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Artist Traci Molloy (left) works with a high school student in Portsmouth, OH as a part of a two-year art project that Molloy has been funded to create alongside the students. Molloy is a graduate of Ohio University and is currently based out of Brooklyn, although her work takes her to underprivileged communities all over the country. (Submitted)

Where Social Justice and Art Meet: Speaking With Artist Traci Molloy

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Traci Molloy is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist who graduated with a MFA degree in printmaking from Ohio University in 1995. In the years since her graduation, Molloy has bene featured in over 175 national exhibitions, and her thought provoking collaborations with adolescents have been profiled in two books, Empowering Children Through Art and Expression: Culturally Sensitive Ways of Healing Trauma and Grief, and Where Can I Get a Phoenix?

Artist Traci Molloy. (Photo by Brian Pennington)

Molloy was recently awarded a grant from the Ohio Arts Council to work with high school students in Portsmouth, OH, a region of the state that is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. She is currently working with students in Portsmouth to put together a striking project which will be on display in Portsmouth’s Human Rights Garden.

Artist Traci Molloy works with a high school student in Portsmouth, OH. A part of the project she is creating alongside the students include molds of the student’s faces, which will then be used to plant flowers in Portsmouth’s Human Rights Garden. (Submitted)

WOUB’s Emily Votaw spoke with Molloy about the upcoming project, the roots of her interest in the intersection of art and social justice, and the joy of introducing artistic practice to those who may have had no prior exposure to the concept of art.