Hannah Waiters (she/they) is an artist born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, with an academic background in science and art. Hannah’s art explores concepts around home and home-making in the wake of gentrification and displacement. Their work employs and is inspired by community, education, visual culture, historical narratives, archives and activism. 

Hannah creates immersive installations that feel like stepping into unresolved experiments, encouraging viewers to contemplate their experience long after leaving. As a conceptual artist, Hannah focuses on creating research-based art, contrasting with passive consumption-based art, emphasizing active engagement art for teaching.

Waiters recently had their first museum solo exhibition at Marin MOCA in Novato, CA. There they exhibited “The Tree Closes,” a site-specific project that brings attention to the connection between Marin and the Black American airmen who trained at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. Known as “Red Tails” these airmen were relocated and reluctantly hosted in the Marin Headlands in the wake of World War II. Through “The Tree Closes,” Hannah draws attention to historical gaps and widespread neglect of the marginalized communities within American cultural institutions. 

Waiters hoped that attendees would return to their own communities and spread the teaching of these hands-on ways of life. 

Discover more of Hannah’s work in today's story⁠ 🎨. As we bid farewell to February, we thank Demetri Broxton, our We The Artists guest curator for Black History Month. Thank you, Demetri!

Feature Published: February 23, 2024
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