Artist Lisa Jarrett to deliver address and receive honorary doctorate at CCAD’s 144th Commencement 

The 2023 Columbus College of Art & Design Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 13, 2023 at Wexner Center for the Arts’ Mershon Auditorium. Artist Lisa Jarrett will deliver the Commencement address to graduating students.

Lisa Jarrett is an artist working in social and visual forms. Her intersectional practice considers the politics of difference within a variety of settings including: schools, landscapes, fictions, racial imaginaries, studios, communities, museums, galleries, walls, mountains, mirrors, floors, rivers, and prisms. She recently discovered that her primary medium is questions; the most urgent of which is: What will set you free? She is co-founder/director of projects like KSMoCA (Dr MLK Jr School Museum of Contemporary Art); the Harriet Tubman Middle School Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice in NE Portland, OR; and Art 25: Art in the 25th Century.

Jarrett exists and makes work within the African Diaspora. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she co-authors social practice projects and continues her 14+ year investigation into Black hair and its care in various forms. She is Associate Professor of Community and Context Arts at Portland State University's School of Art + Design where she teaches classes in Art + Social Practice.

Jarrett will also receive an honorary doctorate, given to distinguished individuals because of their outstanding creative achievement; eminence in art, design, or a related field; and/or significant leadership in the arts or broader contemporary cultural conversation.

CCAD’s Commencement ceremony at Mershon Auditorium is a ticketed event for graduates’ friends and family. More information about the 2023 Commencement can be found on the CCAD Commencement page.