- Active: Clarksville (Montgomery County)
- Region: Middle
- Medium: Textiles, Quilts
- Instagram | Threads | Website
Alice Aida Ayers
“My art is about energy, relationships between people, with the environment, and the universe. The colors of the figures represent the kind of energy that is put out into the world during certain activities or events. Everyday activities and shared experiences comprise the pieces in this series. Overall, they are a celebration of the joy we receive from everyday life.
Choosing fabrics, colors and threads for each piece is an intuitive practice, it’s a form of mediation or prayer. In some cases, I have taken a year to complete the piece. Others just flowed from me without time passing. Each figure or representation carries its own color associated with the internal energy of an individual or the energy of the act represented.“
Alice Aida spent over two decades living and working between the Americas and Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Art and Masters in Art Education. Her professional career has involved working in America, Europe, Mexico, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa. She has served as a resident artist in theatre, visual art, art therapy and as an adjunct professor in Kenya, Tanzania and the United States. A teaching artist since 1989, she has performed residencies in schools, colleges, community centers and libraries.
As an experienced project director and arts educator with over 30 years of experience, she has made significant contributions to classroom teaching, outreach programs and community collaborations.
She has developed and implemented arts education programs, art therapy initiatives and restorative practices for a wide array of audiences.
Her roles as an arts administrator and director have involved collaborating with government agencies, organizing community events such as health fairs, art camps, mural projects and cultural educational exchanges.
In the studio and lecture hall alike, Aida pushes students to question what is presented to them, their relationships and responses to the information, and how these impressions relate to their world. She believes it is important that we explore education on a universal platform. Exploring how other cultures exist is an essential component to her creative philosophy. Her personal work in textile art brings to the forefront traditional practices from her childhood into the world of modern-day artistic interpretations. She uses ethnic, hand-dyed and repurposed fabrics, and found objects in her textile work.
CRAFTING BLACKNESS 
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