I’m the Founder and Creative Director of BossiRainbow™, a Berea, KY based studio where craft-making and cultural scholarship connect.

Hi, I’m Dr. Jaleesa Wells. Welcome!

As a fiber-based craft artist and scholar, I work in mixed-media and archives to conjure community histories that have been largely hidden or erased.

My practice moves between artistry, craftsmanship, archival research, and storytelling. I create artistic and interactive textile and mixed media works and design and facilitate participatory projects with communities.

I love creating living lore in the form of art quilts, crafted games, community scrapbooks, craft installations, and public-focused exhibitions. I’m building an ecosystem that centers artistic practice and cultural memory-work, collaborating with artists, libraries and archives, and my communities on initiatives and projects that stitch together creative research and justice-forward lore to serve as methods for civic imagination and cultural restoration.

If you’re looking to partner on a project, commission work, invite a workshop or talk, or collaborate on grant-funded initiatives at the intersection of craft and culture in community, I’d love to connect.

Photos Credit: Erica Chambers Photography.