Leah Ra'chel Gipson
Leah Ra’chel Gipson is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and activist born in Florida and based in Chicago. Her work facilitates hyperlocal, community projects that engage Black culture and imagine critical “call and response” environments. Her work 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 the Black church.
Leah received her MA in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her MTS at McCormick Theological Seminary, and her BFA from the University of Central Florida. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Art Therapy and Counseling Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and also a faculty member at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy in Chicago. She is a board member for A Long Walk Home, a non-profit organization that uses art to end gender-based violence. Her work has been featured at the South Side Community Art Center, Jane Addams Hull House Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Project Row Houses (Houston, TX). She served on the Philadelphia Museum of Art Advisory Group for the 2022 exhibition, Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century.
Featured Artworks
"Black Girlhood Altar," Project Row Houses
"Black Girlhood Altar," Project Row Houses