Gabrielle Christiansen
Gabrielle Christiansen is a doctoral student in the Art History department of Northwestern University studying vernacular art environments and the historiography of self-taught artmaking in the 20th and 21st century United States. The research she has pursued while at Northwestern has concerned global ecologies of detritus, practices of commoning on private property, and non-traditional modes of artistic pedagogy. She is working toward a dissertation project which considers the theories and policies of land use which have emerged through decisions to demolish grassroots artist-built environments in areas of impending urban development.
In addition to being a doctoral student, Gabrielle works as an organizer and education coordinator for the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project, which has led her to research and writing projects related to art and abolitionist politics. She has worked for a number of Midwestern art institutions, including the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Chicago History Museum, the Roger Brown Study Collection, and SPACES Archives. Gabrielle received her MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, after which she served in a year-long project to document and condition-report notable artworks on Chicago Public School campuses.