06/04/2026
Artist in Resident Kristen Mimms Scavnicky’s “Siting Ritual: Holding Renewal, Inscribing Resilience” will be on view from Wednesday, June 10 - July 18!
The installation explores the transformative power of everyday rituals—washing, eating, and gathering—as acts that sustain cultural identity across generations. Through sculptural soaps, etched tablescapes, and material experimentation, Scavnicky creates what she describes as “soft architectures,” objects that exist both in intimate and within communal space.
Her work draws on a range of historical and cultural frameworks, including bell hooks’ concept of the Black homeplace as a site of resistance and care, as well as the legacy of spatial injustice during the Jim Crow era. These references inform a practice that bridges the intimate and collective, asking how ordinary gestures can carry both trauma and resilience.
Through this work, Scavnicky invites viewers to reconsider how daily acts of care and connection become powerful expressions of memory, cultural presence, and belonging.
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About Kristen Mimms Scavnicky:
Kristen Mimms Scavnicky is an artist, designer, and educator who explores how the spaces around us hold memory, identity, and emotion. Through drawing, installations, and design projects, she creates work that reflects on culture, community, and how environments shape our well-being. Her projects have been supported by grants from organizations including Kent State University and Akron Soul Train, and have been shared through exhibitions, publications, and talks in the United States and abroad. Kristen earned a Master of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Kentucky. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Kent State University, where she teaches students to think about design as a way to care for people, tell stories, and make communities more visible.
