Ypsilanti-based Riverside Arts Center's (RAC) two newest resident artists are using their art to address complex local issues like development and education, and engaging the public in the conversation.

After a three-year hiatus, RAC relaunched its Artist in Residency program this year to provide local artists time, space, and resources to create new work and continue works in progress. Over the course of three rounds, the RAC Programming Committee chose multidisciplinary artist Avery Williamson and sculptor Nick Azzaro, both Ypsilanti residents, from a pool of 20 residency applicants. Williamson and Azzaro are receiving free studio space and their work will be featured in a RAC exhibition in September. Williamson's work during the residency focuses on Ypsilanti's Water Street Redevelopment Project, while Azzaro's will examine gaps in the public school system.

RAC Marketing and Administrative Assistant Grey Grant says that RAC has also partnered with Maker Works Ann Arbor to provide Williamson and Azzaro a free membership. RAC is also connecting the artists with Ypsi’s creative community through a series of free workshops both developed and facilitated by the residents themselves.
Doug CoombeRAC Marketing and Administrative Assistant Grey Grant.
"The residency was designed to be highly malleable to residents' individual needs, as we’ve been piloting the program this year," Grant says. "This program serves both working artist populations in addition to community artist populations."

Both Williamson and Azzaro describe themselves as lifelong artists and both have backgrounds in photography, but their final works for September’s exhibition will be in collage and sculpture form, respectively. Williamson says that while she has always been creating art in some way, she found herself in a number of non-art-related jobs over the years before committing to her art career full-time in 2020. While many of her works are collages, she says she likes to experiment with all kinds of mediums including illustration and wearables.

"Moving into full-time creative work has allowed me to do larger public works and more research-based projects like this one," Williamson says. "I would consider my practice evolving, diverse, and playful. I like having a lot of fun when I create."

Azzaro’s background in teaching has had a major impact on his artistic work. He worked with EMU’s Bright Futures program before helping to develop Ypsilanti Community High School’s photography program after moving back to Ypsilanti from Chicago in 2013. His work in sculpture often utilizes wheatpaste, a cooked mixture of flour and water that can stand on its own once dry, to adhere found and recycled materials such as books, copier paper, and even school desks.
Doug CoombeNick Azzaro at RAC with one of his large collage works.
"Wheatpaste has been around for as long as people have been doing street art, and it is incredibly accessible," Azzaro says. "This process allows anyone to make a statement."

As part of the application process, both Williamson and Azzaro presented project proposals to RAC’s programming committee that would best reflect their artistic vision as well as connect directly with Ypsilanti’s community. For Williamson, that took the form of exploring Ypsilanti’s extensive history and learning more about the Water Street Redevelopment Project. She says that while much of Ypsi’s rich history is well documented through signage on historic buildings and plots, Water Street’s history is less defined. Much of her research has involved speaking with community members about the significance of the area. Through this research, she hopes that her final collection of work will "draw attention to that disconnect where we have so much celebration and preservation of history, and a space where there isn’t any assistance or placemaking."

"Collage felt like a good way to explore an idea or a place that, no matter how much you research it, there will always be more questions," Williamson says. "It’s about what we can insert into the dialogue that holds the weight of the questions we have about a space like Water Street."

Azzaro, drawing on his experience from full-time teaching and utilizing materials from places like the now-closed Willow Run High School, plans for his sculptures to comment on the many systemic gaps found in the public education system. By utilizing old books from the Willow Run High School library, Azzaro wants his audience to critically examine what and how they were taught in school, and to start conversations about learning from these problematic texts and student accessibility. By using wheatpaste and paint to create these sculptures, Azzaro wants to highlight the ways in which the public education system needs to continue to evolve.
Doug CoombeAvery Williamson.
"I’m using materials that were in the hands of students in this community for many years, and I’m challenging a lot of the material there," Azzaro says. "I’m not faulting anyone for learning from these books, but I’m challenging those who don’t see a problem with their flawed or outdated contents."

Azzaro’s community workshops have allowed participants to explore some of the kinds of books and materials he is using for his final pieces, in addition to teaching about making and using wheatpaste to create sculpture. He says that while he wasn’t sure what to expect from his workshops at first, attendees have been very receptive. He says making these new exhibition pieces and facilitating workshops reminds him of his full-time teaching days, where "every day you start over, and you just have to stick with it and keep an eye on the end result."

Azzaro hopes to continue working alongside RAC staff to provide more arts education opportunities to the Ypsilanti community once his residency concludes.

"There are a lot of schools without the proper art programs to support student creativity," he says. "I see RAC as a wonderful central institution in the community that has the ability to create a lot of wonderful opportunities for people in Ypsilanti and beyond."
Doug CoombeNick Azzaro at RAC with one of his large collage works.
Because her works are so ingrained in the Ypsi community, Williamson hopes that the results of her collage workshops can also make their way into the exhibition alongside her work to further those conversations about place and space. She says she believes that "having a creative practice as a release from all of the things happening in the world is beautiful," and hopes that community members who "already identify as artists, or don’t yet identify as artists" are able to engage in these discussions with her and with each other, long after they first experience her artwork in person.

"I’m hoping this is the beginning of something," Williamson says. "This is my visual language and creative work, but it’s my hope that it will start conversations in the community and help them find ways to co-create with me."

The RAC Artist Residency final exhibition will take place this September in RAC’s Off-Center. To find out more about Williamson and Azzaro’s residency proposals and work, visit RAC’s website. To keep up to date on resident workshops as well as other arts and arts education events, visit RAC’s events page or follow RAC on Facebook and Instagram. 

"Nick and Avery are such brilliantly-minded artists and delightful people," Grant says. "They’ve brought in new life to the arts center by their presence alone, and we are happy that we have been able to provide them the resources to create."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Photos by Doug Coombe.