OSSABAW ISLAND ARTIST RESIDENCY
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Emily Earl is a photographer and designer, a Savannah native, and one of the original co-founders of Sulfur Studios. She helped the organization transition to ARTS Southeast, a 501c3 nonprofit in 2021 and became the nonprofit’s inaugural Executive Director. She is also the co-founder and Editor of IMPACT Arts + Culture Magazine. She received her BFA in Photography from SCAD in 2007. Her monograph, Late Night Polaroids, a document of Savannah’s nightlife scene from 2012 - 2020, was published in conjunction with her first museum solo exhibition at Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center in 2021.
Emily has a lifelong connection to Ossabaw, as her parents met there in 1977 as visiting artists to the Ossabaw Island Project. Her father, John Earl was a close friend of Sandy West, and spent many years helping to advocate for Ossabaw’s protection. Her brother Larry Earl was a member of the first group at Genesis in 1970. Emily is proud to be the Co-Director of the Ossabaw Island Artist Residency Program, and to be part of the continuing legacy of bringing artists to Ossabaw.
See Emily’s personal photography work: www.emilyearlphotography.com @emilyearlphoto
Jon Witzky is an artist, educator and independent curator from Columbus, Ohio. He received his BFA in Painting from Ohio State University and an MFA in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Jon is co-founder and Editor of IMPACT Arts + Culture Magazine. He maintains an active artistic practice and can often be found working in his studio at ARTS Southeast. Jon is a Co-Director of the Ossabaw Island Artist Residency.
Learn more about Jon’s work: www.jcwitzky.com @jon_witzky
Beryl
Helen
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Carmela Aliffi is a visual artist living in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. She has received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of Georgia and Master of Visual Arts in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University. She has been an Artist in Residence in Cortona, Italy, Ossabaw Island, Georgia, and several cities throughout Argentina. She was a 2009 recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship in Hungary and the Czech Republic. She has been a part of the adjunct faculty of Armstrong Atlantic State University and was Art Department Chair of St. Vincent’s Academy 1990- 2020. In addition to serving on the Advisory Committee, Carmela is also a member of the ARTS Southeast Board of Directors.
Judith Barber is a visual artist based in Atlanta, GA. She is the Founding Director of Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences Residence program, the Founding Director of the Center for Craft (Asheville NC), the Founding Director of the Serenbe Institute, and the Executive Director at the Madison Morgan Cultural Center. She has been awarded residences at the Ossabaw Island Project and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Roosevelt
Betsy
Suzanne
Karen
Susan
Melissa Messina is a nationally recognized arts professional who has developed thought provoking exhibitions, dynamic site-responsive projects, and engaging educational public programming both independently and in leadership positions at museums and non-profit arts organizations. For 20 years, her work with regional, national, and international artists has been presented in the U.S. in Atlanta, Kansas City, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Richmond, Savannah, and Washington, D.C., as well as in Bermuda, France, and Hong Kong. She has lectured extensively, published widely, and her research has been funded by Creative Time and The Andy Warhol Foundation, as well as by fellowships at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Library, Atlanta, GA, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR.
In addition to serving select public and private clients, she is the Executor of the Mildred Thompson Estate. She has also recently served as guest curator at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and was the co-curator of the 2018 and 2020 Bermuda Biennials. In 2017, she co-created Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, an intergenerational exhibition highlighting 21 Black female abstract practitioners that traveled from Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City to The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Learn more about Melissa’s work: messinacuratorial.com
Parker
Lisa
