Tia Kramer
(she/they)
Research Associate
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Fouts Center for Visual Arts. Room 117
Tia Kramer is an artist, social choreographer, and educator who creates collective experiences that disrupt the everyday, engaging participants in embodied poetry and radical imagination. Her artworks manifest as socially engaged projects and performances rooted in public art, creative pedagogy, oral history, dance, and social action.
Tia Kramer received her MFA in Art + Social Practice from Portland State University, a Post Baccalaureate in Fiber + Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and BA in Studio Art from Macalester College. She has developed projects at venues including the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park, Everson Museum of Art, Henry Art Gallery, Bellevue Art Museum, MadArt Seattle, Harper Joy Theatre, Georgetown Steam Plant, and her beloved Prescott School District. Her artwork has been supported by multiple National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Artist Projects, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Artist Trust, 4Culture, Inatai Foundation, Washington State Library, and others.
Originally from a tiny town in rural Iowa, Tia spent nearly two decades living in urban areas throughout the US and conducting creative research at overseas sites including McMurdo Station, Antarctica; the Ho Region in Eastern Ghana; and throughout Asia. She is now happily rooted in Walla Walla, Washington where she delights in asking questions, getting her hands dirty, hosting relational meetings, and running a 10 minute mile.
Areas of Expertise/Interest
Interdisciplinary art, performance, social choreography, theatre, socially engaged art, anti-racist pedagogy, civic & community engagement, co-authored art practices.
MFA, Art and Social Practice, Portland State University (PSU), Portland, OR, 2020
Graduate from the Goat Island Performance School, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, 2018
Post Baccalaureate, Fiber and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, 2016
BA, Studio Art, Macalester College, St Paul, MN, 2004
Tia Kramer’s interdisciplinary art practice centers site-specific creative research and ethical community collaboration. Her work straddles disciplines operating both within and outside art and education institutions. She identifies most as a social choreographer which is, as artist Ernesto Pujol articulates, “to choreograph movement in society, by society, which may lead to the movement of society.”
In her past collaborative projects, Tia created a performance for one person–her mail carrier, Phil–which unfolded along his mail route with the collaborative participation of 87 residents; she choreographed an entire school–280 students and staff–into a river physically moving through the school campus to pass through all the phases of the water cycle; and she devised participatory performance in which 100 people, most strangers, were guided by text messages directing them through acts of connection with each other and with the satellites orbiting overhead.
Currently, Tia and her collaborator Amanda Leigh Evans (together known as DeepTime Collective) are developing When the River Becomes a Cloud/ Cuando el río see transforma en nube (2021-present), a collaborative public artwork generated through their long-term Artist-in-Residence at Prescott School (PreK-12). DeepTime Collective also launched A Day Without a Clock (2023-2024), an immersive art experience and solo exhibition produced during their one year Artists-in-Residence at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY.
Tia is also co-founder and Director of the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition’s Colectivo de Arte Social (2018-present), which initiates bold creative projects like The Listeners Project: Queremos Escucharte to share unheard stories from the Walla Walla Valley.
2024 A Day Without a Clock, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY Socially engaged project, solo exhibition, and nine hour durational performance as part of DeepTime Collective with Amanda Evans
2023-24 Nuestras Huellas, Walla Walla, WA Site-specific participatory/performative story walks led by community guides co-authored as part of Colectivo de Art Social.
2022-24 Roots of Resistance, Participatory touring exhibit traveling to high schools across North Carolina. Curated by Anne Parsons and Adam Carlin
2022 Embodying the River, Prescott PreK-12 School, Prescott, WA Participatory performance created as part of DeepTime Collective with 300+ members of the Prescott School community. Launch event for When The River Becomes a Cloud project and long-term artist in residency Four Beacons, La Grua Art Center, Stonington, CT Performance and participatory event created as part of The Ships In The Night collaboration with Jessica Cerullo
2021 What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil, Walla Walla, WA Performance from the For You (and Us), Performance Series for an Audience of One
2020 Three Larks: Performance for Laurie, Whitman College Studio Series, Walla Walla, WA Performance from the For You (and Us) Performance Series, co-authored w/ Katherine Padberg
2019 At Dusk We Walk Home Together: Performance for Guillermo, Walla Walla, WA Performance from the For You (and Us) Performance Series, co-authored with Sabina Rogers
2018 Orbiting Together, Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA
Socially engaged project & performance series co-created with Eric Olson & Tamin Totzke Sculptures for a Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA Social practice project co-created with Eric Olson
2018 Because You Are Here, Harper Joy Theatre, Whitman College. Walla Walla, WA Devised black box theatre production ideated and directed with Jessica Cerullo, co-authored with 11 community members and devised with 10 students
2016 Six Weeks, In Time, Henry Art Gallery. Seattle, WA, curated by Nina Bozicnik Performance series and exhibition created as part of A Study of Time and Motion with choreographer Tamin Totzke
National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for Artists Projects, awarded to Picture Lab for When The River Becomes a Cloud with DeepTime Collective ($40,000 NEA + $40,000 matching funds), 2024-2026
National Endowment for the Arts, Grant for Artist Projects, awarded to the Everson Museum for a one-year residency as DeepTime Collective ($15,000 NEA + $15,000 matching funds), 2023-2024
Arts WA (Washington State Arts Commission), Arts in Education Project Grant, awarded to Picture Lab for When The River Becomes a Cloud ($12,750/year for two years), 2023-2025
NoVo Foundation, SEL in Action Award, awarded to Picture Lab for When the River Becomes a Cloud ($27,000), 2022-2023
Iniati Foundation, unrestricted funds, awarded to Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition for the work of Colectivo de Arte Social (numerous), 2022-2024
Sherwood Trust, Impact Grant, awarded to Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition for Colectivo de Arte Social ($12,000), 2022-2023
Washington State Library, Digital Heritage Grant, awarded to Whitman College & Northwest Archives for Colectivo de Arte Social ($10,000), 2020-2021
Laurels Fellowship for Community Commitment, artist award ($10,000), 2017-2020
Eichholz Foundation Grant, artist award for Orbiting Together ($3,500), 2018
Artist Trust, Gap Grant, artist award for Silent Structures ($1,500), 2016
4CULTURE, Historic Site Specific Grant, artist award for Study of Time and Motion ($15,000), 2015
Duwamish Revealed, Artist Grant artist award for Study of Time and Motion ($10,000), 2015