Mims is the founder of Marooning Bodies, and an artist, abolitionist, and facilitator based in Los Angeles. Her work moves across performance art, advocacy, public art, social practice, and fine art objects. She experiences the body as a site of liberation and approaches it as her first place of inquiry. Through an ongoing exploration of relationship between self, others, land, and more than human life, Mims grounds her practice in embodied knowing. She is deeply interested in questioning as a tool for collective understanding, the role of interpersonal relationships in building healthy communities, and the sacred wisdom held in cultures and ecosystems around the world. https://www.marooningbodies.com/
From Art Project to Living Ecosystem: Building Sustainable Creative Practices
Session Description: This session explores how Marooning Bodies is being built in real time as a living creative ecosystem that spans participatory games, performance, public art, curriculum, and future relics (art objects). Rather than presenting a finished model, it offers an honest look at developing a sustainable artistic practice while actively inside the work. Participants will learn how multiple income streams can emerge from a single artistic inquiry through grants, residencies, commissions, workshops, and object-based offerings. The session also examines how creative businesses can be designed to support rest, community, mobility, and long-term sustainability rather than burnout. Grounded in participation, collective imagination, and long-term thinking, Marooning Bodies demonstrates how artists can build practices that are both financially resilient and deeply rooted in care, experimentation, and meaningful community engagement.