Atlanta-based cultural producer, creative services consultant and art curator Alicia Felder has moved through luxury fashion houses, talent agencies, and boardrooms. But it’s in Johannesburg—inside a buzzing artist residency called STILL—that she’s finally landing in her purpose.
“STILL has completely changed me,” Felder says from South Africa. “Coming here, and being of service to this community … it gave me back to myself.”
As Vice Chair of the STILL Artist Residency, Felder helps steward a space that centers on artists who are often overlooked, including primary caregivers, LGBTQIA creatives, and artists from the 16 countries that make up the Southern African Development Community. The program, founded by artist Ayana V. Jackson, removes the pressure to produce and instead focuses on restoration, experimentation, and care.
“So many residencies are extraction models,” says Felder. “We’re not asking artists to give us anything. We’re here to support. If they need paper, we get the paper. If they need a break to hold their child, we hold the baby. That’s the work.”
Felder stepped away from corporate America nearly two decades ago, focusing her energy on family and community. When her daughter left for Yale three years ago, Felder began charting a new path—one that aligned with her global outlook and lifelong love of culture. A call from artist Ayana V. Jackson opened the next chapter, inviting her into the founding vision of STILL.
Felder’s first visit to the FNB Art Fair Joburg was a revelation. “I walked into the fair and said, ‘What even is this?’ It was all contemporary African art. All forward-facing. It blew my mind. I just wanted more.”
That hunger led to deeper connections. In recent weeks, Felder has spent hours in the studios of Blessing Ngobeni, Mary Sibande, and Billie Zangewa. Her visit with Sibande, known for her iconic character Sophie, left a lasting mark. “Sophie in the blue dress hit me deep,” Felder says. “[She] was inspired by Mary’s grandmother, a domestic worker who aspired to be more, but, because of apartheid, could not. As someone who gave up a corporate career to be a stay-at-home mom, I saw myself in her. Now, Sophie’s in her soft era … resting, floating, being cared for. That evolution matters.”
“If you told me five years ago I’d be sitting with Zanele Muholi and they’d say yes to my podcast, I would’ve said you were crazy.”
Alicia Felder
STILL offers artists more than space. Residents receive three months of loft studio space, stipends, honorariums, curatorial assistance, open studios, and opportunities to showcase their work through benefit prints. And in true community fashion, when one artist needed to reunite with his partner and meet his child for the first time, STILL made it happen. “We’re changing lives in real time,” Felder says. “You can see it with your own eyes.”
The work has also sharpened her own vision. “After my first trip, I knew I wasn’t going back to corporate America,” she says. “But I also saw that everything I learned there—account strategy, branding, client relationships—could be used here. STILL is a mission, but it’s also a business. Artists deserve sustainability, not just passion.”
She’s now planning a podcast focused on contemporary African artists, set to launch in 2026, with guests already lined up who once felt impossibly out of reach. “If you told me five years ago I’d be sitting with Zanele Muholi and they’d say yes to my podcast, I would’ve said you were crazy.”
But nothing about Felder’s path has been traditional. And maybe that’s the point. “Here in South Africa, there’s this phrase I heard: ‘I am acknowledging your existence and asking you to respond.’ That’s what we do at STILL. That’s the foundation. Care, presence, and community.”
And for Felder, it’s not a reinvention. It’s a return.
