Interview with Jessica Todd

Parachute Gallery’s Summer School is an exhibition celebrating the books that are currently banned in Florida’s classrooms. Parachute’s founder, Jessica Todd, organized the exhibition with Victoria Alvarez, as a response to censorship.

Todd holds an MFA in Jewelry, Metals, and Enameling from Kent State University. She’s served as the residency manager at the Rauschenberg Residency, and recently held the position of development coordinator for Tempus Projects. She opened Parachute Gallery in Ybor City’s new arts district as a means to showcase local artists who specialize in jewelry, ceramics, and stationery.

Tom Winchester: Please describe your creative process. 

Jessica Todd: With making visual art, I start with an idea I want to express. I gather images, sketch, and settle on a design. With metal fabrication (though I work in other media as well), you really have to know the end from the beginning. So, I would create a very detailed drawing of the final piece and then reverse engineer all the way back to the beginning, creating a step-by-step process. You have to consider things like, when can I solder that joint? When will I no longer be able to sand that part? When can I add components I can’t heat up again? I like that part of making jewelry. (I’m pretty sure I could’ve been an engineer and made a lot more money.)

With art writing, I’m searching for a narrative and how to tell the story behind the artwork and artist. I don’t want to simply describe what it looks like. I close my eyes and really try to feel the artwork I’m writing about; I want to evoke that emotion in my reader.

With curating, I keep an album of artists whose work I love on my phone (gathered from photos I take in person or images of their work I find online). I usually start with an artist whose work I feel really passionate about sharing, then build up a theme around that. Once I have a few artists in mind, I might search for more artists specifically to fill in gaps I see (conceptual gaps, discipline gaps, gaps in representation, etc.). There are other approaches I might use, but that’s my go-to.

TW: How would you describe your style of jewelry? 

JT: I don’t make a lot of jewelry or artwork these days—I’m more interested in supporting other artists’ work—but most of the work I’ve made in my life has a narrative quality. I want to tell a story, and my choice of medium, form, and function revolve around the best way to tell that story.

TW: How does your background in jewelry reflected in the work you show in the gallery?

JT: I grew up doing handcrafts with my mom and going with her to progressively more sophisticated craft shows over the years—from the holiday craft show in the school gym to the annual American Craft Council show in Baltimore. When I went to college to study art, I originally wanted to study something more “practical” like graphic design, but found myself in love with small-scale metal fabrication.

From there, I continued to lean into my love of Crafts media (metals, ceramics, fibers, glass, paper), which have gained popularity in the greater “Art” world in the past few years (think Theaster Gates, Ann Hamilton, Do Ho Suh, Kara Walker, Janet Echelman, etc.). So many people have a personal connection to Crafts media from memories like mine with my mom. I think that creates this beautiful entry point into the work, whereas a highly conceptual painting, sculpture, or installation can feel intimidating or snobby.

There is also a reason why those media have been historically excluded from the ”Art” canon, which is because they were often practiced by women, people of color, and the poor and working classes. Because my primary goals with my exhibitions are inclusive representation and increasing access to the arts, Crafts media often align with that mission. And I just genuinely love to look at the work made with them.

TW: Please describe your collaborations for this exhibition, including Bess the Book Bus. How did they come about providing the books?

JT: The main collaboration on Summer School is with Victoria Alvarez, who is an artist and graphic designer who also has a studio in the Ybor City Kress building. She is heavily involved in the local LGBTQ+ community, and I really leaned on her for that insight as well as conceptualizing and designing the exhibition.

Victoria was the one who had the jumping-off-point idea of including banned books. We wanted a way to disperse them into the community that also served the community, which is why we decided to make them purchasable-by-donation to a nonprofit. The primary nonprofit we’re donating the money to is Heard ‘Em Say, which is a youth-serving literary arts nonprofit that has an office in the Kress building.

The collaborations came about by emailing a bunch of local and national independent bookstores in hopes of getting donations, which we received from Mojo Books & Records (Tampa), Book + Bottle (St. Pete), Tombolo Books (St. Pete), and Rohi’s Readery (West Palm Beach). I also reached out to Mitzi Gordon, who moved to New York recently but who was involved in youth literacy initiatives in St. Pete for a long time. She connected me with Jenn Frances, founder of Bess the Book Bus, who enthusiastically donated about 50 beautifully diverse books that she was concerned wouldn’t “fly” with their public school visits.

We also wanted to include the Drag performer readings of storybooks, since that has been one of the most ridiculous targets of this latest wave of conservatism. Victoria has worked with a lot of performers in the past, so she brought together Jay Miah, TeMonet, and Apollo Infiniti to do readings. They were each paid a stipend for their time, which was really important to us because Drag bookings have taken a hit due to recent hostilities. We paid them and other expenses from a GoFundMe campaign that raised about $1,900 from local and national individual donors for exhibition production. Dave Decker did an incredible job with photography and videography, and he and Victoria produced the videos we have on display.

The third component of Summer School is the visual artwork from Embracing Our Differences, a Sarasota-based non-profit that celebrates the diversity of the human family through art and education. I was really struck by the news story back in February of these incredibly mild pieces of art—some of which were made by children!—being banned from display at State College of Florida. I reached out to Embracing Our Differences about displaying those pieces in the gallery and they were immediately on board. They also suggested a fourth piece, Women of the Bluest Eye by Donna Richardson, that was vandalized at Sarasota’s Bayfront Park. 

I had the work professionally printed and beautifully framed, and got the accompanying “inspirational quotes” that Embracing Our Differences displays with the artwork engraved on metal plaques. I really wanted to honor the artwork and words of the contributors, as they should have been honored in the first place. Those works are for sale-by-donation to Embracing Our Differences, and if they don’t sell, will be donated to the organization.

TW: To me, the excluded artworks from Embracing Our Differences’s exhibition provide context for the overtly racial discrimination these laws impose. In your view, what does the fact that these works are by children say about the state of today’s culture? Versus when we were young? 

JT: The best answer I have for that is the quote accompanying one of the pieces, which was the offending reason the college gave for censoring the work: “Diversity and inclusion are like the needle and thread that stitch together the harmonious fabric of peace for humankind.” It was banned because of the use of the word “diversity.” This quote was written by Raaina Chadha, a fifth grader in New Delhi, India. Just typing that out makes me tear up.

It shows me what I already know, which is that children aren’t the ones who are upset by free speech and inclusive books and Drag Queen readings and pronouns and trans people and Black Lives Matter and migrating people and all of the humans and creative expressions that have been demonized by extreme conservatism. Children don’t need to be “protected” from those things. They inherently understand something that the angry adults in the world don’t: There’s nothing scary about equity, diversity, and inclusion. There’s nothing dangerous about learning about people who are different from you. It breaks my heart that all those adults are teaching hate to their children who could be growing up with hearts full of love instead of judgement.

TW: Which titles are you most surprised are banned? 

JT: I’ve been asked this a couple times and, I mean… all of it. Evidently there’s a left-wing pushback of banning conservative books and I’m like, NO. Please, no. You’re missing the point. No book should be banned. Ever.

TW: Which titles are visitors most surprised are banned? 

JT: Judy Blume?

TW: By providing a space for this work, you’re exercising the right to free speech in a way that, in my opinion, hasn’t been seen since the Bush era. 

JT: I met incredible artists during my 6-year tenure at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida (2014-2020) who demonstrated the ways art can push back on the harmful parts of society. The Rauschenberg Foundation had an Artist as Activist fellowship program at the time spearheaded by their former Philanthropy Director, Risë Wilson, and many of the fellows attended the 4-week residency. To name a few, Favianna Rodriguez, El Sawyer, jackie sumell, Shontina Vernon, The Graduates, SpiritHouse, Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera, and Dorothy Burge absolutely changed my perspective of the world and the impact individuals can have.

It's been heartening to see pushback from the arts community in Tampa Bay this year as well. From HOT BOX at Chad Mize’s SPACE gallery to Forbidden Fruit upcoming at The Hive St. Pete and Throw Them Bones on the Ground upcoming at Tempus Projects, and more I know I’m forgetting.

TW: The videos of drag performers reading the banned books on view in front of two rows of child-sized chairs acts as an art installation as much as a functioning space for learning. 

JT: Yes, I noticed everything with drag performances in Florida in the past couple months now reads “18+ only.” I refuse to write that. It’s the most G-rated thing on the planet. While I didn’t explicitly say, “This installation is for kids,” the chairs say that for me. It’s really nice to sit in them and be read a positive story, too. Highly recommended for children and adults alike.

I wish we could get more kids into the gallery to experience it. It’s a challenge to get people into the gallery in general because of its location on the second floor of our building (there’s an elevator but not much street-level signage). Perhaps it can travel to other locations… Ooo, yes, idea: Contact me if anyone out there wants it installed in their space!

TW: In my view, this exhibition is emblematic of what Claire Bishop called a social practice of art because it’s an activistic art event that allows for viewer participation. 

JT: Yes, we definitely aimed for something collaborative, community driven, and interactive, that supports and highlights the organizations and small businesses doing positive things in our community.

TW: What’s it like to be in the middle of such a vibrant, burgeoning Ybor art scene? 

JT: I feel so incredibly fortunate to be in the space I’m in. I moved to Tampa in April 2020, so it really took a while before I could find a community. I’ve met so many wonderful people, had so many inspiring conversations, and I just feel this huge swell of a big ol’ wave of art goodness rising up underneath all of us.

It’s also—spoiler alert—really freaking hard to make a living working in the arts, and having all of these people around you working toward the same goal helps keep the momentum when you just want to throw in the towel.

TW: Where is the best place the get lunch in Ybor?

JT: My favorite spot is Nana’s. It’s a vegan restaurant and juice bar with a small menu that rotates daily. Their food is ridiculously tasty, creatively inspired, and made with palpable love.

TW: What kind of works do you plan on exhibiting after this? 

JT: After this exhibition, Parachute Gallery is undergoing a bit of a transformation. While I absolutely love curating meaningful exhibitions, it is incredibly difficult to sell artwork and, subsequently, sustain a business and the artists I represent in that model. The rotating-exhibition-of-meaningful-artwork model is only doable as a non-profit (which I may pursue years down the road) or with a healthy trust fund on hand.

I plan to curate and organize exhibitions in off-site galleries in the future, but for now Parachute Gallery will become more of a boutique retail shop featuring artwork and handmade goods created by a curated roster of local and regional artists. My focus will be on sales of my artists’ work.

I know that may sound capitalist, unromantic, or even crass to some, but the reality of being a citizen of the good ol’ US of A is that you need money to survive and thrive. My passion is supporting artists and one of the most important things artists need to keep making art is money. I’ve also been working full-time hours at Parachute Gallery for nine months unpaid, and that’s not sustainable either. So, it’s my mission to see if I can tap into the enormous financial growth Tampa is currently experiencing to build out a little income stream for our hands-on creative sector.