https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1710306747-8231361606eeb0af1fc3c3f18f6b58e58e0f8eee4f091104e16e6688ba3c22ee-d

Experience Art That Transcends Boundaries

Discover the power of creativity through diverse mediums and perspectives

About Alice Aida Ayers

Artist Bio

Alice Aida Ayers
In a career spanning more than three decades, Aida has established herself as an accomplished artist, art educator, and advocate for cultural exchange. Holding a Bachelor of Art and a Master’s in Art Education, Ayers has exhibited her work across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa.

Her pas

Her passion for both teaching and artistic practice has taken her around the world, where she has served as a resident artist, adjunct professor, and consultant. Since 1989, Ayers has dedicated herself to arts education, conducting residencies in over 300 schools, colleges, community centers, and libraries.

Over the past six years, her work has focused on incarcerated individuals and women in recovery or re-entry programs. Through art therapy and creative visualization, she guides participants in accessing their creative source and discovering new perspectives. Ayers encourages her students to question presented information, examine their relationships and responses, and connect artistic expression to their lived experiences.

Believing deeply in the power of art as a universal language, Ayers integrates diverse cultural perspectives into her teaching, fostering cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.

As an artist, Ayers focuses on textile-based collage quilts that combine ethnic, hand-dyed, and repurposed fabrics with found objects. Her work explores the tactile possibilities of texture, layering, and stitch, transforming everyday materials into richly dimensional narratives.

An experienced project director and arts administrator, Ayers has designed and led arts education programs, art therapy initiatives, and restorative practice projects. Her leadership has extended to partnerships with government agencies and community organizations, where she has organized health fairs, art camps, mural projects, art festivals, and cultural exchange events.

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My Work

Artist Bio

My work revolves around the spirit that IS African American art, Many years of living in and exploring the arts of African countries has had a profound effect on how I perceive art. My relationships with materials, process and finished work is ritualistic and experiential. Second hand, recyclable and organic materials are my first choice

As with many African cultures that believe in Animism, I too believe that ‘spirit’ or ‘energy’ animates the material universe. Simply put, there is this life in “art” that reaches out to us, pulls us in and stirs our souls. With each piece I create, I embrace the energy of what the material I use once was, how it served humankind and what it will now become.

I invoke that spirit of celebration and fun by recalling dance movements, rhythms, drumbeats and colors. Under these influences I plunge myself into the creative process and rely on intuition to do the rest.

My current work is textile art, which can be described as collage quilts. I use a combination of ethnic fabrics, recycled materials, repurposed fabrics, found objects, embroidery and applique. The process is a layering of fabric for the design as an applique’, similar to a regular quilt. Fabric is sewn with embroidery thread to attach the pieces onto a cloth surface. As an artist I am drawn to the art of creating texture, through layering, found objects and stitching. I adore fabrics and textiles, especially from Africa, and I use these in the pieces I make.

I am telling stories which are personal to me, for example, of my experiences in Africa. Quilting in the African-American community is a major influence in the work, and though these are not traditional quilts, there is a thread of storytelling through patterns, stitches and subject matter, just like quilts from the past.

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Artist Residencies

Since 1989, Ayers has dedicated herself to being a teaching artist, conducting residencies in more than 250 schools, colleges, community centers, and libraries.

For the past six years, she has focused her work on incarcerated individuals and women in recovery/re-entry programs.

Through art therapy and creative visualization, Ayers helps h

Since 1989, Ayers has dedicated herself to being a teaching artist, conducting residencies in more than 250 schools, colleges, community centers, and libraries.

For the past six years, she has focused her work on incarcerated individuals and women in recovery/re-entry programs.

Through art therapy and creative visualization, Ayers helps her students tap into their creative

source and explore their unique perspectives.

Ayers believes in pushing her students to question the presented information, their relationships, and their responses, encouraging them to relate these impressions to their own world.

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Performance

Artist Residencies

"it's Me I'm Running From"

A performance based on the real life journey of Alice Aida Ayers. She interprets some harrowing truths and life changing experiences. Using poetry, song, humor and imagery she tells an empowering story of perseverance. It is an honest sharing of love, creativity and gratitude for life. It will make you laugh, cry

"it's Me I'm Running From"

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