiber arts, encouraging viewers to not just see, but feel the textures, patterns, and histories embedded in each piece.
Spruill’s creative practice is deeply rooted in community and curiosity — from darkroom prints to layered collages that evoke the physicality of memory. As a teacher and mentor, she fosters accessible, inquiry-driven environments where artists can experiment, reflect, and connect. Her work has been exhibited and shared in collaborative contexts that emphasize art as a tool for collective dialogue.
As a curator for Advocacy is Love, Spruill is excited to support artists whose practices amplify compassion, collective, and creative resistance — affirming that art builds bridges, opens conversations, and embodies the values we fight for together.
Grace Tasel is a recent 2025 Illustration and Drawing department graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence Rhode Island, where she currently resides. During her college years as an illustration major she found a love for traditional methods of art making such as drawing and painting. Currently, Grace works as a curatorial assistant at Angell Street Galleries. While also participating in national juried exhibitions, and exhibitions in her local community of Providence. She is particularly interested in exploring the female experience, through the metaphor of the body and strives to create shocking, raw pieces that confront the viewers thoughts on womanhood and the female body.
J.R. Uretsky (she/they) is a Rhode Island artist and musician whose work blends multimedia art, music, and collective emotion. Drawing on religious and intergenerational trauma, Uretsky uses humor, personal stories, and pop culture to explore queer joy and grief, mixing autobiography with fiction.
Uretsky has over fifteen years of experience organizing, designing, and installing exhibitions. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art at Biola University, her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts in Sculpture at the University of Connecticut, and a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies at Harvard University.
Uretsky worked as curator at the New Bedford Art Museum, where she exhibited the work of the Chief Official White House photographer for President Barack Obama, Pete Souza, and Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter.
Khamry Varfley (she/her) is the Inaugural Curator & Program Manager for Gather RI, where she has overseen the development and implementation of the state's first Biographical Library and Portrait Gallery dedicated to women and gender expansive people. She is also a Certified Entrepreneur Librarian Specialist and has expertise in fostering economic growth and educational opportunities, particularly for underrepresented communities, having previously served as Entrepreneur Specialist for the Community Libraries of Providence.
She continues to inspire positive change in the communities she serves as an active member of the Omega Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, focusing on raising awareness of violence against women. She holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration & Marketing from Johnson & Wales University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology & Behavioral Neuroscience from Rhode Island College.
Khamry is a Rhode Island native and avid illustrator. She can be found perusing the aisles of local bookstores, art supply stores, or trying new coffee spots.
Entang Wiharso (1967) is US-based and Indonesian born artist. He has a multi-disciplinary practice and speaks with urgency through any cogent channel that fits his immediate need, be it painting, sculpture, video, installation or performance. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, he is widely regarded for his unique depictions of contemporary life that employ a dramatic visual language, creating artworks that exist in relation to the mythologies of a centuries-old animist past and the high-speed, hyper-connected lifestyle of the 21stcentury. His life and immediate family are bicultural, biracial and the inheritors of diverse religious and spiritual legacies. Recent work focuses on the duality of cultures and experiences in his two homelands, building on ideas that connect spirituality and transcendence with national narratives about progress and destiny through a sustained exploration of landscape and geopolitical structures.
Wiharso has had more than 45 solo gallery and museum exhibitions since 1995 across Asia, Europe and the United States and participated in numerous biennale exhibitions including the 2019 Kunming Art Biennale; 51th and 55th Venice Biennale; Prospect.3 New Orleans, Prague Biennale 6, 2 Biejing Biennale , 10 Jakarta Biennale, Biennale Jogja 18, 2 Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan as well as in many prestigious international institutions including Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, National Gallery of Australia, Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeonbuk Museum, Museum MACAN, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Gunma Museum of Modern Art, Hilger Brotkunsthalle, Singapore Art Museum, Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Lyon Musée d’art contemporain, Mori Art Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, and Herbert F. Johnson Museum. In 2019, Wiharso was a Guggenheim Fellow and has participated in numerous residencies around the world.