Amelia (Amy) Kraehe, Ph.D.

Dr. Amelia (Amy) Kraehe is Associate Vice President for Equity in the Arts and Co-founder of Racial Justice Studio, a transdisciplinary incubator for the study and practice of intersectional anti-racism in and through the arts. She is Professor of Art and Visual Culture Education in the School of Art and Faculty Affiliate in Human Rights Practice. She is an award-winning scholar recognized for her organizational leadership and research on arts equity through publications, workshops, podcasts, and public lectures that illuminate the roles race, racism, and anti-racism play in arts institutions and the education of arts professionals. 

"There are many reasons why people engage in creative cultural practices. I imagine the earliest humans who made markings on stone walls and reconfigured hard and soft elements to reshape their surroundings grasped the significance of these actions just as we do today. To make a mark is powerful. It affirms for us that we, too, have agency in the world. Mark-making is expansive. It may begin with a bit of pigment, raw material, or just a notion, but that creative gesture, whether we call it Art or something else, has the immanent potential to grow into something world-changing and life-sustaining." 

 Amy Kraehe, 2019 Manuel Barkan Memorial Award recipient