“If we exist in loving relationship with others, we are destined to become social workers, case managers, and caregivers to varying degrees of intensity: grief and loss are universal human experiences, even as the particularities are unique.”

Leah Crosby is an educator, community organizer, activist, dancer, caregiver, licensed massage therapist, and artist earning their MFA from the Stamps School of Art and Design. After earning their BFA in choreography from Ohio University in 2015, Leah developed educational programming for The Yard, a nonprofit offering dance classes and performances to an isolated rural community. Leah developed their own artistic vision as a freelance artist in these years, while also taking work as a preschool teacher, massage therapist, and nanny. In 2021, one of Leah’s close friends was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and Leah took leave from paid work and delayed their graduate school plans in order to help their friend pass. Leah writes that they live a “value-centered life” prioritizing “artistic practice and care work.”

Leah commenced their graduate work in fall 2022, intending to leverage institutional support to make more space for their artistic inquiry. Their artistic practice grows out of their caregiving work. Leah writes, “If we exist in loving relationship with others, we are destined to become social workers, case managers, and caregivers to varying degrees of intensity: grief and loss are universal human experiences, even as the particularities are unique.” In graduate school, they have explored how ordinary information systems — including phone trees, scavenger hunts, Google Maps, chatbots, and others — may be artistically manipulated to “encourage reflection on pleasure and loss.”  They explain, “Through my work, I nod to the horrifying mystery of loss, while also lifting up the strange joy and celebration of the ways that impending death can clarify desires, centralize pleasure, and make space for true intimacy.” After graduation, Leah intends to further their career in arts education, either at the university level or in a directorial role at a nonprofit arts organization, while also continuing to deepen their artistic practice.

CEW+ applauds Leah’s compassionate artistic vision and names them the Elsie Choy Lee Scholar.