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Holly Hughes is a Professor and Director of the BFA in Interarts Performance Program in the Department of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan. An internationally acclaimed performance artist, her work explores identity through poetic imagery and political satire, positioning her at the center of America's culture wars since the 1980s.
Her educational background includes a B.A. in Art from Kalamazoo College (1977). She trained at The New York Feminist Art Institute under pioneers like Miriam Schapiro and Mary Beth Edelson, and was a founding member of the Women's One World Café (WOW Café) in New York's East Village during the early 1980s.
Hughes' artistic practice spans performance art, queer studies, feminist performance, and identity politics. Her influential works—including Dress Suits for Hire, Preaching to the Perverted, and After A Fashion—have been performed globally at venues like the Guggenheim Museum, Walker Art Center, and London's Drill Hall. She has published foundational texts such as Clit Notes: A Sapphic Sampler and co-edited O Solo Homo: The New Queer Performance, which remain critical resources in performance studies curricula.
Her artistic contributions have been honored with:
- Two Village Voice Obie awards
- Lambda Book Award
- GLAAD media award
- Distinguished Alumni Award
Hughes has secured major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation. Current projects include co-editing Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Café for University of Michigan Press and creating The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony), alongside a commission from U-M's Institute for Research on Women and Gender for a new performance piece.
As a core member of the WOW Café collective, she helped incubate avant-garde performance practices that continue to shape contemporary queer and feminist art. Her work remains actively influential through ongoing performances, publications, and mentorship within the University of Michigan's performance program.
