BIO
Rachel Lin Weaver is an artist, filmmaker, curator, writer, musician, and educator.
Weaver’s multivalent works have been awarded and recognized widely, shown in museums and galleries, held in private and public collections in the US and abroad, and screened at film festivals across the United States and in 49 countries. Thematically, Weaver’s artworks are directly related to an upbringing in wilderness areas and Arctic communities, and their projects explore human collisions, interdependencies, and tensions within the more-than-human world, as well as loss, queerness, annihilation, and ecology. Their works span video art, media installation, sound, neon, sculpture, collage, and performance, and their methodologies range from the careful analysis of deep archival research to the wild chance of motion-activated game cameras.
As a filmmaker, Weaver has worked in independent, broadcast TV, and commercial media settings, from National Geographic Television to no-budget arthouse projects. Throughout their career, Weaver has found the most meaningful films are those made in service to art, community, and good storytelling. Weaver is currently working on two feature scripts, and leading an ongoing documentary series as part of a major Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative to address vector-borne diseases across the American Gulf South.
Weaver has been honored with a number of residencies and fellowships. Most recently, they participated in the Climate in Crisis program of Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods. Other honors include the 2020 American Leadership Fellowship for Media that Matters in Canada, and residencies with the Santa Fe Art Institute’s Water Rights program, the University of Utah’s Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities, The Icelandic Textiles Center, the Nes Artist Residency, and the Indiana Dunes National Park Residency, among others.
Additionally, Weaver regularly contributes to the professional field as a consultant, as well as serving as a curator, juror, and programmer for exhibitions, galleries, fairs, and film festivals. They have special expertise in new media, experimental film, VR/XR/immersive media, video art, sound art, installation, projection, games, and performance. Weaver’s most longstanding partnership is with the New Orleans Film Festival, where they are an experimental shorts programmer as well as the curator of Cinema Reset, the New Orleans Film Festival's emerging media program, generously funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Weaver is committed to the liberatory possibilities of education, and they continually strive to democratize access to creative tools and technology, and integrate opportunities for student mentorship and meaningful learning into their work. They lead numerous workshops throughout the year. More information on educational opportunities can be found here.
Weaver was born in Austin, Texas in 1985 and subsequently raised in Alaska and West Virginia. As a first-generation student, Weaver was lucky to eventually study at Berea College where they worked as a production ceramicist, tutor, and eventually personal assistant to their greatest mentor, bell hooks. Encouraged to remain an educator by bell, Weaver eventually pursued an MFA in Digital Art from Indiana University Bloomington.
Weaver returned to the mountains of Appalachia in 2016, where they are now an Associate Professor of Creative Technologies at the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech.