We are excited to introduce our distinguished 2025 Artists in Residence at the Public Art Futures Lab. This year, our selected artists bring a rich collection of projects that blend technology, art, and community engagement, enriching Atlanta's cultural landscape. Here's more about each artist and their upcoming projects:
Shelly Boehm, ATL DTN Artist-in-Residence: April - July
Shelly Boehm, an artist working in 3D digital storytelling and interactive media, will design a responsive projection-based art installation driven by collective community wisdom. This project merges digital art with physical interactions, creating a magical urban storytelling mechanism to connect deeply with the public. This installation re-imagines public areas as interactive canvases where digital oracles share community-generated wisdom. Shelly’s project combines her passion for large-scale immersive art with her deep interest in personal and communal narratives.
Artist Bio:
Shelly Boehm is a 3D artist based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a love for creating vibrant, whimsical worlds that evoke a sense of childlike wonder. She holds a degree in Emerging Technology in Business and Design from Miami University of Ohio, along with minors in Studio Art and Games & Simulation. During her time at Miami University, Shelly learned 3D modeling and animation, working with software such as Cinema 4D, TouchDesigner, ZBrush, and After Effects. These opportunities led her to work on large-scale projects, where she discovered her passion for seeing her playful creations come to life in immersive environments. For her senior capstone, she directed Star Bites, an interactive guessing game designed for an XR stage, where she led creative direction and modeled the project’s interactive scene. After graduation, Shelly joined her friends at &FRIENDS Studio to create Futerra: I Was the Earth, a projection mapping piece featured at BLINK Cincinnati, the nation’s largest free public art festival. While collaborating on large-scale projects is a highlight of her career, Shelly always makes time for personal creative exploration. For Shelly, creating art is a process of discovery. It's an intimate and vulnerable opportunity to uncover mysteries about herself and her perspective while exploring how her work resonates with, inspires, and connects with others on a deeper level.
Samantha Richardson, ATL DTN Artist-in-Residence: Jun-Sep
Samantha Richardson explores the intersection of analog art forms and digital innovation through her engaging community-focused project. Utilizing Risograph printing—a method known for its vibrant and textural qualities—Samantha creates interactive posters that layer digital animations via augmented reality. These posters will be strategically placed throughout downtown Atlanta, acting as portals that blend the tactile feel of Risograph prints with dynamic digital interactions. This project not only decorates the city but also invites residents and visitors to experience a unique fusion of art and technology, making the streets of Atlanta a gallery of public interaction and creative expression.
Artist Bio:
Samantha (she/her) is an award-winning designer helping communities ignite change and innovation through collaborative design services. Her Risograph printing studio explores the intersection of AI, vector art, and experimental print methods, transforming digital designs into vibrant, layered art prints that blend technology with tactile printmaking.
Born and raised in rural Alabama and now based in Atlanta, Georgia, Samantha’s travels have fostered a deep appreciation for embracing diverse cultural perspectives. Her design practice is rooted in community activation and participatory design, with creative solutions that empower the communities they impact. Her work blends technology, print, and co-design practices to tell stories that might otherwise go unheard.
Samantha is a two-time recipient of the American Advertising Federation's National Mosaic Award (2018, 2024) and a Best in Show winner at the Birmingham Advertising Awards, with additional accolades including 10 Gold Addys, 4 Silver Addys, and a People’s Choice Telly. Over the past decade, she has developed her creative expertise working with advertising agencies, global brands such as Greenlight and BlackRock, as well as mission-driven organizations including EdFarm, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and Lakeshore Foundation.
In the coming months, Samantha plans to expand her focus on experimental print and motion design and continue her community-based client work. Outside of her creative practice, she enjoys traveling, studying Japanese, illustrating, and writing about trauma-informed design. She lives with her partner, Andrew, and their fluffy white cat, Theon.
Maite Nazario, MARTA Artbound Artist-in-Residence: Aug-Nov
Maite Nazario will use their residency to bring to life the vibrant stories of Atlanta's diverse communities through captivating animations. Drawing on a rich cultural background and their skills in visual storytelling, Maite plans to create a series of animations that transform LostintheLetters’ community-submitted writings into powerful visual narratives. These stories will be animated in Maite’s distinctive style and displayed in public spaces, providing a platform for voices often unrecognized. This project not only celebrates our area’s cultural diversity but also enhances public spaces as sites of shared community heritage and dynamic artistic expression.
Artist Bio:
Maite Nazario is a nonbinary multidisciplinary artist with a focus on social justice. Growing up between Guatemala and Puerto Rico gave Nazario the clarity of knowing that no borders can contain the power of community and resilience. Their work focuses on documenting and celebrating lived experiences through animations, paintings, murals, and audio-visual archives. They have painted murals in the U.S. and internationally including: Georgia, Alabama, New York, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. Their work has been exhibited at The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs in Atlanta, as well as two solo shows in the Dominican Republic at Casa de Teatro and the United States Embassy, and their animation’s displayed at #Prendetuvoto music festival in Puerto Rico. The purpose of their practice is to use art to uplift and empower stories that need to be heard. Every piece of work is a testament of love to their community.
Dr. Bojana Ginn and lauri stallings, ATL DTN Artists-in-Residence: Nov-Feb
Collaborating for over a decade, Dr. Bojana Ginn and Lauri Stallings bring their interdisciplinary expertise to create "Science of Happiness," a project that merges art, technology, and choreography to form therapeutic and immersive environments in Downtown Atlanta. This residency will see the transformation of urban spaces into kinetic sculptures that respond to the presence and movements of the community. Integrating AI technology, live performances, and poetic installations, their work invites the public to engage with and reflect on their personal and collective experiences, fostering a deep sense of community connection and well-being.
Artist Bios
Dr. Bojana Ginn
Dr. Bojana Ginn, an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, former Medical Doctor, and SciArt curator, merges art, science, and technology in her multimedia installations, sculptures, and photography. Her abstract art advocates for health as a human right, addressing the impact of digital and biotechnologies amid climate change. Recipient of the Ellsworth Kelly Award, Ginn's work has been showcased internationally, including the Venice Architectural Biennale and the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Nominated for The World Technology Award in Art 2015, she has curated SciArt content and delivered keynote speeches at international conferences. Collaborating with scientific institutions as NASA, Ginn's impactful work resonates at the intersection of art and cutting-edge research.
lauri stallings
lauri stallings is a Georgia social practice choreographer who works both inside and outside of art world institutions through her site-responsive process works. Whether inhabiting a forest of 80 acres, or confined to the surface of a beam of light, the origin of stallings art extends outwards from the primary projections of the feet and hands. She is a Creative Time artist, USA Artists nominee (2022, 2018), and recipient of an Artadia Award. She is the High Museum of Art’s first choreographer as artist - in -residence, and the inaugural artist of Flux Projects. stallings has developed a number of community projects, including The Traveling Show, a long-term project traveling extensively to engage rural South communities with support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. She is a MOCA GA Fellow, Bogliaso Fellow, and recipient of the Hudgens Prize. Her work has been shown internationally, including FRAC Meca, and the Florence Biennale’, where she received the jury award, Lorenzo Il Magnifico 1st Prize. Her “Singing Sun” will activate the National Center for Civil and Human Rights as part of the grand re-opening this Fall. stallings was raised in the margins, a Southerner born of a Georgia railroad linesman, and great granddaughter of P.M. Barefoot of the Lumbee Tribe who helped raise her momma and three sisters.
These residencies are made possible through the support of our residency partners, MARTA Artbound and Atlanta Downtown.