ARTIST TALK: Mary Beth Meehan and Jonathan Pitts-Wiley in conversation with Stephanie Fortunato

ABOUT MARY BETH MEEHAN

Mary Beth Meehan is an independent photographer, writer, and educator, who has spent more than twenty years embedding herself in communities across the United States. Beginning in her native New England, and continuing in the Midwest, the American South and in Silicon Valley, her work, which combines image, text, and large-scale public installation, stems from her belief in a collaborative process that should function in and for the communities it reflects. Co-opting the scale of celebrity and advertising, Meehan’s portrait banners activate public spaces and spark conversations among and about the people who inhabit them.

With each project, formal and informal events are organized to engage communities in civic dialogue – about identity, access, visibility, inclusion, social equity, and other concerns. These events include walking tours, panel discussions, church and other community-group dialogues, and student-led interactions. Her most recent project, “Seeing Newnan,” was installed in that small Georgia town in April of 2019, and has already become a springboard for community-wide conversations and connections. That work will be in place until the Spring of 2020.

Mary Beth has held residencies at Stanford University, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and at the University of West Georgia. She has lectured and led workshops at the School of Visual Arts, New York, the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston, and the Missouri Photo Workshop. A native of Brockton, Massachusetts, Mary Beth received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature at Amherst College, and a Master of Arts degree in photojournalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She lives in Providence with her husband and two sons.

ABOUT JONATHAN PITTS-WILEY

A Rhode Island native, Jonathan Pitts-Wiley is a father, husband, storyteller, and educator. A 2007 graduate of Yale University, Jonathan Pitts-Wiley has been the Artistic Director of Mixed Magic Theatre since April 2010. Since taking on the role, he has overseen numerous productions, including The Spirit Warrior’s Dream, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, and annual staged readings of Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail and Beyond Vietnam.

In the fall of 2013, Jonathan joined the Upper School Humanities faculty as a History teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. He has worked as an advisor, department chair, and assistant coach for the boys’s varsity lacrosse team. In the spring of 2016, Jonathan was honored with the Rufus Bilodeau Prize, an award given by the student senate to recognize excellence in teaching.

Outside of the theater and classroom, Jonathan is an avid photographer who has been fortunate to capture images for Mixed Magic Theatre, The Rhode Island Black Storytellers, and the marketing and communication firm Rustle and Spark. In the spring of 2020, Jonathan co-founded The Vanta Guild, a collective of Black photographers based in and around Rhode Island.

Jonathan is married to Kim Morrison Pitts-Wiley, whom he met during the 2008 production of The Spirit Warrior’s Dream and who became Mixed Magic’s Music Director that same year. The couple lives in Rhode Island with their two children, Corinne and Joshua.

ABOUT STEPHANIE FORTUNATO

Stephane Fortunato has been the Director of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism since 2016. She leads the Department at the intersection of cultural planning and urban development, collaborating with local communities on creating arts-based policies and partnerships to strengthen neighborhoods and transform public spaces. In her tenure, Ms. Fortunato has helped the Department secure new resources to expand the staff and focus to include arts education, public art, and PVDFest, the City’s signature destination arts festival. These initiatives have enhanced Providence’s brand and identity as a Creative Capital and led to international collaborations.

Since Ms. Fortunato began working for ACT in 2008, she has managed the City’s first cultural planning process, led the cultural planning team on a major transit corridor study, assisted the development of a regional creative economy conference and network, supported Providence’s 375th anniversary celebration, and overseen creative placemaking initiatives funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtPlace America and the Kresge Foundation. Previously, Ms. Fortunato was director of programs for The Pawtucket Foundation, a public-private partnership working to catalyze area prosperity, and a consultant with Jane Clark Chermayeff Associates LLC, a firm specializing in family programming and interpretation for museums, science centers, and outdoor play spaces.

Ms. Fortunato began her career on Long Island working for the Huntington Arts Council and as curator of a local history museum. She is on the Board of WaterFire, the Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, and on the advisory committees for the Providence Tourism Council, Congressman Jim Langevin’s Arts and Culture Committee, and New England Foundation for the Arts. In 2018, Ms. Fortunato received the Mary Brennan Tourism Award from the RI Hospitality Association. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, among other agencies. She received her M.A. in public humanities from Brown University and a B.A. from Providence College.