A rebirth and a new direction for Kimball Jenkins

BY YASAMIN SAFARZADEH

It’s overcast outside the Kimball Jenkins Mansion in Concord; the weather can’t make up its mind whether it wants to snow more or give us spring. I enjoy the seasons in this region — predictably unpredictable and varying. There is rarely stagnancy of scenery in a place with four seasons.

The mansion provides a shelter from the weather and that sense of security infuses the activities taking place and the lessons imparted within. The art class I teach today is half in Farsi, which is a sister language of Dari, and half in English. Dari and Pashto are the languages our new Afghani refugees speak, and I have two Afghani girls in my class — a heterogeneous mixture of young people attracted to the opportunity to create art and challenge themselves. Today, we were finishing up our mural practice work; 8-by-5-foot panels coated in layers of paint, collage, ink, graphite and other various mixed mediums.

It is a great privilege of mine to teach this teen intensive “Co-LAB” on Thursdays here at Kimball Jenkins. I am a native Angelino and transplant to New Hampshire, and my undergraduate program was concept and theory based. I seek to pass on my knowledge of challenging, inclusive and contemporary art making to all of my pupils. All of us, together, are preparing for large-scale summer and fall mural installation projects around the city and the teens are engaged and electrified with such a fast moving, diverse and global class structure.

I have called the session to a close, the homies are putting away their supplies but one of my Afghani homegirls (let’s call her “X”) won’t put down her brush. It’s coated in a clear gloss acrylic medium, and she is running thick globular polymers over a Euclidean form sourced from a book about Carmen Herrera, an artist who celebrated minimalism, color and geometry in her work. Herrera sold her first painting at 89 and went on to live until she was 106, meeting her end in February of this year. Earlier, we researched and hauled reference material back to our studio from the library on the grounds of Kimball Jenkins to find images or symbols that are antithetical to the backdrops we had created on our panels. These contrasting images allowed the artists to challenge those backdrops with jarring effects.

X had selected one of Herrera’s geometric forms to work with but said she could not render her chosen image because:

kaghe khavahad shod. “It will be crooked.”

mah kaghe rah doost dareem “We like crooked,” I reply. It separates us from the machine. (Although a machine can synthesize crooked now as well, but I do not mention this.)

“X, I want this to be your idea of this image, not a book’s idea of this image,” I say in my broken and childish Farsi. She tries again, and begins to draw the image, gaining confidence as she goes. It is like this for many of the students. The introduction of graduate-level artwork and theory for these teen and young adults is uncomfortable but exciting. Individuals exhibit varying levels of skill and desire to immerse themselves in a challenging environment. They are growing in their methods of artistic approach and exploration. By the end of class, I have to promise X that we will have many more opportunities like this, otherwise I doubt she would have put down her brush. The message of Thursday’s teen Co-Lab for her and all who come: “You are welcome here, and you will grow here.”

At stately, historic Kimball Jenkins, rare and beautiful scenes like this play out daily. The wooded lawns and build-

ings provide a space of infinite promise to those who attend the myriad of on-site and remote opportunities KJ provides. The campus also serves as a site for weddings. I have never thought of how many ecstatic moments we nurture until this moment. That being said, there is a newly realized grand vision, taking shape in restructuring and enhancing the future of Kimball Jenkins. Every day I walk these lustrous corridors and lush grounds and feel an elation in knowing that I, a brown, queer, neurodivergent street kid with a sailor’s mouth, have been invited to help revitalize this remarkable place, attracting and guiding new generations into theory-based, insightful and contemporary art practices.

You are welcome here, and you will grow here. These are grounds where everyone can find home.” – Yasamin Safarzadeh, program director

Kimball Jenkins, originally built between 1790 and 1882 and gifted to the city of Concord by Carolyn Jenkins, was recently re-branded from its previous identity as Kimball Jenkins Estate and School of Art. Jenkins was the last of her line, a thespian and art aficionado, and she decreed that her home be used for the arts, education and historic preservation. Often, I compare the estate to Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. It is a living and engaged relic which houses shifting and varied exhibitions, be it salons, dances, featured artists, film screenings, mixed media installations, murder mysteries, drag shows — at one point Kimball Jenkins even held séances! The space is multifaceted, but it has to serve its directives, creating a thriving art environment which celebrates the history of the grounds where it stands.

Fulfilling that mission now enables the staff and board of directors to partner with local organizations, artists and knowledgeable peoples to bring forth the language and culture of our Native ancestors and of our Black and marginalized communities and push those erased narratives to the forefront! The past informs the present at KJ.

Crucial to the success of this effort is the intensity and intentionality of Julianne Gadoury, Kimball Jenkins’ executive director. She accepted her position just two years ago to help steward the estate into an inclusive place which serves the increasingly diverse needs of the community.

“I want this campus to contribute to the city and state I want to live in, and where I want my kids to live. That means creating a space for people to learn, have dialogue, see new perspectives, and to fit the needs of the community,” says Gadoury. “Right now, what we need is to put in double and triple the effort to create spaces for our Black and brown neighbors to feel welcomed and seen, and for more diverse >>

populations to move here. As a cultural institution, we can play a significant role in contributing to a welcoming state.”

Every day, as I walk to my office, past the brick parapet, flanked by the Yellow Art Building and the welcoming Carriage House, I feel the mansion loom over me, I think about what a rare and promising place Kimball Jenkins is in a state like New Hampshire. There is no official entity to hold organizations accountable to their promises of diversity and inclusion, especially entities which live in the world of art — a predominantly ethnocentric and male-celebrating realm. But at Kimball Jenkins, every day the work of diversity and inclusivity gets done.

After some years of introspection by the board and some years of pandemic, the campus is alive with people who benefit from art workshops, exciting live performances, professional development and free-form public events. We conduct outreach

to BIPOC organizations, retirement homes, sober living homes, individuals in foster care. Each event, each decision is to honor the promise that this space is truly for all — and especially for those most in need! We seek out promising new artists from pressing backgrounds who will directly benefit from our residency program wherein we provide mentorship, studio space, funding, shows, and access to our social and digital network.

All this yields the new life thriving at Kimball Jenkins — a wild, vivid and nurturing environment hidden in a secluded historical district of Concord. Diversity is a truth we must work tirelessly to normalize. The arts can serve as a healing embrace for young folks who are under pressure and in danger of turning to unhealthy sexual practices, to gun violence, drug addiction and dependence on entities outside of themselves without pathways to success and usable skill sets.

As director of programming at Kimball Jenkins, I feel it is vital to create safe spaces in our communities for those who feel unseen and unheard. We must move beyond featuring the same token person to show an organization as being ‘diverse.’ As a matter of fact, this practice has been hurtful and ensures an unbalanced view of diversity and the integration it provides. The work of inclusion means actually recreating the culture of organizations to be diverse and inclusive and to feel safe for all of us outliers. Cultivating a more multifaceted cultural environment will help ensure a healthier future for innovative and imaginative organizations.

I work here at Kimball Jenkins, but I also share in a benefit offered to everyone we serve — my intentions, ideas and perspective are nurtured and amplified. I am given resources, support and assistance in order to ensure the success of my vision. I feel very privileged in having come to this space.

Like many students and others who have found solace and inspiration here, my years spent in New Hampshire have often been traumatizing and debilitating to my sense of self and well-being.

It feels good to be doing the good work, and to be doing it someplace which fosters healing and autonomy. Kimball Jenkins Estate once housed one of Concord’s most premier families. Today the estate is reshaped, re-appropriated and seems perfectly designed to act as the conduit and incubator of this kind of diverse and innovative art and programming that is just beginning to take root here in the heart of our new New Hampshire.

As I said to my young student X,

ein zameeni ast keh beh hameh ta’alob darad

“These are grounds where everyone can find home.” 603

A recent art exhibit at Kimball Jenkins titled “Finding Home: Portraits Memories and Art of Immigrants” featured photographer Becky Field and fine art painter Jozimar Matimano. The works illustrate and honor the journeys of new Americans.