Jessica Sharpenstein & Arlene Grullón
Visual Artist
2026 Art Meets Activism | (Louisville) $10,000 to establish a participatory arts practice rooted in the historic 1718 West Jefferson Building community site in the Russell neighborhood of West Louisville. Women and femme-presenting caregivers will use theatre, visual art, poetry, movement, food ritual, and embodied regulation practices to transform lived experience into shared culture. Practicing rest, connection, shared authorship, and co-regulation will allow them to carry these practices into other spaces while interrupting systems that isolate caregivers and restrict how life is collectively shaped.
Previous Grants
Jessica Sharpenstein has previously received a 2023 Art Meets Activism Grant and a 2024 Art Meets Activism Grant. Click here to learn more about these projects.
2023 Art Meets Activism | (Louisville) $4,602 to develop and facilitate a mindful arts integration camp and mini sessions for 10-15 adolescents exploring themes of visibility, trust, conflict and belonging in a community. Participants will share their lived worlds through drama, movement, writing and visual arts. The experience will end with a final exhibition and performance to increase awareness and spur the actions needed for an interpersonally and systemically harmonious community.