Ebony Named UTMSI’s 1st Artist in Residence
Photo Credit: Melisa Cardona
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jupiter Performance Studio
Contact: jupiterisfreedom@gmail.com
Phone: 919.283.9032
Web: www.jupiterperformancestudio.com
Acclaimed ecowomanist performance artist and strategist brings story, ritual, and community-centered art practice to groundbreaking transdisciplinary residency on the Gulf Coast initiative.
PORT ARANSAS, TX — September 29, 2026 — Jupiter Performance Studio is proud to announce that its founder and artistic director, Ebony Noelle Golden, has been selected as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the newly launched Community, Ocean, Art, Science, and Translation Lab (COAST Lab) at The University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI).
Supported by a University of Texas at Austin Planet Texas 2050 Seed Grant, the COAST Lab is a transformative, transdisciplinary initiative designed to bridge marine science, artistic practice, humanities, and Gulf Coast community engagement. Led by UTMSI researchers and faculty from the UT College of Fine Arts and College of Liberal Arts, the lab brings together scientists, scholars, and artists to foster ecological dialogue and develop creative approaches to the environmental challenges impacting coastal communities.
This residency marks a critical first step in the creation of Golden’s next theatrical ceremony, //black/water//. As the next offering in her ongoing project series, In The Name of the M/other Tree, //black/water// builds upon six years of extensive community workshops and field investigations conducted in deep collaboration with artists, scientists, healers, and activists. Furthermore, research and creative inquiry from the COAST Lab residency will directly inform and support the development of Golden’s forthcoming Ecowomanism and Ritual Performance Institute, slated to launch in North Carolina in Fall 2027.
A Houston native and descendant of self-emancipated sharecroppers, Golden brings a rich lineage of southern Black creative, cultural, ecological, and spiritual traditions to the coastal research facility. Grounded in ecowomanist frameworks and performance practices, her work creates theatrical ceremonies that center liberation, eco-intimacy, and land reclamation.
"At Jupiter Performance Studio, creative practice is a sanctuary for dreaming and activating our dreams for thriving and planetary evolution," said Ebony Noelle Golden. "Joining the COAST Lab as its inaugural resident allows us to bridge artistic practice, deep-rooted cultural technologies, and a future that ensures that our waterways and coastlines are protected for years to come. I am honored to collaborate with UTMSI’s scientists, students, and partners as we explore ecological resilience, and coastal futures along the Gulf.”
During her residency, Golden will engage directly with UTMSI researchers, faculty, graduate fellows, and local community members. Her work will explore the intersections of marine ecology, culture, and place-based storytelling, furthering Jupiter Performance Studio’s mission to activate portals of possibility through art, ceremony, and social transformation.
In addition to leading Jupiter Performance Studio, Golden is the principal strategist and founding CEO of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative (est. 2009). Her performance-based works have been presented by premier national institutions, including The Shed, Apollo Theater, and National Black Theatre.
For more information about Ebony Noelle Golden’s creative residency or Jupiter Performance Studio, please visit www.jupiterperformancestudio.com or contact media relations.
About Ebony Noelle Golden
A native of Houston, Texas, Ebony Noelle Golden carries the legacy of self-emancipated sharecroppers whose search for economic and educational freedom spanned from rural East Texas and Louisiana across Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and California. Grounded in ecowomanist and Black feminist traditions, she creates theatrical ceremonies where re/memory, revival, and revolution intersect.Ignited by the movement for climate reparations and land reclamation, she founded Jupiter Performance Studio in 2020 as a sanctuary for the study and performance of rural, southern Black folks’ creative, cultural, ecological, and spiritual traditions.
Through messy, magical, and medicinal rituals for liberation, thriving, and eco-intimacy, her work serves as a gathering ground: a space where portals of possibility conjure communal, personal, and planetary evolution. Additionally, Ebony serves as the principal strategist and founding CEO of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative (BDAC), which she established in 2009. BDAC designs strategic interventions for cultural wellness and social change, having guided over 90 cultural startups, family businesses, grassroots groups, philanthropic initiatives, arts institutions, and governmental agencies. Her movement-building partnerships actively support global efforts in environmental justice, women’s rights, housing equity, education access, and cultural sovereignty.
Since 2017, Golden has been developing in the name of the m/other tree, a body of work that uplifts wisdom, healing practices, and earth-affirming rituals of southern Black women and femme healers. In 2024, The Apollo and National Black Theatre in New York, NY co-produced and presented Golden’s The Divining: Ceremonies from in the name of the m/other tree, a multi-disciplinary immersive ritual that unfolded on the streets of Harlem and the Apollo Stages at the Victoria Theater. The next episode of this theatrical ceremony, again, the watercarriers, centers on women mystics over the age of 60, the primordial mothers described in Yoruba cosmology as the Iyaamí, and Golden’s own maternal lineage. again, the watercarriers toured in 2025.
Golden’s work has also been presented at the Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY (2023); Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, MA (2022); The Shed, New York, NY (2019); and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Bronx, NY (2018), and has been profiled by The New York Times and National Endowment for the Arts.
Golden is the recipient of grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2023, 2025), a New England Foundation for the Arts National Theater Project Creation & Touring Grant (2023), an Association for Theatre in Higher Education Transformational Practice Award (2022), a Creative Capital Award (2020), and fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation (2010, 2011, and 2012).
She was selected as the first Performing Artist in Residence at University of Texas- Marine Science Institute, inaugural SOUL Directing Resident at National Black Theatre and Hi-ARTS’ inaugural Skylab artist-in-residence. She has also been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Peterborough, NH (2023) and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (2023). Golden holds an M.A. from New York University, an M.F.A. from American University, and a B.A. from Texas A&M University.
Websites:
bettysdaughterarts.com | jupiterperformancestudio.com
About the COAST Lab & UTMSI
The COAST Lab (Community, Ocean, Art, Science, and Translation Lab) is an initiative supported by UT Austin’s Planet Texas 2050 Seed Grant and housed at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. Led by an interdisciplinary team from UTMSI, the College of Fine Arts, and the College of Liberal Arts, the COAST Lab connects marine science with artistic and humanistic inquiry to address pressing social and environmental challenges facing Gulf Coast communities.
Website: https://marinescience.utexas.edu/about-department
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