Melissa Vogley-Woods led an exiting conversation about her path as a visual artist and artistic entrepreneur. While sharing slides from her body of work, she talked about her artistic process, and explained the connections and collaborations that resulted in her museum commissions and entrepreneurial engagements. She gave advice for how to grow through and sustain the arc of a life and career as an artist. She explained cycles of funding; how to make connections with other artists, artistic colleagues, and community stakeholders; building artistic community; pursuing collaborations; and working day jobs, all in order to deepen artistic exploration and growth. She emphasized that Columbus specifically and the Midwest generally is an ideal place to pursue a life in the arts because spaces and networks here connect outwards to other cities and arts scenes. Her session showed students how Columbus is a fertile place to launch and sustain an artistic career with national and international reach.
Melissa Vogley Woods is a visual artist, teacher, and artist-curator born and residing in Columbus, Ohio. Vogley Woods is a multi-generational caregiver of 30+ years to two children, her mother lives with a difficult life-long mental illness and her father’s dementia. Her practice is aligned with her life as a way to delve into the intricacies of care within relationships with a specific focus on barriers and how we bridge them. Her metaphorical work spans between public art, social practice, and intimate exploration of the object. Recent recognition she has received includes a National USA Fellowship nomination, two Ohio Art Council Individual Artist Grants, and A Greater Columbus Arts Council Individual Artist grant, and she has exhibitions locally, nationally, and internationally in such institutions as the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Museum of Art, Museum of Sisters Aslamazyan in Armenia, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. She attended Mass MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, and Wassaic Projects Residencies and her work has been written about in the Brooklyn Rail among others. Vogley Woods is a dedicated arts organizer, recent curatorial projects include "Lobby," a series of three-person exhibitions held in a Planned Parenthood surgical center, and "Room to Let" series held in donated houses that exhibited seventy artists over three years of programming.