The Mississippi State University Department of Art is pleased to host Mississippi-based artist Coulter Fussell for a visiting artist residency from September 7–11, 2026. This residency is supported through Handwork 2026, a national initiative celebrating the evolving field of craft and its vital role in contemporary art.

Working from her studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, Fussell has developed a distinctive practice that merges quilting, painting, sculpture, and photography into layered textile works that challenge traditional boundaries between craft and fine art. Drawing from donated and discarded materials, her work carries the embedded histories of everyday life, transforming familiar fabrics into complex visual narratives that explore memory, landscape, and the emotional terrain of the rural South.

During her residency, Fussell will engage with students through lectures, critiques, and hands-on workshops that foreground material experimentation and the conceptual possibilities of textile-based practices. Emphasizing process, improvisation, and community-sourced materials, her approach invites students to reconsider authorship, value, and the cultural significance of making.

The residency will include a public exhibition of Fussell’s work (August 15^th – September 11^th) , offering audiences an opportunity to experience her immersive quilt-based installations firsthand. These works—at once intimate and expansive—collapse distinctions between personal and collective histories, weaving together fragments of lived experience into richly textured compositions that are both visually striking and deeply resonant.

By bringing Fussell to campus, the Department of Art advances its commitment to connecting students and the broader community with leading voices in contemporary practice. This residency highlights the continued relevance of craft traditions within a global contemporary art discourse, while grounding that conversation in the cultural and material realities of Mississippi and the American South.