Artist Bio
Kathleen Sweeney is a multimedia artist, writer and social media producer. The author of Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age, she has published articles on film, tech innovation, pop culture, and social change at Afterimage and IndieWire. An Assistant Professor of Media Studies at The New School for Public Engagement, original course topics include digital networks, girl innovators, celebrities and social change, viral media and creative storytelling.
Screenings and exhibitions of her video and photography include South by Southwest, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, LA Center for Digital Art, Atlanta Film Festival, with panels, residencies and presentations at Tulane University, UC Santa Barbara, Colgate University and many other venues.
The founding artist in residence at Reel Grrls and DIA:Beacon, she has produced innovative youth media arts curricula funded by the NEA, New York State Council for the Arts, Putnam Arts Council and Media Alliance.
As a communications consultant, strategist, multimedia producer and videographer, her client work includes PBS documentaries, book launches for renowned authors, social media and crowdfunding campaigns, book trailers and mini-docs for authors published by Little/Brown, Shambhala Books and Random House/Delacorte. Client projects have screened at The New Museum, MoMA, and international venues.
Awards include a residencies at the Sugar Maples Art Center (2023); Cill Rialaig Art Center, Ballingskelligs, Ireland (2016); Research Fellowship at The Mind and Life Institute Europe, Cheimsee, Germany (2015); a National Endowment for the Arts Social Media Artists Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2013), and a Ford Foundation/Civic Engagement Grant for “Postcards, Post-Sandy,” (2013) a social media storytelling portal in collaboration with The New School for Public Engagement.
A native New Yorker and lifelong environmentalist, she recently relocated to the woods of Roxbury, NY. Current work weaves foraged forest materials, watercolor, ink drawing, collage and photography inspired by the Catskills ecosystem. Since 2021, she has participated in group exhibitions of interdisciplinary art at Bushel Collective, 1053 Gallery, UPArt!, Longyear Gallery and the AMR Studio Tour.