Leah Gipson

Leah Ra’chel Gipson is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar born in Panama City, Florida, and based in Chicago, Illinois, respectively the traditional homelands of Creek Nations, and the Council of the Three Fires: The Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations. Leah facilitates hyperlocal, community projects that engage Black culture and imagines critical “call and response” environments. She explores race and gender through family history, popular media, and archives using image, sound, textile, and installation, rooted in mixed traditions of Black feminism and Black church. Leah received her master’s degrees in art therapy and theological studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and McCormick Theological Seminary. She received her bachelor of fine arts from the University of Central Florida. Leah is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a faculty member at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy Chicago. Her work has been featured at the South Side Community Art Center, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Netflix, Project Row Houses, Nawat Fes, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts.