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TALKING DOLLS STUDIO



Current Events & Exhibition
The Potluck Detroit 4th Annual Festival! 05/22–05/25 2026 


Union Hall Arts Residency

SUMMER 2026
  1. Union members, apply by June 1, 2026!

Past Exhibitions & Events
2026 SEASON 
  1. Ricky Blanding Ceramics: Solo Show

2025 SEASON
  1. Artist Talk with Nontsi Mutiti & Lillian Magodi
  2. MUBATANIDZWA: LINK
  3. Donate to our Fundraiser for more Detroit–Zimbabwe Exchanges!
  4. A Suite for Malcolm
  5. The Potluck 2025!


A R C H I V E

Collective Incubator Residency

SUMMER 2025
IR 2022
  1. bree gant

MDW Fair

SUMMER 2022
  1. Atlas
  2. Assembly

2022  
  1. Reuben Telushkin

IR 2021
  1. Rebecca Frantz
  2. Zahra Almajidi
  3. Know One
  4. TEIKAUT
  5. Lindsay Skvarek
  6. Yuming Song
  7. Jingying Su

2021   
  1. Aaron Jones

IR 2020
  1. Violet Luczak 
  2. Ciaran McQuiston
  3. Rachel DeBoard

IR 2019
  1. Laura Gibson
  2. Rebekah Sweda 


Talking Dolls —

Info ︎︎︎
The mission of Talking Dolls is to empower our northeast Detroit neighborhood through justice-focused initiatives. We create a nexus of progressive art and community-led activism through access to our shop, artist studios, and gallery space for workshops, performances and celebration. It is led by co-directors Wes Taylor, Ron Watters, Andrea Cardinal, and Reuben Teleushkin.
Mark





Mubatanidzwa: Link Artist Talk

Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Lillian Magodi with Sudani Shaah, and the Talking Dolls Directors, Ron Watters, Wes Taylor, and Andrea Cardinal

Saturday, August 2, 2025

3pm

Detroit, MI

Please join us for a conversation between Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Lillian Magodi with Sudani Shaah, Ron Watters, Wes Taylor, and Andrea Cardinal. We will discuss our experiences working together at Animal Farm Artist Residency in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe in 2024 and the goals for this exhibition & fundraiser!

Nontsikelelo Mutiti photo by Dominique Sindayiganza. Image by Katharina Brenner.

Lillian Magodi photo by Jeff Cancelosi.


Nontsikelelo Mutiti 

Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at Yale University. She is a Zimbabwean born designer, visual artist, and educator whose conceptual approach to design spans the mediums of print, moving-image, web design, fine art, and community engagement.

Mutiti considers her teaching practice an extension of her studio practice, and strives to bring the same interdisciplinarity and opportunities for collaboration to her students. Also experienced in the work of institution building, Mutiti has initiated several platforms that foster collaborative projects between artists and scholars across the globe, including as co-founder of Zimbabwe Cultural Centre of Detroit @detroitzimbabwe. She also co-founded and was the artistic director of Black Chalk & Co., a creative agency that brought together writers, artists, designers, academics, and technologists with a mutual interest in publishing, curating conversations, and exhibitions. Together, they created readingzimbabwe.com, an online archive of Zimbabwean literature.

Mutiti holds a diploma in Multimedia from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) and an MFA in Graphic Design from the Yale School of Art.


Lillian Magodi


born June 05, 1992. Attended the School of Visual Arts Design at the National gallery of Zimbabwe.

My work is a personal exploration of identity, centered on the layered and often overlooked connections between women and children. Rooted in my own lived experiences and cultural background, I investigate how identity is shaped—through ancestry, memory, and the quiet strength passed from one generation to the next.



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