JessicaCALDAS

Jessica Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida and Georgia based artist. Her work connects personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. Caldas has participated in a number of artist residencies, including the Atlanta Printmakers Studio in 2011, MINT Gallery's Leap Year Program from 2012-2013, The Creatives Project form 2018-2019, Vermont Studio Center in 2020, and was the Art on the Atlanta Beltline AIR in 2020-2021. She recently completed the Working Artist Prize Fellowship at MOCA GA in 2022-2023. Caldas was awarded The Center for Civic Innovations 2016 Creative Impact award, named Creative Loafing's Best of ATL Artist for 2016 and 2015, received the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in Visual Arts for 2014, and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation's Emerging Artist Award in 2014. Her work has been shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and is included in the collections of Kilpatrick Townsend, The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, MOCA GA, and the Kyoto International Community House.

In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women's Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses.

Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She currently runs Good News Arts, a small community arts space and gallery in rural North Central Florida and holds a part time position at Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta.