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Artist in Residence

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Markaz Artist-in-Residence Past and Present 

2022-2023 - Arwa Faruk

Arwa Faruk is a Bangladeshi-American sophomore studying Art Practice on a pre-medical path. Arwa’s work functions as a form of inquiry and self expression. Drawing inspiration from styles of social realism and naturalism, painting is her way of examining and interfacing with the people and world around her. Arwa explores themes of self-reflection, temporality, displacement, and home, which draw on the nuances of her Bangladeshi-American identity and Bengali culture, more broadly. As the Center's artist in residence, she will create a series of paintings examining and following the flow of Islam through her life, past and present.


2021-2022 - Halima Ibrahim

Halima Ibrahim

Halima Ibrahim is a Sophomore majoring in Art History with a focus in Post-Arab Spring Egyptian Art. She serves as the 2020-2021 Rhode Island's Youth Poet laureate, and uses poetry to talk about Islamophobia, racism, and process community trauma. Halima transferred from the Community College of Rhode Island, where she completed an associate degree in Studio Art. As the Center's Artist in Residence, she will combine poetry, printmaking, and photography to create a body of artwork confronting a Islamophobic society as a visibly Muslim woman. 


2019-2020 - Maya Salameh, ‘22 

Maya Salameh is an award-winning poet and a published author. Syrian by way of San Diego, Maya is a psychology major whose work centers around the intersection of creativity and citizenship, articulating Arab-American culture, conflict and consciousness. She explores themes of desire, religion, diaspora, imperialism, intergenerational femininity and the hyphenated Arab body. AiR projects included:

  • BORDERS: In coalition with El Centro, A3C, BCSC, and the NACC, the Markaz AiR organized an event for artists of color to meditate on and interrogate the concept of borders - linguistic, generational, diasporic, and otherwise. Hosted on January 22, 2020. 
  • Community Creative Archive: During our first virtual quarter of the pandemic, AiR created an online space for creative and imaginative responses to COVID-19. Filled with poems, visual art, music, and essays that explore physical and digital space in times of quarantine, the Community Creative Archive asks students, “What is home?". Implemented Spring, 2020.