SHARON ARNOLD
Over the course of my life, I've bridged multiple communities, industries, and interests; but the bulk of my professional life was spent most recently as curator, writer, and educator in the arts; and before that, as a chef. Throughout both careers, my focus has been towards engaging independent scholarship of their underlying histories and contemporary contexts while building community, conversations, and connectivity around them. Alongside my visible professional life, I've held a less visible but no less rigorous practice of tracing and reviving heritage traditions, and learning my ancestral lineages and inherited cultures to better understand where I come from, and where next to go. What each of these paths share is, of course, the interweaving and expression of various knowledge systems which ultimately build and inform our known world.
Dimensions Variable began in 2008 as a blog about Seattle and New York art and artists. Now, this space is a convergence where all my areas of interest meet, from arts, philosophy, and cultural criticism to animism, folklore, and ancestral practices. I'm excited to take these years of study and practice to publicly engage a more holistic conversation about how these things are related, and their relationship to the way we move forward, together.
Dimensions Variable began in 2008 as a blog about Seattle and New York art and artists. Now, this space is a convergence where all my areas of interest meet, from arts, philosophy, and cultural criticism to animism, folklore, and ancestral practices. I'm excited to take these years of study and practice to publicly engage a more holistic conversation about how these things are related, and their relationship to the way we move forward, together.
Here's the formal business:
Sharon (she/they) is a queer independent scholar, writer, and educator working in arts, cultural histories, and animism. They approach this work through the examination of histories, folklore, community ecosystems, and solidarity movements to support new paths forward. Other areas of interest include syncretic ancestral folk traditions, primarily rooted in the study of Irish, Scottish, and American diasporic traditions and folklore with a focus on ways to collectively reconnect to community, land, and spirit.
Sharon has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts with a focus on critical theory and cultural criticism. In 2010 they launched an online project turned physical exhibition space, Bridge Productions, which focused on collaborative process-based work, talks, and projects by artists, curators, writers, and performers through various modes of storytelling through online exhibitions, digital residencies, and social media; as well as periodic curatorial projects, in-print publications, and public programming. Since 2018, they have co-taught a monthly Plant Medicine Lab, the recurring 4-week Ancestral Reconnection & Restorative Practices, and the year-long Earth Medicine Practitioner Training Program with Madrona House founder Vanessa Ainslie, as well as various other classes throughout the year; and they taught from 2017-2020 as an adjunct instructor in the art department at Cornish College of the Arts, with an emphasis on the ethics and practicum of curatorial and exhibition-making; as well as integration of critical, cultural, and political theory and research in studio practices. They are currently working on various projects which tether multiple intersections of art, food, culture, and folklore which are regularly published on Dimensions Variable.
My complete art world bio and CV can be found here.
Sharon (she/they) is a queer independent scholar, writer, and educator working in arts, cultural histories, and animism. They approach this work through the examination of histories, folklore, community ecosystems, and solidarity movements to support new paths forward. Other areas of interest include syncretic ancestral folk traditions, primarily rooted in the study of Irish, Scottish, and American diasporic traditions and folklore with a focus on ways to collectively reconnect to community, land, and spirit.
Sharon has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts with a focus on critical theory and cultural criticism. In 2010 they launched an online project turned physical exhibition space, Bridge Productions, which focused on collaborative process-based work, talks, and projects by artists, curators, writers, and performers through various modes of storytelling through online exhibitions, digital residencies, and social media; as well as periodic curatorial projects, in-print publications, and public programming. Since 2018, they have co-taught a monthly Plant Medicine Lab, the recurring 4-week Ancestral Reconnection & Restorative Practices, and the year-long Earth Medicine Practitioner Training Program with Madrona House founder Vanessa Ainslie, as well as various other classes throughout the year; and they taught from 2017-2020 as an adjunct instructor in the art department at Cornish College of the Arts, with an emphasis on the ethics and practicum of curatorial and exhibition-making; as well as integration of critical, cultural, and political theory and research in studio practices. They are currently working on various projects which tether multiple intersections of art, food, culture, and folklore which are regularly published on Dimensions Variable.
My complete art world bio and CV can be found here.