Felicia Savage Friedman & Alisha B Wormsley: Open Ashram: Collectively Conjuring Reception

Exploring movement, gesture and moving image, this exhibition has transformed the Atlantic Center for the Arts’ Harris House into a protected ashram, paying homage to the life of and work of artist, mother, and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. 

Inspired by Coltrane Turiyasangitananda’s powerful vision to open a multi-ethnic and multi generational ashram – a sacred place to deepen one’s spiritual practice and awaken to one’s true Self – on 50 acres of land on the outskirts of Los Angeles in 1975, Open Ashram: Collectively Conjuring brings together two interdisciplinary visionaries who create safe spaces to learn, dream and imagine new worlds together.

Open Ashram: Collectively Conjuring presents the large gestural works of Felicia Savage Friedman – a  Boca Raton-based artist and Founder and CEO of YogaRoots On Location – with the afro-futurist video projections of Alisha B Wormsley – a Pittsburgh-based interdisciplinary artist and Founder and Creative Director of Sibyls Shrine.

About Sibyls Shrine
Created by Alisha B Wormsley and developed by Jessica Gaynelle Moss in 2019, Sibyls Shrine is a homage to the Sibyls, the original priestesses of the African goddess Mami Wata. The term, which predates ancient Grecian and Roman history, was used to name the divine status, quality, and nature of the matriarchal guardians. 

Sibyls Shrine art collective and residency program is motivated by a similar goal: uplifting Black artists who m/other with opportunities for radical care, and rest to further develop their craft and presence in the art world. Sibyls Shrine supports a population that, for centuries, has been faced with the intersecting oppressions of racism, sexism, the rigors of m/otherhood and childcare, making the barriers to a successful career in the arts insurmountable. By providing opportunities to rest, unrestricted financial support, career development, skill-sharing, access to arts and cultural institutions, free classes and workshops, exhibition and speaking opportunities, self-care, childcare and other daily needs— Sibyls Shrine has created a resource framework that directly addresses this intersectionality and many of the systemic and structural factors that continue to oppress Black artists who m/other.