Deaf Artists Residency Presentations

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Meet artists from across the country who work at the vanguard of Deaf cultural expression in literature, film, visual arts, and performance. This event features Ebony Gooden, Rachel Kolb, Kah Mendoza, and Rowan O’Bryan. Each artist will present their own work, followed by a Question and Answer session moderated by Deaf Artists Residency Coordinator Daniel Katz-Hernandez. Artist talks and discussion are presented in both American Sign Language and spoken English.

This event is held in the Tower View Barn on Wednesday, May 27 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. There is no cost to attend, but registration is encouraged! If you have additional accessibility requests not addressed below (such as Protactile interpretation), please let us know in your registration form.

The 2026 Deaf Artists Residents

Ebony Gooden (Canada) is a filmmaker, artist, and community builder dedicated to creating what BIPOC Deaf communities need to thrive. As a serial entrepreneur and advocate, she founded Deafinitely Digital and co-founded multiple initiatives including Survivance Collective and Silent Soul Studio, building platforms that amplify marginalized voices. Working across Calgary’s arts ecosystem with organizations like Inside Out Theatre, QuickDraw Animation Society, and Ghost River Theatre, Ebony transforms spaces through bold storytelling and accessibility innovation.

Her recent films “Running Through Her Past” and “Expression Unmasked,” continue her mission of reimagining representation in media. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Ebony’s work challenges traditional forms while creating safe spaces for BIPOC Deaf artists to be seen, heard, and celebrated. As a Black Deaf artist in Calgary, her intersectional lens bridges communities and drives systemic change in the arts landscape.

Rachel Kolb (New Mexico) is a writer whose work explores communication, language, and disability as central components of human experience. A graduate of Stanford University, she was the first signing deaf Rhodes scholar at Oxford before receiving her Ph.D. in English literature from Emory University and then completing a junior fellowship in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Her work has been published in The New York Times and The Atlantic, among other venues, and she is the author of the recent memoir “Articulate” (Ecco, 2025).

Kah Mendoza (California) is a filmmaker, media specialist, and multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, California. Their work is rooted in creativity, authenticity, and a deep commitment to amplifying Deaf voices, culture, and lived experiences through storytelling, art, and advocacy.

Working across film, photography, and media production, Kah takes on roles as a cinematographer, video editor, and film photographer. Their practice centers on capturing individuality and cultural narratives, creating work that is both intimate and socially conscious.

For Kah, art is both a tool and a weapon: it can heal, disrupt, unite, and challenge. Their work matters because it creates space for stories often put aside, while also reminding us of our shared humanity. That’s the kind of art that can spark movements and that’s why Kah is committed to it.

Rowan O’Bryan (California) is a Los Angeles-based fine artist working in photography and sculpture. She earned her B.A. from UCLA in 2023 in Fine Arts and Disability Studies, graduating with honors. Born with Cystic Fibrosis, Rowan became hard of hearing at 18 as a result of aminoglycoside antibiotics used to treat her CF and has since found community through ASL and connection with other Deaf people. Her practice centers on her identity as a chronically ill and Disabled person, repurposing medical materials such as oxygen tubing, IV bags, feeding tube supplies etc into sculptures, installations, and self-portraits. Her photography is deeply rooted in memory and nostalgia. Living with a shorter life expectancy, she is drawn to memory as a way of cherishing the time she has and honoring significant moments, places and relationships in her life. Her work challenges the clinical lens through which illness is viewed, offering human-centered perspectives that celebrate disability as a site of resilience, beauty, and complexity.

Daniel Katz-Hernandez (Maryland) is the Deaf Artists Residency Coordinator. He is a deaf multiracial artist focusing on interdisciplinary and installation-based practice.

Katz-Hernandez’s work combines experimental writings, drawings, painting, sculpture, electronics, animation, and video-mapping projection, to examine how language, especially American Sign Language, shifts when it moves between bodies, mediums, and systems of cultural perception. He has recently exhibited at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center at Solomons at Maryland, National Museum of American History and Linda K Jordan Gallery in Washington, D.C.

About the Deaf Artists Residency Program

Since 2014, the Deaf Artists Residency Program (DAR) at the Anderson Center has supported the work of Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard-of-hearing artists working across all media. The program aims to develop Deaf artistic expression and creative networks as distinct cultural areas within the larger context of American Culture. The 2026 Deaf Artists Residency Program is supported by the Minneapolis Foundation.

Accessibility Information

The event is held in both ASL and spoken English. All spoken language will be amplified with microphones and speakers.

The venue is wheelchair accessible via an ADA compliant ramp into the event space. Seating is padded, armless chairs that are not fixed. Any seat can be moved to accommodate a wheelchair. Designated handicapped parking is provided on-site. Please include any additional access requests in your registration (i.e. Pro-tactile interpretation).

About the Anderson Center

The Anderson Center – in its historic setting of Tower View – offers residencies in the arts and humanities; provides a dynamic environment for the exchange of ideas; encourages the pursuit of creative endeavors; and serves as a source of significant contributions to society. One of the North’s top artistic destination points, the Anderson Center has served the national arts and humanities community and the citizens of Minnesota since 1995. From the grounds of Tower View, a grand national registered historic landmark in the scenic Mississippi River town of Red Wing, Minnesota, the Anderson Center supports and showcases creativity and innovation at the intersection of art and ideas.

The Deaf Artist Residency Program is a program of the Anderson Center at Tower View. This event is supported by the Minneapolis Foundation. This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.