Verónica A. Pérez ‘14 once hoped to be exactly where they are now.
After graduating from Moore College of Art & Design with a Fine Arts degree, Pérez moved from Philadelphia to Maine to attend graduate school at Maine College of Art & Design. As Pérez adjusted to a new environment, they noticed resistance toward the work of Black and Brown artists.
Recognizing this challenge, Pérez developed artistic narratives based on their family’s Puerto Rican heritage and identity. Pérez began experimenting with large-scale sculptures made from braided hair as they explored the diasporic Latinx experience and how cross-cultural understanding can create community.
“I was able to push against that resistance and really assert what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until my last couple months at Maine College of Art & Design that I was able to see what I wanted to do with my work, not what other people wanted from my work,” Pérez said.
After graduating from Maine College of Art & Design in 2016, Pérez decided to stay in Maine and commit themselves to their studio practice while applying for grants and making connections in their new community.
“Once I graduated and started working in my own personal studio, I realized that I could make any rules I wanted. That was really exciting,” Pérez said. “I’m glad that I went to Moore and Maine College because I don’t think I’d be where I’m at right now without those experiences.”
Pérez found success in their artistic practice through several solo exhibitions and fellowships. In 2020, Pérez was awarded the Ellis-Beauregard Visual Arts Fellowship. They were also awarded the Indigo Arts Alliance’s inaugural David C. Driskell Fellowship in 2021 and the Lunder Institute’s residential fellowship in 2022.
In 2024, Perez won the Ellis-Beauregard Project Grant to support their braiding circles project, a group braiding workshop hosted in a number of communities to foster conversations on identity and belonging.
A braiding circle workshop at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, Maine, in March 2022.
Reflecting on their time at Moore, Pérez remembers how the College prepared them to connect with other artists.
“Moore set me up to build community. I learned that I wanted to be around creative people because I want to learn from them,” they said.
Perez specifically remembers learning from associate professor of Fine Arts Rob Goodman, who provided “criticism with care” as he prepared them for life after graduation. Moore also provided writing assistance to help Pérez strengthen her writing skills and graduate with a 4.0 GPA.
“[Moore] not only helped me uplift my artistic practice, but uplift my academics as well,” they said.
Pérez continues creative exploration in the community through the Indigo Arts Alliance and has a group show, titled Life Forms. The show features Pérez’s new work at the Speedwell Gallery in Portland, Maine.
For students thinking about their future career as an independent artist or designer, Pérez says their best advice is to dive in headfirst.
“The biggest thing is to just start, even if you do a little bit every day,” they said. “I didn’t want to build things for anyone else; I wanted to work alongside a community to build and support the things that are important to me. I wanted to create my own job through that, and you can, too.”
Moore College of Art & Design is the only independent art and design college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Want to learn more about the Fine Arts degree at Moore? Contact our Admissions team at enroll@moore.edu or 215.965.4015 to set up a call or a campus visit. We'd love to tell you more!
Image: Verónica A. Pérez, cacophonous ancestral apparition, 2022, artificial hair, various textiles, 98” x 48” x 52”. Photo by Dave Clough.
