KFW honors Mari Mujica with 2020 Sallie Bingham Award

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ/Press Release) – Mari Mujica, a Shelbyville artist, will be the recipient of the 2020 Sallie Bingham Award, the Kentucky Foundation for Women announced Thursday.

The award will be given at the foundation’s annual celebration of community, KFW Day, on Saturday, September 26 at a virtual gathering.

Ms. Mujica, an artist, leader and advocate was selected for her lifelong dedication to supporting women in Kentucky through the arts.

Her innovative photography has highlighted the stories of mothers and daughters, transgender people, immigrants, women veterans and women recovering from addiction. Her visual art installations celebrate the female body.

Her many skills include photography, visual art installation, facilitation, diversity consulting, coaching and arts-based workshops.

Mari has promoted and facilitated feminist artmaking to support rural women and women recovering from addiction. She has used her artistic skills as an artist-leader in KFW’s special project at the jail, helping children with an incarcerated parent to express themselves.

Her most recent work, in collaboration with Shelby Regional Arts Council, brought participatory art workshops to Drug Court participants in Shelby County as they complete their court-mandated requirements.

The project will increase self-esteem among participants, heighten solidarity and connection between participants going through healing and recovery, and increase compassion and understanding of addiction, recovery and the power of art on the part of those who are affected indirectly by addiction.

Mari seeks projects with impacts that can echo through society. In 2016 she partnered with Holly Clark to create wellness workshops focusing on facilitated creativity and mindfulness practices for women with infants under the age of three who have completed residential and/ or intensive outpatient substance abuse programs.

A Native of Peru, she now makes her home in Shelbyville. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology. She runs Diverse Collaborations (https://www.diversecollaborations.com/index.php/en/) and has worked with students, staff and teachers in colleges and universities, with community organizations, small businesses, and non-profits, in several industries and with diverse populations.

“Mari uses her skills generously, actively creating partnerships and collaborations that build up her collaborators and build community. She has developed partnerships and led arts-based workshops in Louisville, Shelbyville and Grayson. The impact of her work can be felt across the state as those she has helped help others. She truly uses art to make a difference in the lives of women and girls in Kentucky,” said Sharon LaRue, executive director of Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Named for KFW’s founder, the Sallie Bingham Award recognizes Kentucky women who are leaders in changing the lives of women and girls across the state by supporting feminist expression in the arts. Recipients show a demonstrated and sustained commitment to excellence in feminist art for social change in Kentucky and to advancing social change that impacts women and girls in Kentucky.

The award was founded in 1996 by former KFW Director, Ann Stewart Anderson.  Winners are selected by nominations or by recommendation from the KFW staff or Board.  Previous winners include fabric artist Alma Lesch, writer and arts mentor Judy Sizemore, and writer Crystal Wilkinson.

The Kentucky Foundation for Women is a private foundation formed in 1985 by Louisville writer Sallie Bingham. Its mission is to promote positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts.