She’s back! From three years in Abu Dhabi and 12 years in New York City – Brídín Clements Cotton, a Kalamazoo native, has traveled far to practice her art, her experience in theater management. Now back in her hometown, her interests range far and wide. Clements Cotton is an artist, an educator, a project manager, and an author.
“In Abu Dhabi, I was working as a theater educator at a U.S. institution, New York University—Abu Dhabi,” Clements Cotton says. “I had the opportunity to make theater with students from tens of different countries. The last production that I did there, we had a 70-person company from over 30 different countries.”
Clements Cotton stage-managed the developmental workshop production of Wole Soyinka’s new play, Canticles for a Pyre Foretold. She is also co-author of the book, Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production (2024). She is a multi-disciplinary artist who works on and behind the stage, in literary and also visual arts.
“Currently, I have an installation at Zeal Aerial Fitness at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids,” Clements Cotton says. “It’s called 'Well?' With the exhibition, I am questioning what wellness means, questioning things about womanhood, and really focusing on what we put into our bodies and what impacts it has on our bodies, what we do and don’t know.”
The mixed media piece is created with medical waste she collected from others. Clements Cotton invites people to visit her installation, on exhibit and up for voting in the ArtPrize competition through October 4 at Zeal Aerial Fitness, 131 Caledonia Street NE, Grand Rapids.
Clements Cotton holds a master’s degree in public administration with a focus on public and nonprofit management and policy from Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University and a bachelor’s degree in theatre with a focus on stage management and producing. She is also available as a day-of wedding coordinator.
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