Leah Ra'chel Gipson (Chicago, IL)

Leah Ra’chel Gipson is a multidisciplinary artist from Panama City, Florida, currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Her work explores ideas of place through family history, popular media, and archives using image, sound, textile, installation, and film. She is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Art Therapy and Counseling Department. Her work has been featured at the South Side Community Art Center, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Netflix Queue, Project Row Houses, Nawat Fes, Morocco, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. She was awarded a 2024 Creative Capital Award for Staring at the Dark, a documentary film and environmental justice project. Throughout the fellowship, Leah Ra'chel will work on, Staring at the Dark, an experimental documentary that focuses on a historically African American neighborhood in the Gulf South facing the uncertainties of life under coastal danger. The end of a disaster is only the beginning.