ARTIST: MWAZACAROL & MIIYAYA ADERO

MwazaCarol is a painter, ceramics and metal worker, photographer, and community art instructor with a BFA in Art. Her interest in traditional African and culturally thematic art was nurtured during her education at Fisk University. With over 30 years of experience in the arts community, she has been involved in African/Caribbean drum and dance, vocal music, visual arts, and culinary arts.

She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has held solo exhibitions at UrbArts Gallery in St. Louis, including Journey of the African Spirit, Visual Sound, My Life In The Sunshine, and Woven Spirits. She has designed and teaches a healing arts curriculum, is a Community Arts Training alum, an Urban Bush Women SLI Fellow, and a master gardener. She also teaches art to elders multiple times a week, as well as to youth in community and afterschool programs, promoting connectivity and well-being for participants.

Miiyaya was born in Saint Louis, MO but raised in a village. She is a creative designer, dancer, choreographer, visual artist and mentor. With her first love being dance her, at the age of three, she danced professionally with a company call Fundisha Enterprises (African Dance) with Mama Lisa Gage. Later she found the love for Hip Hop dance and joining a dance group called Matiff Dance and Entertainment company. Which she became the youngest choreographer in the group.

2010, she attended Tennessee State University. During her time in Nashville, TN she created a dance group called 3D “Divine Diverse Dance”. While still dancing she started to develop a passion for mentoring. Once she moved back to St. Louis she began working at Wohl Community Center where she started a girls mentoring program called “G.E.M Girl’s Empowerment and Mentoring Program While running G.E.M she began to coach dance and cheerleading. In 2016 she started working on her brand “Invision Your Empire”. After many inquiries from her family and friends to customize their clothing. She began her Clothing line I.Y.E Wear. A Clothing line that focused on hand painted clothing.