SUMMER SCHOOL (2023)

Overview: Summer School is a collaborative, community-based, interactive installation at Parachute Gallery. This program is a celebratory response to the recent censorship of inclusive cultural content in K-12 schools, colleges, and public and private spaces across the state of Florida.

Curated and organized by: Jessica Todd and Victoria Alvarez

Filmed performances by: Jay Miah (Tampa, FL), TeMonet (Tampa, FL), and Apollo Infiniti (Tampa, FL)

Presented in partnership with: Dave Decker Photography, Embracing Our Differences, Bess the Book Bus, Mojo Books & Records, and Book + Bottle

Book sales benefit: Heard 'Em Say Youth Arts Collective

Dates: July 6-August 3, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

BUY ME FLOWERS & CALL ME PRETTY (2023)

Overview: Buy Me Flowers & Call Me Pretty is an unabashedly beautiful installation of floral-themed 2D work alongside ceramic vessels holding plants and flowers. This exhibition brings together artists of various disciplines and backgrounds to celebrate the simple and universally accessible beauty of nature. Each artist brings their own voice and visual language, which, when observed more closely, speaks to their individual stories and perspectives.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Joerod Collier aka Surreal Styles (Tampa, FL), Kyra Connolly (St. Petersburg, FL), Babette Herschberger (St. Petersburg, FL), Chloe Lewis (Brooklyn, NY), Jenn Ryann Miller (Tampa, FL), Ivan Riascos (Apopka, FL), and Ketsy Ruiz aka Sketzii (Largo, FL)

Dates: May 18-June 25, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

FINE LINES (2023)

Overview: Fine Lines features five regional and national artists who create figural work with an eye for enchanting line work. Exhibiting artists Danielle Attoe, Michelle Roxana Ettrick, Caelan Jeffery, Makeda Lewis, and Honey Pierre work in media ranging from drawing and painting to fibers to jewelry to clay. Each uses descriptive linework to tell their own story of identity, self-affirmation, and humanity.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Danielle Attoe (Milwaukee, WI), Michelle Roxana Ettrick (Altoona, PA), Caelan Jeffery (St. Petersburg, FL), Makeda Lewis (Atlanta, GA), and Honey Pierre (Atlanta, GA)

Dates: April 6-May 4, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

RESTRUNG: CONTEMPORARY BEADSMITHS (2023)

Overview: In 2021, curator Jessica Todd published an article in Metalsmith magazine aimed at debunking the inferiority of beadwork in contemporary jewelry and art. Restrung: Contemporary Beadsmiths is a physical manifestation of Todd's research and a visually decadent installation of conceptual beadwork made by artists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds.

This exhibition was generously supported by the Gobioff Foundation Microgrant, awarded to curator Jessica Todd.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Catherine Blackburn (Terrace, British Columbia), Hilary Hertzler (Philadelphia, PA), matt lambert (Stockholm, Sweden/Detroit, MI), Curtis Talwst Santiago (Munich, Germany), and Teresa Sullivan (Olympia, WA)

Dates: February 16-March 23, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

Note to Self: (2023)

Overview: Note to Self: is the first solo exhibition of artist Isabella Baquerizo, who shares her work under the Instagram handle @awyeahizzy. In Note to Self:, Baquerizo illustrates her personal notes and her closest friends’ notes, created in Apple’s Notes app. The result is a series of playful, quirky manifestations of universal truths, affable allegories, and relatable sentiments.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artist: Isabella Baquerizo (New York, NY)

Dates: January 26-February 9, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS (2023)

Overview: Jacob Z. Wan invites us into his dreamy Late Night Thoughts in the quiet, sensual space between asleep and awake. As a contemporary bookbinder, Wan creates pieces that—whether or not in the form of traditional "books"—read like narratives in a universal human story. A gentle exploration of love and desire, Late Night Thoughts draws the viewer into their own tender memories and fantasies.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artist: Jacob Z. Wan (Jacksonville, FL)

Dates: January 5-19, 2023

Location: Parachute Gallery

One and Only (2022)

Overview: One and Only · يكتا centers around the project Green Wedding by Fort Myers, FL-based Iranian artist, Leila Mesdaghi, and includes the work of six additional regional and national artists: Sharareh Allahyari, Jordan Blankenship, Golbanou Moghaddas, Pottery Boys - Glenn Woods and Keith Herbrand, and Rebecca Stevens.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Sharareh Allahyari (Rancho Cordova, CA), Jordan Blankenship (Estero, FL), Leila Mesdaghi (Fort Myers, FL), Golbanou Moghaddas (San Francisco, CA), Pottery Boys - Glenn Woods and Keith Herbrand (Palm Harbor, FL), and Rebecca Stevens (St. Petersburg, FL).

Dates: November 17-December 23, 2022

Location: Parachute Gallery

CLOSE TO HOME (2022)

Overview: Close to Home features six regional and national artists working in a range of media. The exhibition’s title reflects each artist’s deeply personal connection to their work, and the work’s proximity to the body and the domestic.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Teresa Faris (Teejop Meskousing (Madison, WI)), Babette Herschberger (St. Petersburg, FL), Regina Durante Jestrow (Miami, FL), Younha Jung (Houston, TX), Ashley Rivers (St. Petersburg, FL), and B.A. Wikoff (North Port, FL).

Dates: October 13-November 10, 2022

Location: Parachute Gallery

INTERVIEW WITH jAMES THURMAN (2022)

Overview: James Thurman interviewed former student Jessica Todd, exploring her creative career after studying studio art. Thurman’s YouTube channel serves as a teaching tool for his students and the global community.

Date: July 2022

plays well with others (2020)

Overview: Plays Well with Others is an exhibition curated by Jessica Todd featuring local and national artists who create work that engages with play and toys in interactive, mischievous, and subversive ways. The exhibition includes 2D and 3D works of all media that both entertain and unsettle, installed in the gallery space in an immersive installation. This fun and vibrant show brings fresh voices to the southwest Florida arts scene and engages the community through (socially distant!) public programming.

This exhibition was generously funded through the City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant, awarded to curator Jessica Todd.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Isabella Baquerizo (Bonita Springs, FL), Amelia Briggs (Nashville, TN), Breana Ferrara (Fitchburg, MA), Whitney Hackett (Fort Myers, FL), Chloe Lewis (New York, NY), Alexander Martin (Peoria, IL), LeBrie Rich (Portland, OR), and Asser Saint-Val (Miami, FL).

Dates: September 11-October 17, 2020

Location: Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL

Playing Around Town (2020)

Overview: Playing Around Town is the sequel to Plays Well with Others. The artists with local roots - Isabella Baquerizo, Whitney Hackett, and Chloe Lewis - are included in this continuation of “part one.”

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Isabella Baquerizo (Bonita Springs, FL), Whitney Hackett (Fort Myers, FL), and Chloe Lewis (New York, NY).

Dates: October 20 - November 19, 2020

Location: Cape Coral Art Studio, Cape Coral, FL

A STRANGE & DELIGHTFUL COLORING BOOK (2020)

A STRANGE & DELIGHTFUL COLORING BOOK was created in conjunction with my exhibition Plays Well with Others to engage the local community from a safe social distance. Coloring book pages and take-home crayon packs were free to the public at the Alliance for the Arts during the exhibition and finished pages were displayed in the gallery - everyone was invited to play with us!

The coloring book is also an ongoing fundraiser! All proceeds from coloring book sales are donated to Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP), an Atlanta-based non-profit organization empowering Black queer and QTPOC centered communities in the South through the arts. A STRANGE & DELIGHTFUL COLORING BOOK is now only available for purchase-by-donation through MagCloud.

DONATIONS RAISED FOR SOUTHERN FRIED QUEER PRIDE: $523.20!!

OIL + MUD (2021)

Overview: In my role as the Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at the Morean Arts Center, I curated and installed this exhibition in conjunction with a series of exhibitions centered around creative families.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Artists: Julie Gerhard and Ehren Fritz Gerhard (Cape Coral, FL).

Dates: January 9 - February 14, 2021

Location: Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL

Bridging the Gap: Contemporary Craft Practices at Arrowmont

Along with Jovencio de la Paz and Ariel Zaccheo, I served as a juror for Arrowmont’s exhibition Bridging the Gap: Contemporary Craft Practices. The exhibition was in the Sandra J. Blain Gallery August 24 - December 14, 2019. I visited Arrowmont October 18 - 20 to attend the opening reception, do studio visits with resident artists, and give a gallery talk and attend a dinner event for major donors and board members.

SYNTHESIS: INTEGRATING THE DIGITAL (2014)

Overview: In 2014, I curated, organized, and installed the exhibition Synthesis: Integrating the Digital at Kent State University, in conjunction with The Digital Hand, curated by Kathleen Browne. The show included work by undergraduate and graduate students in jewelry/metals, glass, and ceramics, that integrated digital processes such as 3D printing, laser cutting, jacquard, and mill weaving.

Curator: Jessica Todd

Location: Kent State University Art Galleries, Kent, OH