Teaching Residency with Meagan Streader

Written By Opie Project (space)

She Bends Studios, San Francisco, CA
Lily Reeves Studio, Phoenix, AZ
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
October 2025
Teaching Residency

Teaching Artists: Meryl Pataky, Lily Reeves
Teaching Assistant: Kelsey Issel
Student Artist: Meagan Streader

This traveling residency supported Australian artist and designer Meagan Streader in learning neon as an endangered craft, with the intention of bringing technical skill, infrastructure knowledge, and craft lineage back to Australia. The residency began in Phoenix, where Meagan studied neon shop build-out and safety standards in the studio of artist and certified shop owner Lily Reeves. She then traveled to San Francisco for hands-on training in patterning, bending, and bombarding at She Bends Studios, taught by Meryl Pataky and Kelsey Issel(TA). The residency concluded in Chicago, where Meagan attended the Neon Conversation Symposium at the Art Institute of Chicago, where She Bends presented on neon conservation and craft transmission.

Opie Project (space)

An arts and culture firm grounded in the belief that culture-makers are among our most valuable public resources. We steward the resources of foundations, institutions, and companies to build the conditions for creative experimentation, artistic freedom, and the growth of creative capital.

https://www.opieps.com
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ANTIGRAVITY RESIDENCY WITH KELSEY ISSEL + MERYL PATAKY
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Neon as Soulcraft — Seattle Teaching Residency