Kevin Kirkwood is joined by Erin Dunn, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia. Since 2014, Erin has organized exhibitions including Watershed: Contemporary Landscape Photography, Feels Like Freedom: Phillip J. Hampton, and Frank Stewart's Nexus: An American Photographer's Journey. She also leads the #art912 initiative, a program dedicated to supporting artists working in Savannah.

Her most recent exhibition, Off the Coast of Paradise: Artists and Ossabaw Island, 1961–Now, co-curated with Beryl Gilothwest, is the first major show to explore the influence of Ossabaw Island on American artists. The exhibition spans 26,000 undeveloped acres off the Georgia coast and highlights the legacy of two groundbreaking residency programs, featuring work by internationally renowned artists including Harry Bertoia, Agnes Denes, Sally Mann, Anne Truitt, and a new commission by Allison Janae Hamilton.

In this conversation, we explore Erin’s early life and the path that led her into curatorial work, the process behind building Off the Coast of Paradise, and the challenges of representing complex and layered histories. She also shares candid advice for emerging artists looking to connect with institutions.

Learn more: Telfair.org | @telfairmuseums | @erindunn_art

Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast

Listen to The Strand on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood is joined by Ivy Laurel Anderson, a fiber artist and sculptor based in Savannah, Georgia. Using a knitting machine as her primary tool, Ivy wraps discarded everyday objects in elastic knitted membranes that stretch, sag, and conform to whatever lies beneath. Her ongoing series, Somethings, transforms castaway materials into forms that are by turns humorous, unsettling, and oddly moving.

Her work has been recognized by the International Design Awards, the Red Dot Design Awards, and ArtPrize, and her practice has taken her from Japan to Italy through residencies and exhibitions across the country.

In this conversation, we explore her path from fashion to fiber sculpture, her relationship with the knitting machine, and what it means to find beauty in the overlooked and forgotten.

Learn more: ivylaurelanderson.com | @ivylaurelanderson

Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast

Listen to The Strand on all major platforms. Including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood sits down with Italian American figurative painter and writer Melinda Borysevicz, whose work recently moved from the hilltop villages of southern Italy to the marshes of Savannah, Georgia.

After years immersed in Savannah's vibrant creative community, Melinda traveled in 2015 to a small village near her ancestral home in southern Italy. What began as a short stay became several years of living, painting, and writing in Padula, Italy.

Most recently, Melinda found her way back to Savannah, where she threw herself into one of the most ambitious projects of her career. Through two consecutive residencies, first at ArtsSoutheast, then at the Savannah College of Art and Design, she brought “Savannah Procession” to life: a two-panel oil painting, six feet tall and fifteen feet long. The work grew out of town hall gatherings in her own studio, where community members came together to share their lives, their struggles, and their hopes.

In this episode, we explore her journey between continents, the making of Savannah Procession, and what happens when an artist opens her studio to a community.

Learn more:

melindaborysevicz.com @melinbz

artssoutheast.org @artssoutheast

Follow the host:

kevin-kirkwood.com @kevinwillpaint or @strandpodcast

Listen to The Strand on all major platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and Amazon.

Portrait by Natalino Russo @natalinorusso