Find Your Gremlin Youth Workshop with Umico Niwa

RSVP

to ignite our skin artist Umico Niwa leads a workshop for youth (8-12) that channels inner Memory Palaces, personal spaces of meaning and identity. Participants are invited to build internal landscapes and place within them a mental sculpture. This symbolic object or Gremlin, can represent an ideal self, a grounding force, a part of oneself to be released, or a constellation of admired traits. The Memory Palace serves as a tool for reflection and an emotional sanctuary.

Participants are asked to prepare by bringing organic matter, such as sticks and twigs, a wrinkly apple, a wilting bouquet, the remains of a bee, a snail shell, big potatoes/small potatoes, or a pitiful acorn to build their sculptures, which can be taken home or added to Niwa’s installation in the exhibition.

Space is limited, and advance registration is required. Please provide the participant's name, age, and contact information for the day of the event.

Due to the historic nature of our building, this location is not fully ADA accessible. The event is located on a second-floor loft, which is only reachable by stairs.

Umico Niwa received her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 2020. Rejecting Western notions of personhood, Niwa considers alternative modes of existence, unbridled by bodily restrictions or gender constructs. Her creations speak to a state of being defined by perpetual movement—a flower wilting, a fruit ripening, a somatic memory bank, a valley full of weeds bursting with life.