Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County

Art as a Catalyst for Community and Belonging

The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is thrilled to announce the artists selected for the inaugural Montgomery County Artist Residency: Alyscia Cunningham, Jasmine Adams, and Liliane Blom! Each artist will undertake a year-long residency with the goal of supporting civic dialogue within one of three Regional Service Areas (RSA): East County, Mid-County and Upcounty.

“Creativity is a vehicle for building healthier communities” says Suzan Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. “It has the power to amplify diverse voices, develop community identity, build cohesion and much more. Our hope is through these residencies, we will help strengthen relationships between the regional service centers and their communities.”

Through a series of artistic engagements and community convenings, Alyscia, Jasmine, and Liliane will facilitate conversations around topics their communities identify as important– such as identity; resilience; vitality; economic development and financial security; housing; transportation; healthcare and food access; education; and more. These conversations will occur many times throughout the residency and will always include a creative engagement activity that aligns with the resident artist’s own practice.

Stay tuned for more! Visit our website frequently for the most up-to-date information on the residencies, community gatherings, and ways you can participate.

Resident Artists

Alyscia Cunningham
Regional Service Center: UpCounty Regional Service Center

Alyscia Cunningham is an award-winning author, filmmaker, tactile artist, and photographer who has contributed to the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and AOL. After the success of her first book, FEMININE TRANSITIONS, a photography book with portraits of raw feminine beauty, Cunningham produced I AM MORE THAN MY HAIR, a book and documentary film. It includes interviews with women who’ve experienced hair loss due to a healthrelated condition and their journey of self-empowerment to see beauty beyond the media’s standards. With the completion and direction provided through fellowships, labs, and workshops with Stowe, Sundance Institute, and Women of Color Filmmakers, Alyscia has written and directed horror and thriller films.

Alyscia is the Founder of Her House Media a media company that produces documentary and horror films by and about women of color. She is a TEDx speaker, has been recognized as Forbes ‘The Next 1000(2021), and an award recipient of the American Express 100 for 100 Program. She is also one of the FrontLine Voices for Stop the Beauty Madness, a campaign focused on changing the dynamics of beauty globally. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, Fox 5, and ABC 7.

Alyscia also founded Brown Women in the Arts, a supportive group for creative BIPOC women working in the arts industry, and co-organized Reel Moms, a supportive community for working moms and caregivers in the film and TV industry, in partnership with Women in Film and Video. Her goal is to continue producing documentary and narrative films and photo books.

www.Alyscia.com | Instagram: @alysciacunningham

Jasmine Adams
Regional Service Center: East County Regional Service Center

Jasmine Adams is a Montgomery County-based painter, photographer and digital artist who seeks to unveil the controversial journey one takes to discover their identity. Fueled by images from her imagination and everyday life, Adams in practice creates imagery that allows the Black American experience to speak on a grand scale through portraiture. Adams has received her B.A in Studio Arts from Morgan State University, and has exhibited in JELMA Museum (2021) , Truro Center for the Arts (2022) and Gallery CA (2024).

Instagram: @jasminebedrawin

Liliane Blom
Regional Service Center: Mid-County Regional Service Center

A cultural nomad with many roots (French, Norwegian, German, and Costa Rican) Liliane Blom has lived her life at the intersection of cultures. She has made her home in Rockville, Maryland where she now lives and creates art.

An award-winning photographer, classically trained painter, and innovative installation artist she describes her fusion of painting and photography as “digital painting.”

In the last decade, she has been transforming her images into interactive and immersive environmental installations. Her installations are multi-sensory experiences, that engage the viewer with sound/touch and light. Playful, they unapologetically appeal to our sense of wonder and invite the viewer into a contemplative space.

Liliane Blom is very engaged in the arts community in the greater DMV and has served on a variety of boards. She is a founding member of ArtWatchDC a group of social-activist artists with whom she frequently participates in art actions.

www.lilianeblom.com | Instagram: @liliane.blom.art

Consulting Artist

Kenya Miles

Kenya is a multidisciplinary artist, educator & the alchemist behind Traveling Miles Studio. A one woman textile and fine art studio utilizing sustainable materials from earth pigments to natural dyes. Kenya’s work honors ancient practices while harmoniously drawing on a distinctive contemporary voice. From the valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico to the red clay roads of Ntonso, Ghana, Kenya’s process is a ledger of years of wandering and apprenticing around the globe.

Kenya has facilitated workshops at the Berkeley Art Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden and MICA. She was a guest artist at Berkeley Art Musuem’s “The Possible” and in 2019 had a solo exhibition “The Central Sun” at Baana Gallery in San Francisco. From 2019-2020 Kenya was an Artist-in-Residence and farmer in the Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative.

In January 2020, Kenya founded Blue Light Junction, a natural dye studio, alternative color lab, retail space, dye garden & educational facility in central Baltimore. Blue Light Junction focuses on growing, processing, and preserving the history of natural dyes and their artistic, practical, and commercial applications. In 2022-23, Kenya was a Civic Media Fellow, through the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. She is currently a 2023-24 Braiding Seeds Fellow. Kenya is an avid traveler, gardener, and above all else Indigo’s mother (her son).