Arts Board Announces 2022 Honorees

Artists of the year Nirmal Raja and Ck Ledesma have different backgrounds, cultures and experiences, but both have placed community and collaboration at the forefront of their creative processes.

The City of Milwaukee Arts Board (MAB) named Raja and Ledesma the 2022 Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year.

“These honorees recognize and celebrate excellence and exceptional service in Milwaukee’s arts community,” MAB said in a press release.

According to Raja, the award is as much about an artist’s approach to community as it is about the artwork.

Raja, who is also a curator, mentor and advocate for the local arts scene, moved to Milwaukee with her husband 30 years ago. The interdisciplinary artist lived in India, South Korea and Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States.

“This is as close to home as it gets,” she said.

Feeling shocked and uncertain following the 2016 election, Raja sought community via collaboration with other artists. “It triggered an impulse on my part to investigate why I was suddenly feeling alienated,” she said. “The result of that collaboration was me feeling like I know the city better, and I feel like I understand my role as an artist in the city.”

Raja is a mentor for the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network. She is currently in the early stages of a long-term project to research South Asian objects and artifacts that have made their way into private institutions, and what stories they might tell as a representation of their whole cultures.

Community plays a similarly important role in Ledesma’s work.

Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ledesma (who uses they/them pronouns)said they feel proudest when creating alongside family and community members.

Shortly after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Ledesma traveled to the island to create pop-ups in community spaces offering food and other supplies. The group did 13 pop-ups throughout the island and distributed over 2,500 dishes, as well as supplies like cash, batteries, lightbulbs, solar panels and water filters.

“I really enjoy being in community and being able to talk to people and connect with folks through art or through food,” Ledesma said. “And that was very much a family and friends affair, where my mom, my grandmother, and my brother, my high school friends and college friends were involved.”

Receiving the award was a surprise, said Ledesma. “It feels grandiose, also, and like, monumental to be a part of this group of [previous honorees] that I look up to.”

Ledesma is a co-founder of Cosecha Creative Space, a community space seeking to build cultural and human connections through art, and has served as the artist-in-residence for the Cesar Chavez Drive Business Improvement District, the Milwaukee Public Library Mitchell Street branch, and Casa Candela in Cayey, Puerto Rico.

Ledesma is curating a show featuring Puerto Rican artists. The exhibition will be at Walker’s Point Center of the Arts in December.

The arts board also named art collector and advocate Cynthia Henry and creator-activist Ray Nitti its 2022 Friends of the Arts. Established in 2012, the Friends of the Arts Award is given to individuals who distinguish themselves through exceptional service to Milwaukee’s arts community.

Henry serves on the board of the African American Arts Alliance at the Milwaukee Art Museum. With partner Gregory Stanford, Henry opened Ayzha Fine Arts Gallery & Boutique, a contemporary, multicultural gallery with an emphasis on art from the African diaspora.

Nitti, or Rayhainio Boynes, is part of the development team for The Community Within the Corridor, an affordable housing development that includes 35,000 square feet of community service space for creative programming.

Former Alderman and MAB Chair Wayne Frank, who passed away this year, inaugurated The Artists of the Year program in 1995. The program was renamed in 2020 to honor of late, beloved arts board member Mildred L. Harpole. Each recipient was honored at a June 14 ceremony and received a $1,500 cash award.

The MAB sustaining grant program is funded by the City of Milwaukee, with support from the Wisconsin Arts Board, the State of Wisconsin, and the National Endowment for the Arts.