The Woody English Distinguished Artist and Writers’ Chair: Julie Peppito
Julie Peppito (b.1970, Tulsa, OK) transforms the waste of our culture into objects of strangeness and beauty. She has been creating sculptures, tapestries, and installations that are about connection, repairing the Earth, and the human condition for over 30 years.
Peppito received an MFA from Alfred University in Alfred, NY (2004) and she received her BFA from The Cooper Union in New York, NY (1992). Her work has been the subject of 10 solo exhibitions. She has shown at many non-profit and commercial venues including: Kentler International Drawing Space (Brooklyn, NY), The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (Brooklyn, NY), The Long Island Children’s Museum (Long Island, NY), Heskin Contemporary (New York, NY), PS122 (New York, NY), and The CAMP Gallery (Westport, CT/Miami, FL) among others. Peppito received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture (2001). Her playground art is at Washington Park, James Forten Playground, and other Brooklyn, NY parks. Her work has been on the cover of The New York Times Metro Section and covered by Will Heinrich from the New York Times. She's been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Martha Teichner, on NY1, and other news outlets. Her 11th solo exhibit will open April 11, 2025 at The Contemporary Art Modern Project in Miami, FL. Peppito creates and teaches art in Brooklyn, NY.
ELLA JACKSON CHAIR: Jabu Nala
Jabu Nala was born in Oyaya, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She is honored as being one of the master makers of Zulu pottery. Zulu pottery dates back to nearly 2000 years ago and Jabu has learned these techniques first by watching and learning from her grandmother, Sipiwhe Nala, and mother, Nesta Nala, both esteemed makers in their own right. Jabu started making pottery at the young age of 11 and now with 40 years of experience, continues this tradition from her home and studio in Johannesburg.
LESLIE GILLETTE JACKSON CHAIRS:
Julia Cumes & Lipe Borges
Julia Cumes is a South African–born photographer based on Cape Cod. With a background in photojournalism, her work centers on narrative portraiture and long-form storytelling, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and community across cultures. Her projects span public health, environmental resilience, and women’s stories, from East Africa and South Asia to coastal New England. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and other publications, and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her ongoing collaborative project, Invisible Threads: Portraits and Stories of Our Global Neighbors, developed with Lipe Borges, was exhibited at the Cape Cod Museum of Art and will be published in expanded form by Daylight Books. In 2024, she was named Artist of the Year by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. She is currently a Boston University Community Impact Fellow for the 2025–26 academic year.
More of her work can be found at JuliaCumes.com and on Instagram @juliacumes
Lipe Borges is a Brazilian artist whose work focuses on portrait and documentary photography. Using the camera as a tool for storytelling and attention, his photographs explore individuality, resilience, and human presence. His camera has served as a passport into prisons, favelas, disaster zones, and vulnerable communities, including work in one of the poorest regions of Peru. His artistic approach is shaped by the rhythm and resilience of Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form blending dance, music, and martial arts. Based on Cape Cod since 2020, Lipe is a recipient of the 2023 Creative Futures Fellowship and the 2024 Teaching Artist Development Fellowship, both awarded by The Cordial Eye. He was also selected for the 2024 Creative Exchange Cohort by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
More of his work can be found at CuriousLipe.com and on Instagram @lipeborges.photo
PRESIDENT'S CHAIR: Sheryl Jaffe
Sheryl works with materials that breathe, handmade paper from local and exotic plant fibers, found objects, branches and stems to create 2 and 3 dimensional works that connect the human body with the vulnerability and resilience of the flora around us.
Her work includes installations, sculpture, artist books and prints and are evocative offerings for viewers to move through, make discoveries, and be drawn in, to contemplation. She studied traditional hand papermaking in Japan and China and has taught papermaking at home and abroad with students age 2 to 84. Jaffe was a resident artist at The Barn, Edward Albee Foundation and at Yellowstone National Park, where she explored fibers found in those unique locations. She has a Masters Degree in Art Education and a BA in Multicultural Art Education, both from the University of Massachusetts. She volunteers in the community with the ArtPeace Makers, the MLK Action Team and in bringing Wampanoag Culture and Education to the Outer Cape.
Some of my best friends are plants, and like plants and most other living things I need water, air and soil to thrive. I collaborate with materials that were once alive and continue to “breathe”.
Learn more at sheryljaffe.com
photo credit: Yekaterina Gyadu
JOYCE JOHNSON CHAIR: Linnéa Gad
Linnéa Gad is a visual artist from Stockholm, Sweden. Her art reflects an interconnected ecosystem, with works in cardboard, metal, bark, and porcelain, all embodying protective shell materials and calcification processes. Her practice is cyclical, reusing materials and recurring motifs, embodying lifecycles. Gad received her MFA from Columbia University in 2022. Her solo shows include Return of The Mollusk at Astor Weeks in New York (2024), Erratics at Spencer Brownstone in New York (2019) and Luster Pit at RØM in Copenhagen (2018). The artist has participated in group shows at The Jewish Museum in New York (2022), The Lenfest Center for the Arts in New York (2021) and SixtyEight Art Institute in Copenhagen (2021). The artist has also recently exhibited at Ceysson Bénétière in New York, Beau Travail in Stockholm, Half Gallery in New York and Issues Gallery in Stockholm. In 2023, Gad presented her first public artwork, Shoals, two large-scale sculptures installed in Nolan Park on Governors Island in collaboration with the Billion Oyster Project. She is the recipient of multiple grants from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and was shortlisted for the Frankenthaler Climate Art Awards in 2022.