This September, I am honored to present kept & carried, my solo exhibition as a 2026 Athena Fund Solo Show Award recipient at ARC Gallery in Chicago. The exhibition brings together printmaking, textiles, photography, artist books, sound, and participatory installation to explore how care is inherited, performed, and remembered through the ordinary objects and rituals of domestic life.
This spring, Heffler’s commitment to environmental art and education was highlighted in the KESQ “Eye on the Desert” segment “Shelley Heffler ‘Earth Day Arts,’” which spotlights her upcycled installations and their connection to Earth Day in the Coachella Valley.
WCA will always hold a special place in FemLink-Art’s (FL’Art) history for providing the international collective’s first screening opportunity for its composition, FRAGILITY, at the 2006 Los Angeles conference.
In 2019, I began using the Manila envelope in my art. It started as a small experiment while documenting my family’s stories. One day, my mother told me about growing up in the Philippines and watching workers process abaca, also known as Manila hemp, a strong fiber derived from a native banana plant.
There’s a sacred space inside each of us that we rarely visit. Not the noisy thoughts in our head or the insights that propel us into the studio to work on the next art piece for an upcoming show. I’m talking about the deeper voice that sits beneath, the one that asks the question that we may not be ready to hear.
This November, the WCA Art Activism Pod launched Fall of Freedom | Freedom of Expression—a national, pop-up online exhibition built for immediacy, access, and collective voice as part of the Fall of Freedom grassroots movement of artists, writers, performers, and cultural workers defending artistic freedom and resisting authoritarianism through creative action.
“The Swimsuits Series: A Pictorial Reflection on Women’s Rights,”was scheduled to be on display at the United Nations Headquarters for CSW 69 in March 2025, alongside Sawyer Rose “The Carrying Stones Project” for their two artists exhibition Rules, Responsibilities, Restraints: Women’s Pursuit of Equity , but the show was canceled two weeks before installation.
A selection of works from The Carrying Stones Project will be on display at the United Nations Headquarters in NYC, Feb 27-March 21, 2025.
Art can be an incredible and powerful tool for healing. You can look at art, create art, or teach an art expressive class to help yourself heal. My mother and brother both passed away from stomach cancer after a few weeks of each diagnosis. My brother passed away in 2018 at the age of 48 and my mother in 2023 at the age of 82.
Please see the themes that we have selected for 2023–24. Download the PDF and submit your abstract on our contact page.
