Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, assistant professor of Sculpture + Extended Media, was named one of 15 visual artists to win a 2025 Creative Capital Award.
Toussaint-Baptiste’s work, “There, Eyes Were Watching,” caught the attention of the judges for its success in recontextualizing a piece of the present that’s stuck in a very problematic past.
“There, Eyes Were Watching” centers around a current-day bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana that has been linked to slavery in the antebellum south. Though the work will indeed transform this building, Toussaint-Baptiste does not hope to rewrite this history – but instead shape it into something much more nuanced.
A play on the title of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Toussaint-Baptiste used the alternate “There” to signify the project’s importance on the physical building in Louisiana.
“I want to call attention to this place with one eye focused on the past and the other focused long after,” Toussaint-Baptiste said. “That’s why I’m calling it ‘There, Eyes Were Watching.’ People are watching and waiting to see how deftly we handle inequities.”
Awarded to a select group of artists every year, the Creative Capital Award provides individual artists with unrestricted project grants for the creation of bold and innovative projects. Awarding up to $50,000, the Award connects artists to advisors, mentors and community members who can help take projects further.
“This recognition felt like an institutional vote of support from my peers in the field,” Toussaint-Baptiste said. “It’s a positive push towards this gesture that’s both deeply personal and also incredibly significant.”
Toussaint-Baptiste continued, “My hope is that people who view this work will feel a sense of release. I want them to walk away with the feeling that comes with a long exhale. I want them to know that this space now rightfully belongs to a group of people, and I want them to feel a sense of justice.”