Ayanna Jolivet McCloud

McCloud grew up in Houston.[3] She received a BA in visual and critical studies from the Art Institute of Chicago. Although she trained as a painter, McCloud evolved her art practice into multimedia work combining sound, text, and performance.[2]

For over fifteen years, McCloud worked in non-profit administration at various arts organizations around the United States. She currently works as the director of education & public programs at Houston Botanic Garden.[4]

McCloud has participated in residencies and exhibitions throughout the Americas, including the United States, Caribbean Islands, and Central and South America.[3] She was a participating artist in Project Row Houses, Round 42: The One and the Many: A Self-portrait in Seven Parts, which was organized by curator Sally Frater as a response to and reflection on the Project Row Houses mission and her time in Houston and Houston's Third Ward. For this project, McCloud created a piece titled Score [how to hold on to chasms and fill with matter], in which she used sound, sculpture, and text in an effort to create a meditative environment to explore trauma, hollowness, and grieving.[5] This project was reflective of much of McCloud's work as minimal at least on the surface but full of layers if one looks beyond the surface. The project also included a workshop, Writing in the Margins, hosted by McCloud.[6]

McCloud was also the founder and director of La Botanica, a collaborative arts workspace and community planning hub in Houston.[1][7][8] In addition to creating space for artists and community to collaborate, McCloud herself has done collaborative work, including work with other artists and audience participation. In 2017, McCloud's Score: Field Work opened at Art League Houston. The installation included visual components and experimental sound scores created by women artists, along with live performances by McCloud and others.[1][9]

Early in her career, McCloud began playing with themes of spirituality and the body, often incorporating symbols and ritual imagery from Vodou and other diasporic religions. This can be seen in her 2006 installation and performance Goofer Dust at Miami's Diaspora Vibe Gallery, in which visual elements such as chickens, earth, and ritualistic performance, along with the concept of collective dreaming and the title of the show itself (Goofer Dust), reflect Vodou's aesthetics and beliefs. Inviting audience members to participate during the original performance of Goofer Dust, McCloud aimed to evoke the spiritual and supernatural potential that collective dreaming is thought to possess. With this participation and the surrounding symbols, Goofer Dust explored the body's relation to space, time, nature, community, the celestial, and ultimately itself. In some of her work, McCloud uses veves, line drawn symbols used in Vodou to invoke the Iwas (Loas). This can be seen in Damballah Study, in which McCloud drew the symbols on a field of grass, as well as in Delete/Borrar/Efase and Crossroads, where veves for specific Iwas are used to create installations.[10][11]

She was an advisory council member of the Mayor's Art and Cultural Plan for the City of Houston. Currently, she is director of education and public programs at the Houston Botanic Garden, creating the organization's first-ever public programs that will link plants, nature, people, and culture. [12]

McCloud was the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award funded by the city of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.[13] In 2015, she also received a Stimulus Grant from the Idea Fund for the online launch of La Botanica with an online store and blog featuring artists and ecologists.[14]

From McCloud's CV:[15]

• UM Libraries Digital Exhibits
• Art League Houston