LSU College of Art & Design has selected two resident artists for the second year of its Open Experimental Studio. Designer and Assistant Professor of Industrial Design Damien Mitchell and LSU School of Art MFA ‘26 printmaker Nicholas Roberts will set up open studios in Glassell Gallery, located in the Shaw Center for the Arts, throughout the month of June. The artists will kick off their residency during Free First Sunday on June 1, 2025. Both artists will spend three days a week in Glassell Gallery making their own work and inviting visitors to make with them June 1–28.  

  

Damien Mitchell is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. He is a native of Louisiana who has worked as a multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur in the fields of industrial design and graphic design. He obtained a Bachelor of Industrial Design from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and later a Master of Fine Arts degree from The University of California – Davis. His current work explores the intersection of craft and design technology in an effort to increase the accessibility and sustainability of product making. He is dedicated to empowering individuals to become designers by using craft as a tool for creativity and innovation. Learn more about the Damien Mitchell 

 

Nicholas Roberts is a visual artist and educator currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking at Louisiana State University. He holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Studio Art and Art Education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Originally from southeastern Pennsylvania, Roberts was raised in a working-class family where identity and home were closely tied to labor. This foundation continues to inform his artistic practice, which explores themes of work, memory, and the construction of self-created spaces. Through intaglio printmaking, oil painting, and sculptural installation, Roberts investigates home as both a physical space and an emotional concept. 

 

The Open Experimental Studio seeks not only to activate the gallery but to activate creative expression. It offers visitors the opportunity to experiment with artmaking, community building, and contributing their work to the experimental space. The Open Experimental Studio values process over product, experience over outcome, and communing over consuming. It seeks to create a supportive, open space for playful expression through artmaking that is open and welcoming to all.  

  

In addition to the artists’ studios, the gallery will offer open studio space for visitors to create, scheduled workshops, and collaborative projects that will be facilitated by the artists over their month-long residency. The Open Experimental Studio will host an opening event with both artists Sunday June 1, from 2–5 p.m. All Open Experimental Studio hours, workshops, and events are free and open to all.  More details about projects and workshops will be released in early May, including more about a closing event planned for June 28, 2025 from 6-8 p.m. The 2025 Open Experimental Studio is supported by the Charles Lamar Family Foundation. 

 

 

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