con christeson makes visual, performing, and public art with others. Recently, she became a gallerist and curator while exhibiting other artists’ work in her studio windows. Her professional experience spans 30 years and includes studio, community, and public art practice, and teaching in higher ed. She proudly speaks of her work as founder and managing artist of the community collabARTive since 2000… a program-support component, based in creative process, that gives a voice to people who experience homelessness in the community that marginalizes them. In 2016, she wrote a book that documented her community arts practice, told stories, and offered resources. It continues to ask questions and start conversations with artists and creatives.
She is affiliated with the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission and its Community Arts Training Institute (as fellow and faculty). She has been significantly influenced by the training and tools developed by Artway of Thinking [an Italian co-creation methodology]. She has received two Leif J. Sverdrup Global Teaching Fellowships from Webster University to teach/work in the Netherlands.
She is pursuing a project grant from the US State Department in NL and has plans to apply for a Fulbright scholarship. A new book in process is. It features practice-based research and results and is intended to contribute to the field of arts-based community development. It comes full circle from the first book and documents the anatomy of a managing artists’ succession plan.