Color Stories: A Community Conversation on Color

Chaney Gallery
Open Through Fall 2021

Under Construction Arts is an annual week-long residency to celebrate the artistic process. For the 2021 residency, during Annapolis Arts Week, we welcomed Artist Mēlani Naim and her project "Color Stories: A Community Conversation on Color." Naim's residency included opportunities for the community to contribute to the project plus digital engagement, virtual meditations on color and an Artist Talk.

The public was invited to share their own color stories by taking a picture of color in their community. Naim took the community contributions and mapped them into art pieces, now on display in the Chaney Gallery and part of this ongoing work in progress. 

Why color? The main elements that make an art piece are the fundamental elements: color, line, form. Starting with one element, like color, makes art more accessible to all. For most of us, color is extremely accessible, dynamic and diverse. For example, the color red triggers different thoughts for all of us leading to something we can all connect through and understand. Let’s open ourselves up through the lens of each of these colors.

Artist Bio: Mēlani Naim

Curator and conceptual artist Mēlani Naim is the founder of the award-winning Family Arts Museum - a migratory institution focused on the celebration of family as fine art, home as curated space, and community as gallery. Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Mēlani started her own museum reimagined her studio practice, and refined her innovative approach to community engagement, audience development, and exhibition design. Mēlani currently serves as a consultant on numerous projects and as the director of public programs at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her work has been highlighted by the New York Times, Atlas Obscura, Shondaland, Bmore Art, American Museum Alliance Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, Artnet, and National Geographic.