Katie Waddell (she/her/hers) is an educator, independent curator of public programming, writer, and cultural producer currently based in Milwaukee, WI.
As an educator—specializing in art history, visual studies, and humanities—she applies creative thinking to traditional and digital learning environments, teaching people to draw connections between cultural artifacts and the specific social values that produce them.
Her public programming practice plays with gathering as form, with contemporary art and social practice as the primary point of departure. She is interested in affect, relationality, kitsch, magic, queerness, cults, performativity, camp, and social justice.
Waddell received an M.A. in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism, and Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Waddell founded and directed 2nd Floor Rear (2012-2017), an annual festival of art in alternative spaces and experimental contexts, in Chicago, IL.
Chicago’s 2nd Floor Rear Festival Celebrates DIY Art Spaces of All Kinds / Vice Creators Project / February 23, 2017