Artist Talk: Heather Kapplow

Dive into the mind of the artist that brought Better Angels to Boston through a conversation with Heather Kapplow and Triennial Executive Director Kate Gilbert.

As a conceptual artist, Heather creates participatory artworks that are infused with care, connection, and candor. In the case of Better Angels, campy imagery and genuine conversation offered space for visitors to reflect on their aspirations while acknowledging the stumbling blocks that often get in the way. Join us at Boston Center for Arts to learn more about Heather’s past work, inspirations, and what comes next.

Kate Gilbert

Boston Public Art Triennial, founder + Executive Director

Kate Gilbert (she | her) is a Boston-based artist, curator, and cultural producer dedicated to transforming public spaces through contemporary art. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Boston Public Art Triennial, the city's first large-scale public art festival, which evolved from the nonprofit Now + There, established in 2015 to open minds, conversations, and spaces with contemporary public art. Gilbert earned her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and a BA from Connecticut College. She is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts' Newell Flather Award for Leadership in Public Art (2020). Gilbert contributed to Idea City: How to Make Boston More Livable, Equitable, and Resilient (2023), calling on civic leaders to advance art in public spaces.

Heather Kapplow

Heather/Hey There Kapplow is a self-trained conceptual artist based in the USA. Kapplow creates participatory experiences using installation, sound, objects, text, engagement and other strategies to convert audiences into collaborators and complex, hard-to-answer questions into tenderly co-held things, invested with transformative collective care.

Kapplow has been awarded numerous grants, residencies and fellowships, and has had work commissioned for galleries and festivals within the USA and internationally. Most notably, performing at Venice Biennale, Supermarket Art Fair, ARoS Kunstmuseum, ANTI-Festival, Guggenheim Museum, Museo Arte Moderno and the Queens Museum; within works by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and On Kawara, among others.