Leila Cartier
Executive Director: CraftNOW Philadelphia
Leila Cartier is the Executive Director of CraftNOW Philadelphia, an emerging organization uniting institutions, scholars, and artists to promote the historic and contemporary role of the city in the fields of craft and making. In 2021, she launched an initiative, working with educational partners to place craft instruction directly into every city neighborhood through the Department of Parks and Recreation’s 120 summer camps. In partnership with Pittsburgh’s Creative Business Accelerator, she is developing a new series of programs focused on economic opportunity through craft and participating in the launch of the Keystone Alliance for Creative Economies and Entrepreneurship.
Cartier was previously the Director of Exhibitions at the William King Museum of Art in her hometown of Abingdon, Virginia, an underserved area of the Appalachian coalfields with little to no other access to the arts. She holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Art and Art History from Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. Her studio practice is located in 1241 Carpenter Studios + Project Space in South Philadelphia and is represented by Schmidt Dean Gallery.