Vetiver (Vonne Napper)

Vetiver (Vonne Napper) (b. 1989) is a Washington, DC-based transdisciplinary artist, facilitator, educator, printmaker, and land steward. Their practice centers on preserving Black queer and trans identities and co-creating with the earth and others through holistic approaches. Identifying as nonbinary & transmascukine, Vetiver draws on their lived experience to highlight the challenges of existing at a particularly targeted intersection in society, and on their ancestry and relationship with nature to establish connections among the communities to which they belong. Vetiver is an autodidact and earned their Master of Fine Arts in Community Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art. They developed the first arts-based program for middle school students, The Roundhouse Connection, at the B&O Railroad Museum, and have exhibited their work and facilitated programming in Baltimore, the DMV, and New York areas including the Peale Museum, Virginia Commonwealth University, Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center, Transformer DC, Gallery Y (YMCA Anthony Bowen), Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore Museum of Art, and Eleventh Hour Art.