Kelly Parks Snider

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Kelly Parks Snider

A work in the "Between Spaces" exhibit at ALL.

media release: Dane County visual artist Kelly Parks Snider offers the community an opportunity for social healing and connection through her new exhibit “Between Spaces,” opening at the Arts + Literature Laboratory on Tuesday, May 31. A free reception in the gallery will be held on Saturday, June 18, starting at 6:30 p.m. with a gallery talk at 7 p.m. Parks Snider will discuss her work and read from her collection of poems written during the pandemic. She will be joined by guest speaker Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of The Center for Healthy Minds, who will lead a conversation on resiliency and wellbeing. The exhibit runs through Sunday, Aug. 7 (extended).

“Between Spaces” is an interdisciplinary project that combines Parks Snider’s visual art and poetry created in response to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and features large-scale monoprints, paintings, wood sculptures, fiber art and installations composed of blown glass and found objects.

“A ‘between space’ is a disrupted state of ambiguous loss and uncertainty in which our former way of being is forever changed,” said Parks Snider. “Disruptions are the new normal. Our world is in constant transition filled with uncertainties: the ongoing pandemic, the challenges to our democratic ways of functioning, the escalating climate crisis and personal hardships faced by too many.”

As an artist, Parks Snider believes that creativity flourishes in times of uncertainty, and that a reimagination of this world and our capabilities to make change is needed. Her new work reflects her journey, a guided path to wellbeing, grounded in art, self-reflection and connection. She offers it to the public in hope that it will be useful to others because “building a resilient world is in the interests of everyone.”

“Between Spaces” serves as the inspiration for other project activities throughout the community in May and June that acknowledge the challenging roles women, front line healthcare workers and young people have experienced during the pandemic and chart a way forward: (1) The Banner Day Project, (2) two evenings of visual art, music and movement and (3) youth art workshops.

upcoming events:

Founder and director of the Loka Initiative Dekila Chungyalpa presents “Art in the Right Place: Spiritual Ecology and Sacred Landscapes,” a presentation about the intersection of spirituality, art and environment, on Sunday, Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. This free event is the final program associated with the “Between Spaces” exhibition by Kelly Parks Snider at Arts + Literature Laboratory.

Chungyalpa has worked on climate change issues for more than 20 years and strives to bring contemplative practices that address eco-anxiety and climate distress to the public. She will share techniques to help people cope with emotions and, in the long term, build inner resilience.

According to the Climate Psychology Alliance, ecological anxiety (eco-anxiety) is the most frequently used term in literature and research to describe heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system.

“Climate change has moved from the sidelines to center stage in the past few years. The public is awake to the implications of what is at stake; a world of accelerated and intensified natural disasters such as wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes and storms, increased economic upheavals, health crises and political instability,” said Chungyalpa. “Not surprisingly, as we begin to understand exactly how environmental and climate issues affect us, our lives and those we love, our anxiety and concern have grown in tandem.”

Research suggests that people at the frontlines of environmental and climate issues, disaster-impacted populations, Indigenous peoples, younger generations and environmental scientists and professionals are uniquely affected by environmental and climate issues' psychological and emotional impacts because they overwhelmingly bear the costs.

“Many of them combat anxiety, a chronic sense of doom, anger and feelings of helplessness regarding these issues despite working actively to avert, adapt to or mitigate the impacts,” said Chungyalpa.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

About the artist

Kelly Parks Snider explores contemporary cultural and social issues. Using art and words, she educates communities, stimulates dialogue about target issues and creates social change. Park Snider’s work exhibits nationally through both public and private galleries.

Parks Snider is the co-founder of Project Girl, a nationally recognized non-profit, award-winning program and touring exhibition that combines art, media literacy and youth-led activism into a unique educational experience for children, parents and educators. Project Girl was recently featured in Family Circle Magazine and was an awarded youth program in the new national youth empowerment and philanthropy program called Best Buy’s @15 Change Exchange project.

Parks Snider is also the founder of Goathouse Press, an independent publishing company dedicated to literature that illuminates and inspires. Zilly: A Modern-Day Fable is Kelly’s first children’s book. She considers Zilly to be her protest book. She has also co-authored curriculum with Jane Bartell (co-founder of Project Girl) and Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. (Professor of Education and Human Development at Colby College in Maine).

Activism is the foundation for all of Park Snider’s endeavors. Her objective is to educate communities about targeted issues in the hopes of shaking up the status quo, creating a catalyst, examining the questions that shape and inspire all of us. Parks Snider lectures nationally about media literacy, serves in artist-in-residence programs and produces workshops. She lives and works on a little farm outside of Madison, Wis.

Parks Snider’s Previous Exhibits

• Rural Women: Voice and Spirit, funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Art Board, is an in-depth exploration of Wisconsin rural women, featuring a collection of paintings, corresponding literary selections and a companion video presentation by video producer Jane Bartell. 
• Commercial Land combines art, media literacy and youth-led activism into a unique educational experience aimed at encouraging young people to become more critical consumers of contemporary media advertising and entertainment. The nationally-exhibited project is the culmination of a two-year exploration of the effects of contemporary media on young teens’ lives and attitudes.
• Hidden In Plain Sight explores complex, highly charged issues using visual expression to comment on the invisible truths about power and privilege, inequality and injustice. Determined to make sense of these truths and shine a light on them, Parks Snider sought insights from leading thinkers on matters of racial, social and cultural concern, and individuals with first-hand experience of injustice stemming from them.
• Women Against Hate, United by Love, created in conjunction with Rachel Griffin and Leigh Garcia, showcases powerful prints and stories told by Wisconsin women leaders and activists impacted by bigotry, intolerance and racism.

The Art + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston St. #100, Madison. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.

Kelly Parks Snider’s “Between Spaces” project is supported by Arts + Literature Laboratory, The Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, The Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, John W. Thompson and Jane A. Bartell Charitable Foundation, Center for Healthy Minds, Healthy Minds Innovation, Doyenne Group, Madison Ballet, LunART, Saint Mary’s Foundation, UW Health, Hope for A Future, American Family Insurance DreamBank and Madison Children’s Museum.