lydia see

lydia see (she/they/y’all) is a multidisciplinary practitioner, educator, and curator of art + archives who is passionate about the uses of art for social justice + civic engagement.

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lydia is:

• northern by birth, Appalachian by choice, and now residing on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham Nation and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Tucson, AZ);

• a serial collaborator, compulsive community builder, practicing studio artist, and educator of students from early childhood through end of life;

• a firm believer in the power of cultural access to transform lives;

• a curator within and without formal exhibition spaces.

Recently:

+ Bronze medal-winning Art Handler at the Inagural Texas Art handling Olympics (2024)
+ Exhibitions curated at UA include: Delivery Systems (2022), BMC Playbook (2023) in Joseph Gross Gallery // Where I'm From (2022), Nice To Meet You (2023, 2024), Over, Under, Through (2023), in Lionel Rombach Gallery.
+ feature in Southwest Contemporary: Work in Progress with lydia see (2023)
+ articles written FOR Southwest Contemporary: Hazel Larsen Archer: Out of the Shadows and Into the Light (2023) and Snakebite Creation Space: An Artist-Run Haven for Experimental Exhibitions (2024)

In 2021, lydia curated Connecting Legacies: A First Look at the Dreier Black Mountain College Archive, an exhibition connecting ephemera from the Black Mountain Dreier Archive with objects from the Asheville Art Museum's collection, with a focus on underrepresented artists within the prevailing Black Mountain College narratves. lydia launched Engaging Collections in 2019, a residency and publication at the intersections of representation + art with libraries, archives, and special collections, with a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation as part of their All for NC Fellowship. Engaging Collections launched its first community collaboration, The Carolina Record Shop in June 2021, an installation in Pack Memorial Library's recently renovated Buncombe County Special Collections co-created with resident artist Honey Simone and many community partners.

lydia was a co-founder of the Six Feet (2020) and Cabbage School (2017) communities, and has developed programming, infrastructure, and/or strategic plans for myriad other initiatives and organizations, including Theater in the Open, Asheville Art Museum, and Revolve (currently serving as a core advisory board member).

Residencies include: Peter Bullough Foundation (2021), Elsewhere (2018), Hub-Bub in partnership with Spartanburg County Public Libraries (2016-2017), Penland School of Craft (2015, 2016)

for more info: lydiasee.com