Visions of the Future Panel Discussion

Featuring artists Valeria Fuentes, Phaan Howng, and Kate Reed Petty. Moderated by Sheri Parks.Celebrate the Year of the Women with a conversation looking to the future of women’s lives and work. Sheri Parks will lead a panel exploring Apocalyptic/Utopic narratives.  The panel brings together multidisciplinary artists in conversation to share how they interpret their experiences the world. Presented in partnership with MICA.Valeria Fuentes was born in Bolivia but raised in Baltimore. She is a multidisciplinary artist and designer, cultural producer, and arts educator. She now runs a platform for immigrants called Roots & Raíces which aims to highlight, support, and celebrate immigrants through the arts in Baltimore. She received both a BFA in Architectural Design and an MA in Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art. As part of the board of Baltimore Votes she also engages on work around civic engagement and voting in Baltimore City. She is committed to helping Baltimore and communities of color achieve equity and justice through her role as an artist, designer, and catalyst.Phaan Howng is a Baltimore based Taiwanese American multi-disciplinary art practice centers around creating various narratives and landscapes that reflect nature thriving in a utopian post-human planet, or what she terms an “optimistic post-apocalypse.” She received her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at MICA in 2015, and her BFA in Painting from Boston University in 2004. Howng has exhibited her work at various places such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Museum, and the Spring Break Art Show in New York City.Kate Reed Petty is a writer, feminist, and environmentalist. Her first novel, entitled TRUE STORY, is coming Aug 4, 2020 from Viking Books. Her fiction and essays have been published online by Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, and she was awarded a "30 Below" prize by Narrative Magazine. Kate's work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bloedel Reserve, The Mount, and the Rubys Artist Grants. She lives in Baltimore. This program is part of ongoing 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.