Episode 26 - Ida Floreak is a painter living in New Orleans, LA. Her work deals with ecological anxieties paired with reverence for the natural world. She explores what it means to be human in a time of ecological disaster, where to find hope and our place in the recovery, as well as the universal human trait of worship. Humanity is an ancient and vital part of the planets ecology - our belief systems and rituals are an integral facet of nature. Drawing from a classical tradition with influences in the Italian Renaissance and medieval reliquaries, she examines the importance of acknowledging a world and systems greater than oneself, and finding the sacred in the smallest artifacts of nature. 

Sarah catches up with the Mississippi Book Festival’s Executive Director Ellen Daniels & Deputy Director Jordan Perry about the upcoming festival 8/20/22 in Jackson, MS! 

Having served as the festival’s Literary Director for the past three years, Ellen continues to draw on her longtime love of books—and her extensive relationships with the publishing industry—in her new role as Executive Director. In addition to her prior work as a gallery assistant at Fischer Galleries and her own fine art photography training, Ellen also brings more than a decade of experience at Lemuria Books to her leadership position.

Having spent most of her career in the non-profit sector, Jordan brings to the festival nearly a decade of experience in fundraising, capacity-building, and event logistics. Through her work with the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Mississippi Arts Commission, she’s seen first-hand the breadth and impact of our state’s rich cultural heritage and looks forward to building on the festival’s success to broaden its reach even further.

Follow along @msbookfestival for announcements of authors & panelists! 

Veronica Roberts - the new Executive Director of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford!

Veronica has had an incredible curatorial career. She was working the Blanton in Austin since 2013 as the curator of modern and contemporary art. At the Blanton, she put on a number of notable exhibitions: national touring displays of “Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser” and “Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt”; work uplifting Texan artists like Vincent Valdez and Donald Moffett; and a collaboration with the UT Austin’s Black Studies program to bring Charles White’s work on campus. Roberts also worked with Ellsworth Kelly to create “Austin,” a 2,715-square-foot stone chapel-sculpture with colored glass windows that opened in early 2018. Before the Blanton Museum, Roberts held curatorial positions at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum. She also served as Director of Research for the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing Catalogue Raisonné. Roberts earned her master’s from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her bachelor’s in art history from Williams College.