Photo by Paul Dunn 

Tanya Dawkins is a Miami-based, multi-disciplinary artist, strategist, advocate and global citizen. She believes in the transformative power of the creative process to change our lives, communities, institutions and the world for the better.

The role of citizens, movements and leadership for the common good are the connective tissue between her art, advocacy and consulting practices. In each realm, she centers art, ideas and concepts that are transforming the world in ways that center liberation, nature, human rights, democracy and a new social contract.

Her Homage to Wangari Maathai mixed media art series, for example, honors the life and work of the Greenbelt Movement founder and Nobel Peace prize winner who used innovative, large scale tree planting campaigns to mobilize and educate poor and rural women about the environment, economic development, climate, women’s rights and leadership in Africa and globally. Her Abolitionist movement-inspired “Revolution: Darkness. Dawn. Repeat.” series utilizes the interplay of the iconic colors of darkness and dawn to portray the dynamism, beauty, chaos, order and cycles inherent in “”Revolution”” – large and small; contemporary and historical; personal and political; global and local.

Tanya has traveled extensively and has been the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, residencies and awards including the Santa Fe Art Institute, Blue Mountain Center, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Mesa Refuge, Betsy Writers Room and the Kellogg National Fellowship, among others.

She is completing a book project entitled, Revolutionary Matters: How and Why Citizens are Becoming the Next Global Superpower. https://sfai.org/people/tanya-dawkins/