(TRENTON, NJ) -- Artworks Trenton Inc., Trenton’s visual arts center, has hired Kenya Bullock and Marlon Davila to oversee art education and other community programming in Trenton and surrounding communities. Marlon and Kenny, as Kenya likes to be called, will manage youth and adult education programs at Artworks’ downtown Trenton space, as well as work with community members and partner organizations on art-making and other creative activities out in Trenton’s communities. Each will hold the title of Education and Community Outreach Coordinator.
“In a few short weeks on the job, Kenny and Marlon have already begun developing exciting new programs which will help us restart in-person art education as well as deepen Artworks’ connections to all of the city’s diverse communities,” said Artworks Executive Director Lauren Otis. “They both pitched in for Art All Night this past June 19-20, and helped us partner with the African American Cultural Collaborative of Mercer County on their inaugural Juneteenth Celebration on the same weekend. I’m so happy to have Kenny and Marlon working on behalf of Artworks for the benefit of Trenton,” Mr. Otis said.
Kenya Bullock is an interdisciplinary artist and civil rights advocate from Trenton, New Jersey. In 2018, she began working with Ping Chong and Company, as a Generation NYZ Fellow and Associate Lighting Designer for BAD HUSBAND //\\ BAD HOMO. In 2020, Kenya launched her own community theater Tha Block Theatre Company, LLC. She has a vision for Tha Block to become a cultural hub in Trenton, with a mission to promote theatre and art as healing tools. Kenya has worked with artists such as Charlotte Brathwaite, Abigail Deville and Sanford Biggers, and interned with BlackStar Film Festival and Trenton‘s Passage Theatre.
Kenya’s goal as an artist and community advocate is to redistribute resources while also providing a space of artistic exploration and healing for Trentonians. She received a Theatre Design degree from Dickinson College. Kenya’s studies focused on how different art forms are the language that connects the African Diaspora and how that understanding can be used to heal the communities of the Black and Brown.
Marlon Davila, also known as the artist 7ove Child, is a first-generation Guatemalan, born in Princeton New Jersey. He studied his first love, Fashion, at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Continuing his education in Fine Arts he discovered his true love, painting while attending Mercer County Community College. He graduated with honors and achieved the Jack Harris Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Fine Arts. He attended Art Escape Italy in 2017, a workshop with Hendrik Uldalen.
Marlon’s art work is Influenced by fashion, the bright vibrant colors of his Mayan ancestry, as well as the works of Frida Kahlo, Dali and Picasso. Through his art he aims to open people’s eyes to another perspective on life and the world in which we live. Marlon has exhibited his art widely, created multiple murals in the Mercer County area, including a multi-artist mural project created in 2020 at the Rider University Center for Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with Artworks. As an art educator, Marlon has taught acrylic painting and has worked on multiple educational mural projects with children and teens.
Artworks, Trenton’s downtown visual arts center, is a 501(c)(3) Charitable Corporation, that promotes artistic diversity by fostering creativity, learning, and appreciation of the arts. Our exhibitions, workshops and events make art an accessible experience for all, building community among and between art students of all ages, professional and amateur artists, inner city and suburban residents, die-hard art fans and first time art appreciators.
