Heather T. Hart (born May 3, 1975) is a visual artist who works in a variety of media including

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

and participatory

Installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

, drawing, collage, and painting. She is a co-founder of the Black Lunch Table Project, which includes a Wikipedia initiative focused on addressing diversity representation in the arts on Wikipedia.

Early life

Hart was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, to Susan Hart and Harry H. Hart III, a carpenter. Her parents met as students at an art school in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She grew up in North Seattle. In 1998, Hart received a BFA from

Cornish College of the Arts Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of pi ...

in Seattle, where she majored in Painting and Video. She attended the Center for African American Studies at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. In 2008, Hart received an MFA from

Mason Gross School of the Arts Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers. Mason Gross offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, Theater, Digi ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in New Jersey, where her focus was interdisciplinary art.

Career

Hart learned carpentry from her father at a young age. Hart uses architectural forms mixed with family and oral histories, multiple narratives, and participatory engagements as integral components in much of her creative work. Hart's "Rooftop Oracles" is a series of life-size rooftops, which look as though they were dropped from the sky or emerging from the ground, offer viewers an interactive experience as they climb onto and under the structures. She has created different installations in the series, and realizes her vision with the collaboration of family and friends, in a sort of raising the roof effort that involves many people working together as a community. In 2010, Hart created the installation, "The Northern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother," at

Franconia Sculpture Park Franconia Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park in Franconia, Minnesota, United States, that offers a 50-acre outdoor museum, active artist residency program, and a depth and breadth of community arts programming for a diverse and engaged p ...

in Minnesota. In 2012, her sculptural installation, "The Eastern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother," was presented at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

as part of their ''Raw/Cooked'' series. "The Western Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother," was an installation at

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

Olympic Sculpture Park The Olympic Sculpture Park, created and operated by the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), is a public park with modern and contemporary sculpture in downtown Seattle, Washington. The park, which opened January 20, 2007, consists of a outdoor sculpture mu ...

in 2013. It included an elk-hide drum wall that was built in a tetris of rectangles as a way to sound out the ritual of the oracle. Indian-American drum maker, Joseph Seymour, provided instruction on creating the drums, with installation consultation from Cornish College furniture professor, Attila Barcha. From May to November 2017, "Outlooks: Heather Hart" is installed at

Storm King Art Center Storm King Art Center, commonly referred to as Storm King and named after its proximity to Storm King Mountain, is an open-air museum located in New Windsor, New York. It contains what is perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdo ...

in Mountainville,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Black Lunch Table

Hart is co-founder of the Black Lunch Table Project, a radical archiving project, which was awarded a 2016 Emerging Fields Grant from

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

. The Black Lunch Table Project is an ongoing project created by Hart and co-founder and collaborator Jina Valentine. The project, which started in 2005, when both Hart and Valentine were artists in residence at

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 t ...

, provides a format where participants can come together to consider contemporary issues of race, archiving, and the under representation of minority artists in the art historical canon, often taking on the form of Wikipedia

editathons An edit-a-thon (sometimes written editathon) is an event where some editors of online communities such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap (also as a "mapathon"), and LocalWiki edit and improve a specific topic or type of content. The events typically i ...

Personal life

In 2012, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she successfully recovered from, during her first solo show at the

. Hart currently lives and works in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Honors

;Artist in Residencies * 2005:

(Madison, ME) * 2006: Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM),

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

Grant for Artist in Residence * 2008:

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, Whitney Independent Study Program, Visual Program * 2010:

(Franconia, MN), FSP/Jerome Fellowship for Artist in Residence * 2014:

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is located in the Old Market Historic District of downtown Omaha, Nebraska, at the corner of 12th Street and Leavenworth Street. In addition to an international artist-in-residence program, Bemis Center hosts te ...

(Omaha, NE) * 2015:

(New Orleans, LA), Residency * 2016:

McColl Center for Visual Art McColl Center (formerly McColl Center for Art + Innovation) is an artist residency and contemporary art space located at 721 North Tryon Street in Charlotte, North Carolina.Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

, Emerging Artist Fellowship * 2009:

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

, NYFA Fellowship * 2011:

Jerome Foundation James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films. Career Hill was the child of railroad executive Louis W. Hill. He was educated at Y ...

, Jerome Travel Grant * 2013:

, Painters and Sculptors Grant

Exhibitions

Hart's work has been exhibited worldwide including

, Real Art Ways,

92YTribeca 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

Jersey City Museum The Jersey City Museum was a municipal art museum in Jersey City, New Jersey. The establishment opened in 1901 and was housed in the main branch of the Jersey City Public Library. It relocated to a new building in 2001, but due to financial dif ...

, NYU Galleries, 2B Gallery in Budapest, Rush Arts Gallery, Portland Art Center, Soil Art Gallery,

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

, Islip Art Museum, Museum of Art and Craft in Japan, and Art in General. She has collaborated in pieces by

Pablo Helguera Pablo Helguera (born April 25, 1971, Mexico City) is an artist, performer, author, and educator. From 2007 to 2020 he was Director of Adult and Academic Programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He currently is an Assistant Professor ...

and Raphael Ortiz. Her work has been included in exhibitions curated by

Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best k ...

, Fred Wilson, Deborah Willis and

Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Early life and education Hank Willis Th ...

. * 2006:

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

(Astoria, Queens) – ''Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition, 2006 (EAF06).'' "Color Was Given Me As A Gage" * 2008:

, Paul Robeson Galleries (Rutgers, NJ) – "Neo-Constructivism: Art, Architecture, and Activism" * 2012:

(Brooklyn, NY) – ''Raw/Cooked.'' "The Eastern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother" * 2015: Practice Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) – ''Practice Oracle'' * 2015: Elsewhere (Greensboro, NC) – ''The Porch Project: Black Lunch Tables'' * 2017:

( Mountainville,

) – ''Outlooks: Heather Hart,'' May 13, 2017 to November 12, 2017

Works and publications

''Chronological order'' * – Catalog of an exhibition held at the Jersey City Museum in New Jersey from Sept. 20, 2007-Feb. 24, 2008 * – Catalog of the exhibition held at the Paul Robeson Galleries and the New Jersey School of Architecture Gallery, January 31-April 10, 2008 * – Companion exhibition at JCAL, September 29, 2007 – January 12, 2008 * * * – Catalog of an exhibition held at The Drawing Center, Main Gallery / The Lab, July 11-August 24, 2014

References

External links

* * * * The Black Lunch Table at Wikipedia Meetups
Heather Hart on MOMA PS1 Studio Visit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Heather 1975 births Living people African-American women artists Cornish College of the Arts alumni Artists from Seattle Rutgers University alumni People from Brooklyn Wikipedia people American Wikimedians Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women