Heather Harvey

Heather Harvey is an Associate Professor of Studio Art and Studio Art Coordinator at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She works across traditional genres including painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation-based strategies, with projects growing out of interests in sciences, philosophy, poetry, social justice issues, and environmental concerns.

Her educational background includes:

• M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2007)
• B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2003)
• M.A. from The College of William and Mary (1997)
• B.A. from State University of New York at Buffalo (1993)

Harvey's artistic practice is deeply interdisciplinary, bridging traditional boundaries between media. Her work engages with scientific concepts (astronomy, physics, biology, geology), philosophical inquiry, ethical considerations of social justice, and urgent environmental concerns. She approaches art as 'an embodied and ritualized way to think, observe, ground, and connect,' layering conceptual and aesthetic interests with personal emotional reckonings. Through her complex interweaving of objective versus subjective content, she seeks to make sense of the world and our fragile place within it.

Her recent exhibitions demonstrate continued exploration of these themes across various media and contexts. Harvey has received numerous awards including multiple Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards and a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Artist Fellowship.

Harvey has been recognized with several prestigious awards:

• Independent Visual Artist Award ($10K) from Maryland State Arts Council (2021)
• Individual Artist Awards from Maryland State Arts Council (2014, 2017)
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Artist Fellowship (2009-2010)
• Holstein Program Prize in Ethics for Curricular Innovation (2017)
• Sustainable Arts Fellowship for Vermont Studio Center Residency (2015)

Harvey has maintained an active exhibition schedule with recent solo shows at the Academy Art Museum, Salisbury University Gallery, Maryland Art Place, and Second Street Gallery. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and collaborative projects including Revolve:R, a multidisciplinary collaboration of visual artists, poets, filmmakers, and musicians. Her residencies include the NARS Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Harvey also contributes to art discourse through writing published in Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, and NYArts, as well as her essay 'Outliers, Fringes, Speculation, and Complicity: On making and teaching complex, contradictory art' in Creative Collaboration in Art Practice, Research, and Pedagogy.