Mallory Zondag '12MA Weaves Years of Student Stories into the Identity Ecosystem

Mallory Zondag '12MA has a special way of coming home. Since 2017, the mixed-media and fiber artist has returned to campus again and again to help our seniors turn their stories into art.

This year, Mallory brought together mushrooms created by several classes of students into one striking installation, the Identity Ecosystem. It was unveiled at Country Fair and is now on display in Snyder.

Mallory first returned to campus as the 2017 Carlock Artist in Residence. Today she is a working textile artist whose practice centers on narrative and identity, the same themes she brings to our classrooms.

Each time she comes back, Mallory gives students something rare: the chance to learn from an artist who once sat in their seats.

It is always a special thing to be invited into a school or a community to share my art and my vision and to form connections amongst the people who participate in the project, it is all the more special when the community is my own. It has been a gift to come back and work with the students and it has given me a whole new lens through which to see my alma mater, experience the campus and reconnect with the faculty. I will miss coming back to campus this May but I feel lucky to have come back for so many years and I'm happy to have gotten the chance to leave behind a permanent sculpture as a record of our program for all the students to come. 

— Mallory Zondag ‘12MA 

Working with English faculty Dr. Catherine Moore and Ms. MacNair Randall, Mallory has led several classes of seniors in the Poetry and Short Story courses through a series of workshops, guiding them in translating their own poems and narratives into visual art using textiles, found objects, photographs, and other materials. Most recently, students also deepened their writing in a week-long workshop with Welsh poet clare e. potter before beginning their art.

Under Mallory's direction, each student created a felted mushroom that represents their identity. For their final exam in both courses, each class then installed its mushrooms together as an ecosystem, with Mallory guiding them.

But Mallory's work wasn't finished. In the days before Country Fair, she returned to campus for more than a week, setting up her studio in our nature hut to transform years of student work into a final installation for the whole community.

Day after day, she worked to weave mushrooms from every class into one connected ecosystem, making sure each story found its place in the whole. It was a true labor of love, and the finished piece reflects the care, skill, and dedication she pours into our students.

Through this work, Mallory also carried forward a textile tradition dating back to the early years of the Moravian Seminary for Girls.

Stop by Snyder to see the Identity Ecosystem in person, where every mushroom represents a student's story.

We are grateful to Mallory for returning year after year to share her artistry with our students. Her story is a reminder that once you are part of the Moravian Academy community, you are always part of it.