Make All Colors Vivid,
Each Brushstroke Visible,
And Every Body Valued.
Meet the Artist
Jennessa Burks is an educator and self taught artist based in Worcester, MA. She earned her Bachelor’s from Worcester State University in 2015 and later her Master’s from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2019. As an educator she strives to create an equitable learning environment in which students are respected, valued, and feel safe enough to take risks, challenge others’ perceptions, and step into the role of an informed educator. Her commitment to equity spills beyond the walls of her elementary classroom and into the arts.
Over the years Jennessa has immersed herself in a lifelong passion for the arts, emphasizing therapeutic benefits, forging community, and the power of public art. Through the use of paintings, mixed media pieces, and murals Jennessa works to express her emotions and amplify the voices of marginalized communities. Her commissioned work, gallery pieces, and artivism series have focused on identity, memorial portraiture and topics such as mass incarceration, code switching, intersectionality, and more. Her portraiture captures the beauty, strength, and resilience of Black and brown communities through portraiture. These communities are often underrepresented in art spaces, unfortunately reflective of their stories and truths throughout history. With her portraits she aspires to bring joy to others who may experience the void of being unseen while bringing awareness to those who hold the privilege and fulfillment of being seen.
Jennessa believes public art sparks necessary dialogue around issues impacting those who hold marginalized identities. Outside of her individual pieces she strives to create community involved murals that engage folx in both the design process and implementation. She has helped create over 20 large scale public art projects throughout Massachusetts including projects found at the Boys and Girls Club Worcester, Main South Community Development Center, and Legendary Legacies. Jennessa finds there is an almost tangible sense of pride that folx exude when communities come together to uplift a space through visual storytelling. Her works of art and commitment to community arts have been honored with awards such as the Katherine Erskine Award for her leadership in education, MAEA Community Arts Educator of the Year, Worcester’s 40 Under 40 award, and the Key to the City for her contributions to public art.
