ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE 2025-2026:
Jess Barnett
Philadelphia resident Jess Barnett is a self-taught artist and has been painting since 2004. She moved to Pennsylvania from New Hampshire in 2024 and currently has a studio in the Spring City (PA) Mill Studios building. Jess has shown her work at various locations throughout New England. In November 2019, she also began assisting an art class for minimum- and medium-security inmates at the Belknap County jail in Laconia, NH. She held a weekly art class/recovery meeting for the same group of inmates from fall 2021 to January 2022. Jess’ artwork is principally focused on experimenting with color, texture, and various media; it also reflects her lifelong longing for spiritual truth. In 2023, she began making ink from plants and incorporating more botanicals into her artwork. She plans to explore this area further during her residency at CCA.
Maedeh Mehdipour
Maedeh Mehdipour (she/her) is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Textile Art from the University of Tehran and recently earned her Master of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, where she is currently an Adjunct Professor. In addition to her teaching, she also serves as a Program Assistant at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, supporting community-focused arts education and engagement. Her practice engages a wide range of materials, fostering a dialogue between materiality and personal narrative. Through a combination of fiber and sculpture, Mehdipour explores themes of resistance, identity, and freedom. She has exhibited her work internationally, bringing her perspectives on memory, embodiment, and resilience into conversation with diverse audiences across borders. Deeply influenced by her experience growing up under a dictatorship, her work reflects on the impact of political and social pressures on both individual and collective experience particularly through the lens of womanhood. Often grappling with the tension between public compliance and private resistance, her material processes become acts of questioning, disruption, and quiet defiance against dominant power structures.
Alessandra Mitchell
Alessandra Mitchell (she/her) is a Pennsylvania based printmaker and mixed media artist. She primarily works in copper etchings, screen printing, and collage. Through the use of shape, color, and contrast, she creates patterns and textures to pull viewers deeper into page. Her inspirations include decorative arts, textiles, and nature. She graduated from Arcadia University with a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in printmaking. She goes by Printed Pages Art online.