Community Artist Project

Five Artists, five community projects  

Anchorage Concert Association created the Community Artist Project to partner with local artists to create short-term projects that would  provide connections communities throughout Anchorage while social events, venues, and performances remain limited due to the COVID-19 crisis

O'Hara Shipe 

The Project | One Story, Many Voices

One Story, Many Voices is a mini documentary of intimate concerts and interviews with Anchorage-based musicians Photonak and The Forest That Never Sleeps. Exploring themes of mental health, creativity, inspiration, and finding community in these unparalleled times, this project highlights Anchorage's musical community while also providing a message of hope for those who are struggling with feelings of isolation, depression, and hopelessness, and normalizing the discussion of mental health.

The Artist | O'Hara Shipe

O’Hara Shipe was born with skates on her feet and a Walkman in her hand. Now a retired professional ice hockey player, she has turned her passion for music into a full-time job. For the past 5 years, she has worked as a freelance multimedia journalist for the Anchorage Press, ADN, and various national outlets. When she’s not out supporting Alaska’s music scene, you can still catch her donning a pair of skates and headphones at Westchester Lagoon.  

Meghan Holtan

The Project | COVID Radio 

COVID Radio is a hyper-local radio station located at the Visit Healthcare, ChangePoint drive-through testing site. A collaboration between Anchorage Health Department, Anchorage Concert Association, and community artists and leaders, this project invites people to listen to a mix of music and public health messages that will spark joy, share needed information, and build trust in public health systems, all from the comfort of their car. It is also an opportunity for local musicians and artists to connect with Anchorage audiences while traditional venues remain closed.

The Artist | Meghan Holtan 

Meghan Holtan is an artist, data analyst, juggler, and mother. She performed and taught circus arts around the United States before returning home to Anchorage in 2012 and beginning work with Agnew::Beck Consulting. She is currently contracted with the Anchorage Health Department to analyze COVID-19 case data and support the epidemiologist with her weekly reports to the Acting Mayor. Meghan loves making art in public places. Some of her favorite projects include curating a floating art parade, stilt walking while recording audio of people’s love of Chester Creek Trail, traveling with the Runaway Circus and Roustabout Circus, and street performing in Italy. She has taught with Chicago’s CircEsteem, Talkeetna’s Green Light Circus, Anchorage’s Winterberry Circus and through the Alaska Artist in Schools Program. Meghan is particularly interested in how lessons from the performing arts can engage citizens in community decision-making, and is always looking for ways to integrate arts strategies in her community development and planning work

M.C. MoHagani Magnetek

The Project | Quarantine Sister Circle: Choreopoem & Compassion Series

The Quarantine Sister Circle is both a series of panel discussions and performance art processes designed to encourage empathy, compassion, connection, and creativity during the isolation and hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gathering women poets, spoken word artists, actors, dancers, and body movement artists to rehearse and perform an original choreopoem, this series will also include panel discussions that focus on empathy and compassion which will be open to the public.

The Artist | M.C. MoHagani Magnetek

M.C. MoHagani Magnetek (pronounced: emcee mahogany magnetic) resides in the Spenard community of Anchorage, AK, at her Wonder Woman Hideout aka Camp Magnetek. She serves as the M.C. (Mistress of Ceremony) and producer for the monthly Edutainment Nite $100 Cash Prize Poetry Slam. She is a Feminist (Nonbinary) Transgender African American Woman, Human Rights Activist and performance artist. She is a U.S. Coast Guard Veteran and has earned degrees in Anthropology (B.A.) English (B.A.) Forensic Death Investigation (graduate certificate) and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Literary Arts. She is currently working on a Masters of Science in Forensic DNA & Serology. 

Some of her published works include “Shhh Be Quiet” Building Fires in the Snow (2016) “The Mind-Sol Lady’s Revenge” Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries (2018)  and “Acrimonious Black Woman Sparks Climate Change Debate with the President” in Alaska Women Speak Literary Journal; Spring 2019: Trajectories. “Girlfriend, What’s Your Recipe for Lemonade” Woman Scream: The International Poetry Anthology of Female Voices (2020). Her list of accolades also include riding her bicycle 100 miles in one day, jumping over five cars on her bike, and chaining herself to a tree for justice, equality, and respect for all people. She loves writing creatively and poetry everyday. Taking candy from babies is her favorite pastime.

Leslie Robertson 

The Project | The World As Family

The World as Family is a collaborative response art installation project consisting of small painting squares relating to themes of kindness, empathy, connection, and family. Using mobile paint kits, school-aged youth and their teachers are connected to Alaskan communities, non-profit agencies, and other youth groups in Anchorage to work together via covid-safe exchanges to complete both sides of the painting squares. By collaborating with other groups and sharing art-based ideas around these themes, people can actively participate in building  a sense of community, connection, and stronger pathways to resiliency.

The Artist | Leslie Robertson 

Leslie works as a visual artist in a variety of media with special focus on collaboration and the community. She earned her Masters in Art Therapy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and continued to work in both behavioral health and technology settings. She combines her experience in art, counseling, and technology, and provides distance teletherapy along with pursuing her own artistic expression. She enjoys being outside in nature and works with natural materials, plein air painting, and painting with wax (encaustic). She is passionate about bringing people together through community art projects and has recently worked with school age youth, Alaskan communities and non-profit organizations serving environmental concerns and also serving people experiencing medical and behavioral health needs.

Enzina Marrari 

The Project | Of Hope

Of Hope is a performance addressing the impacts of social isolation, grief, loss, and hope during COVID-19. Of Hope will provide a space to share the hard stuff, a place to provide a sense of connection and normalcy through art during a time of unrest and fear, a place to feel seen, and an opportunity to bring live, place-based art back into Spenard and a year of struggle. As we move out of the darkness of winter and into the light of Spring, we too move from a place of despair to a place of hope. Join us on April 10th, to revel in community, art, and togetherness.

The Artist | Enzina Marrari

Enzina Marrari is a conceptual visual and performance artist that confronts the hard stuff. She believes art is a tool for communication and connection and through her work creates intimate and shared experiences. Enzina has an invisible disability that informs much of her work. She reveals the unseen through visual narratives; transforming stories into landscapes, audio narratives, physical experiences, or body works. She currently lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. She received a B.A. in Sculpture and Figure Drawing from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and a M.A. in Installation and Environmental Art from New York University.

She is a 2017 Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellow, a 2018 recipient of the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s Top 40 under 40, and a 2015 Connie Boochever Fellow. She has been supported by the Awesome Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, and Radical Arts for Women. In 2015, she was nominated for an emerging artist award through the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She has been an artist in residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Cill Rialaig Artist Center in Kerry, Ireland. She is an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at University of Alaska, Anchorage, and founding studio partner at @ Studio C in Anchorage.