Kicking off its fourth year, the CCA program’s 2022 artists include Dan Jian, Calder Kamin, Dr. Mary Nangah, and Rachel Nash

Fort Worth, TX, November 16, 2021—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) is thrilled to announce its 2022 Carter Community Artists: Dan Jian, Calder Kamin, Dr. Mary Nangah, and Rachel Nash. The Carter Community Artist (CCA) initiative was established to collaborate with and support local artists, to enhance the Carter’s events, and to bring together practicing artists and the North Texas community. The Carter selects four local artists each year to assist with creating, planning, and leading experiences on and off-site. Throughout 2022, these artists will bring their distinct points of view to events and projects as they make connections to the Museum’s expansive collection, exhibitions, and rich history with the local community.

“Over the course of the pandemic, we have had to figure out how to adapt to virtually connecting visitors with art,” said Amanda Blake, Director of Education, Library, and Visitor Experience at the Carter. “Our current class of Carter Community Artists have been crucial in planning and implementing ways to safely connect people with art both in person and online. As we are shifting back to more in-person events at the Carter, our Carter Community Artists will play a vital role in helping our audiences creatively connect with artworks in our collection in a safe and meaningful way. We look forward to seeing how this new class of artists deepen and expand our initiative to bring local artists together and create new ways of connecting with the DFW community.”

Carter Community Artists are chosen by Carter education staff. This year’s artists’ practices range in topics from diversity, equity, and inclusion to changing views on waste, each bringing a different and unique view to the program. Dan Jian works in a number of mediums from painting and drawing to animation. Influenced by a desire to change cultural perceptions of waste, Calder Kamin works with trash to create beautifully crafted works. Dr. Mary Nangah’s paintings investigate ideas of authenticity, mimicry, ambivalence, and otherness of African aesthetics. With a background in studio art and art history, and a licensed professional Counselor and Art Therapist, Rachel Nash focuses on oil paintings but enjoys experimenting with new materials. These artists’ unique backgrounds and areas of focus will help shape the ways we interact with our community, from lectures, workshops, and Second Thursdays at the Carter to student tours and on- and off-site events.

This year, the Carter Community Artist program is committed to reconnecting with audiences as we shift back to in-person on- and off-site experiences and events. These initiatives will include programs for all ages and abilities to connect new members of the North Texas community with the Carter. The artist collaboration with the Carter will help bring new and unique views on both American art and the Carter. Visit cartermuseum.org/events for up-to-date information on events featuring our new class of Carter Community Artists.

Carter Community Artists: 2022 Class

Dan Jian

Dan Jian is a visual artist who works across painting, drawing, and animation. Originally from the mountain region of Hubei, China, Jian came to the United States at the age of 19 and started her education as a math major in a community college. She received a BFA from Temple University in 2012 and an MFA from Ohio State University in 2016. Jian currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is an assistant professor of art at Texas Christian University while maintaining an ongoing studio practice.

Jian's solo and group shows have been exhibited nationally across the U.S. and internationally in China, Italy, and Korea. Her awards and endorsements include a recent RCAF project grant from Texas Christian University, Certificate of Merit from the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, and an Arts and Humanities Research Grant at Ohio State University. She is also a residency alumnus of Ragdale Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and was a finalist for the Don Bachardy Fellowship in London.

Calder Kamin

Artist, educator, and advocate, Calder Kamin transforms trash into beautifully crafted creatures and opportunities to change cultural perceptions of waste. She’s engaged thousands of museum visitors through her public workshops and art projects including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Women & Their Work, the DoSeum, i.d.e.a Museum, Utah MOCA, and the Contemporary Austin. Kamin starred in an episode of the PBS series Arts In Context and in two Disney Channel commercials sharing inspirational messages about creative reuse, and she serves on the board of Austin Creative Reuse. She lives with her pup, Pixel, in Fort Worth, Texas, in her current post as Artist in Residence for American Landmark Apartments. Kamin holds a double BFA in ceramics and art history from the Kansas City Art Institute.

Dr. Mary Nangah

Dr. Mary Nangah is an Instructor at Texas Christian University, School of Art, Art Education department. Originally from Cameroon, she earned an MFA in 2009 from Parsons, the New School for Design in New York. Mary completed her PhD in art education in 2015 at the University of North Texas, Denton. Her pedagogy is grounded in post-colonial studies and critical multiculturalism to foster art education that is critically cognizant, inclusive, and equitable. In her work at TCU, Nangah is a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) faculty advocate for the College of Fine Arts, working to support students, faculty, and staff in facilitating DEI initiatives. As an artist, Nangah’s paintings critically inquire concepts of authenticity, mimicry, ambivalence, and otherness of African aesthetics. Her work has been shown in local exhibitions including at the Madeley Gallery in Conroe, Texas, in the TCU School of Art Faculty exhibition at the Moudy Art Gallery, at the Moncrief Cancer Institute, and in the Refresh Exhibition and the Mansfield Public Library. When she’s not teaching or making art, she enjoys cooking delicious West African meals.

Rachel Nash

Rachel Nash is a native of Oklahoma City and came to Dallas to study studio art, art history, and psychology at Southern Methodist University. After graduating from SMU, Nash moved to Chicago to pursue an MA in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She returned to Dallas in 2010 and became a licensed professional counselor and art therapist. Nash has worked at The Art Station, a non-profit art therapy clinic in Fort Worth, and has experience working in both group and individual settings with children and adults. She resides in Dallas and is currently focused on her own art making. She is interested in the process of making art, incorporating writing as a way to push her own art, and in the stories that come from this process. She primarily uses oil paint but is always exploring new materials. When she is not in her studio, Nash is likely somewhere outside spending time with her three little boys and husband.

About the Carter Community Artists

The Carter Community Artists, established in 2018, is an Amon Carter Museum of American Art initiative created to work with and support local artists to develop opportunities for the North Texas community to connect with the Carter’s collection and artists in the region. The yearlong commitment allows collaboration between artists and education staff on a wide array of projects and events designed for family, adult, and student audiences; related events occur both at the Museum and offsite in the community. The Carter Community Artist program inducts a new group of four artists every year with applications available each summer.

About the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Located in the heart of Fort Worth’s Cultural District, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) is a dynamic cultural resource that provides unique access and insight into the history and future of American creativity through its expansive exhibitions and programming. The Carter’s preeminent collection includes masterworks by legendary American artists such as Ruth Asawa, Alexander Calder, Frederic Church, Stuart Davis, Robert Duncanson, Thomas Eakins, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, and John Singer Sargent, as well as one of the country’s foremost repositories of American photography. In addition to its innovative exhibition program and engagement with artists working today, the museum’s premier primary research collection and leading conservation program make it a must-see destination for art lovers and scholars of all ages nationwide. Admission is always free. To learn more about the Carter, visit cartermuseum.org.