NOAA Fisheries and the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design selected Mickey L.D. Morgan, a visual and community practice artist and care worker, for the third Fisheries Art + Science Fellowship.
Mickey L.D. Morgan is a visual and community practice artist and care worker. They are passionate about neighborliness, believing that every human and non-human part of an ecosystem are essential to all of our lives. This has been a strong theme in their work over the past 3 years. In 2021, Mickey graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design majoring in Visual Arts with a minor in Social Practice and Community Engagement. Their final project is the community practice project Mapping East Van. Mickey is nourished by collaboration, imagination, and hope. They create opportunities for everyone to share knowledge and listen to others with their community-centered art practice.
The AICAD/NOAA Fisheries Art + Science Fellowship provides a hands-on opportunity for recent graduates to apply their art and design education to ecological and social concerns and address them by connecting communities around challenging resource issues. Morgan will complete a 6-week residency with NOAA Fisheries during summer 2022, followed by a period through February 2023 to research, produce, and distribute creative work.
Connecting Communities to Recovery
The 2022 Fellowship will focus on connecting the California Coastal Office in NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region with communities to support recovery of seven listed salmon and steelhead species native to the coast of California:
- California Coastal Chinook
- Southern Oregon Northern California Coast coho salmon
- Central California Coast soho salmon
- Southern California steelhead
- South Central California steelhead
- Central California Coast steelhead
- Northern California steelhead
The selection committee was composed of several artists and NOAA Fisheries professionals. They include:
- Isabel Beavers, a transdisciplinary artist and creative producer based in Los Angeles, and recipient of the Art + Science Fellowship last year
- Jane Marsching, an interdisciplinary artist who explores our past, present and future human impact on the environment through collaborative research-based practices
- John Longchamps, founder of Longchamps & Company—an interdisciplinary firm with a strong dedication to principles of sustainability and belief in the power of human potential
- Jean M. Castillo, a hydraulic/fish passage engineer with the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region for more than 5 years
- Karen Edson, former public affairs officer with NOAA Fisheries
The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design is a non-profit consortium of leading arts and design schools in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1991, the mission is to help strengthen the member colleges individually and collectively, and to inform the public about these colleges and the value of studying arts and design. AICAD member institutions educate more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year, plus many thousands more in summer and continuing education programs.
