Leah Gilliam facts for kids

Quick facts for kids L. Franklin Gilliam
Born	Leah Catherine Gilliam 1967 (age 57–58) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	Brown University (BA) New York University (MFA)
Known for	Participating in first digital media exhibition at Whitney Museum of Art, NY
Notable work	Lesberation, Sapphire and the Slave Girl

L. Franklin Gilliam (born 1967) is an American filmmaker and artist. They create art using different types of media. Their work often explores important topics like race, gender, and how people see themselves.

Gilliam has held many interesting roles. They were a director at gamelab's Institute of Play. They also taught at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Today, they are the vice president of strategy and innovation at Girls Who Code. This organization helps young girls learn about computer science.

Early Life and Education

L. Franklin Gilliam was born in 1967 in Washington, D.C. Their father, Sam Gilliam, was a famous abstract painter. Their mother, Dorothy Butler Gilliam, was the first Black woman reporter for The Washington Post. Growing up, their parents helped them discover and appreciate art and culture.

Gilliam went to Brown University. There, they studied Modern Culture and Media. They earned their Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989. Later, in 1992, they received their Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. They focused on Film and Twentieth Century Studies. Gilliam also studied at NYU from 2006 to 2008. After getting their master's degree in interactive communication from NYU, Gilliam worked in many academic and design roles.

Teaching and Academic Roles

Gilliam started teaching early in their career. From 1991 to 1992, they lectured in the Film Department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In 1993, Gilliam became a visiting artist in video at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They became an adjunct professor there in 1995.

After a year, Gilliam moved to Bard College. They became an assistant professor in the Film and Electronics department. In 2002, they became an associate professor at Bard College. They stayed there until September 2007. During their time at Bard, they led the Bard M.F.A. Program. They also directed the Integrated Arts Program. Gilliam even chaired the Division of the Arts.

Exploring Art and Technology

L. Franklin Gilliam's art often looks at how we create and understand knowledge. They explore how cultural stories can be changed to challenge ideas about race and gender. Gilliam often takes existing stories or images and uses them in new ways.

Their work frequently focuses on technology and things that become old or "obsolete." This idea appears in many of their pieces. For example, in 2001, they showed art at the "BitStreams" digital exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. They used old Mac computers to display parts of old Super-8 movie trailers.

Another piece, Split: Whiteness, Retrofuturism, Omega Man (1998), was a CD-ROM. It used a film trailer for Planet of the Apes. This work was described as looking back at older media technologies. In 2000, Gilliam received the Creative Capital Emerging Fields Award for their innovative work.

Agenda for a Landscape

One of Gilliam's notable works is Agenda for a Landscape. This art piece was shown at the New Museum of Contemporary Art from July 12 to September 22, 2002. It received a lot of attention.

The exhibition looked like an old NASA command center. It showed computer-changed videos of Mars. These videos came from the Sojourner Rover during NASA's 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission. Gilliam mixed these with their own videos and other images. Some of the footage included digitally processed videos of the Hudson River. This created a link between two very different places.

Gilliam suggests that new types of landscape art can emerge with new media. They created a DVD called Springtime for Mars. This DVD tells a story about what happened to the Sojourner rover after it lost contact in 1997. In the story, a young female hacker reconnects with the rover.

Filmography

• 1992 Now Pretend (10:00, 16 mm Film)
• 1995 Sapphire and the Slave Girl (17:00, Video)
• 1998 Split: Whiteness, Retrofuturism, Omega Man (CD-ROM)
• 2001 Playing the Race Card (4:30, Digital Video)
• 2004 Agenda for a Landscape (Interactive Installation)
• 2008 Metrophile (Urban Game, Come Out and Play Festival)
• 2008 Lesberation (Analog Board Game)