Photograph by Josh Cogan
HOLLY BASS is a multidisciplinary performance artist, choreographer and writer whose work explores themes of American history, generational labor and liberation. Her mediums include dance, theater, poetry, photography, installation, video and performance. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
She is the 2025-2026 Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan, a joint program of the Stamps School of Art and Design and University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). She performed at the 2022 Venice Biennale as part of Loophole of Retreat, Simone Leigh’s special project for the U.S. Pavilion. She contributes book reviews to the “New York Times” and was the first journalist to put the term “hip hop theater” into print in a 1999 article for “American Theatre” magazine. From 2014-2019, she directed an arts program for adjudicated teens in DC’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. From 2019-2025, she was the National Director for Turnaround Arts at the Kennedy Center, a program to increase arts access in under-resourced elementary and middle schools.
She has been recognized with awards for multiple art forms. She received a 2024 Washington Award for art and social justice. She is a 2022 MAP Fund recipient for theater, a 2020 Live Feed Resident Artist at New York Live Arts for choreography and dance and a 2021–22 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. She studied modern dance under Viola Farber and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College before earning her Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
EDUCATION
Masters of Science, Journalism,
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, NY, NY
Specialization: Long-form (magazine) print journalism
Bachelor of Arts,
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York
Concentrations: Creative Writing, Social Sciences, Contemporary Dance
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
We Hold These Truths, solo exhibition, UMMA, Ann Arbor, MI, upcoming September 2026
American Icon: The US Flag in Art, Smithsonian SITES touring exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, upcoming June 2026
Get In The Game, group exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, October 2024
Get In The Game, group exhibition, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AK, September 2025
Get In The Game, group exhibition, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL, (upcoming March 2026)
Men of Change, Smithsonian SITES touring exhibition, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture, Charlotte, NC, October 2022
The Outwin Triennial, group exhibition and solo performance, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, April 2022
Hoop Dreams, group exhibition, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, May 2023
Cultural Preserves: American Stories @ NGA, community-engaged performance, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 2018
Spiral/Recoil, group exhibition, Delaware Contemporary Museum, Wilmington, DE, August 2017
It Takes A Nation, group exhibition, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, September 2016
Flock 01, commissioned performance in conjunction with The Divine Comedy exhibition, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, May 2015
Pay Purview, solo performance, in conjunction with Elles: SAM, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, May 2013
Moneymaker, seven-hour solo performance, 30 Americans, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 2012
INTERNATIONAL
Cryin’ At the Gym, group show, Naughton Gallery, Belfast Ireland, May 2025
American Woman: Venice Edition, solo performance, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, Loophole of Retreat by invitation of Simone Leigh, October 2022
Afrikadaa is The Body: A Live Editorial, group show, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, England, July 2014
Sweet Science, solo performance, State Theatre Women’s Festival, Pretoria, South Africa, August 2013
Hard Work/Clean, solo performance, Lavoir Moderne Parisien, Paris, France, May 2012- 2013
Hard Work/Clean, solo performance, MACAO centro per le arti, la cultura e la ricerca, Milan, Italy, May 2012- 2013
Pay Purview, solo performance, Right.About.Now Festival, Amsterdam, Holland, October 2012
GALLERIES AND PERFORMANCE VENUES
Body Language, group show, Chela Mitchell Gallery, Baltimore, MD, September 2026
Black Performance Archive, solo performance in a shared program, Wexner Arts Center, Columbus, OH, February 2025
A Toast to the Boogie (Double Rainbow: Future Archives), group show, DC Arts Commission I Street gallery, Washington DC, July 2024
The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company, evening-length ensemble performance, playwright/co-director, Theater Alliance, Washington, DC, February 2024
PRISMMMS (Double Rainbow: Future Archives), collaboration with Maps Glover, Transformer, Washington DC, January 2022
between a rock and a soft place, Mary B. Howard invitational group exhibition, Tephra ICA, Reston, VA, December 2022
Cosmic Garden (Double Rainbow: Future Archives), collaboration with Maps Glover, Cultural DC, Washington DC, November 2022
Cosmic Garden/PRISMM, duo exhibition, Cultural DC & Transformer, Washington, DC, November 2022 & December 2022
Moneymaker (Election Edition), twelve-hour solo performance, New York Live Arts, New York, NY, October 2020
Liberation Labs, solo exhibition, SPACES, Cleveland, OH, August 2020
RACE: TBD, live-streamed performances, Live Feed Residency, New York Live Arts, New York, NY, January & May 2020
Resident Artist group show, exhibition and performance, Red Bull Arts Detroit, Detroit, MI, November 2019
The Black Overlay, performance series and exhibition with Sherman Fleming, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC, June 2019
Inverse Performance Art, solo performance, shared program with Ayana Evans, H.J. Miossi Art Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA, October 2018
The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company, evening-length ensemble performance, Theater Alliance, Washington, DC, July 2018
Diamonds, Rings and Courts: Sport Is More Than a Game, group exhibition, St. John’s University Art Gallery, Queens, NY, September 2017
March Madness, group exhibition, curated by Hank Willis Thomas and Adam Shopkorn, Fort Gansevoort, New York City, March 2017
RACE: Talc & Ash, ensemble performance funded by Dance USA/Doris Duke, Charitable Fund, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, DC, July 2016
Root Work, solo exhibition, Black Rock Art Center, Germantown, MD, March 2016
Black Space (installation and performances), Martin Luther King Memorial Library, Washington DC; (e)merge art fair, Washington DC; DC Funk Parade, Oct. 2014-May 2015
FELLOWSHIPS, RESIDENCIES, AWARDS
Roman J Witt Artist Residence, University of Michigan, 2025-2026
Center for Racial Justice visiting fellow, University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy, 2025-2026
S&R Evermay Foundation, Washington Award for Art & Social Justice, 2024
MAPFund Artist Grant, 2022
New York Live Arts, Live Feed creative residency, 2019-2021
SPACES artist residency, Cleveland, OH, 2020 Red Bull Detroit, Artist Residency, 2019
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, 2019-2021
Dance USA: Artist Fellowship, Social Practice, 2019; Engaging Dance Audiences, 2015-2016, 2017-2018
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities:
Artist Fellowships 1996, 1999, 2003, 2012-2025
Sister Cities 2013-2016
Projects, Events, Festivals grant, 2016, 2018, 2020-24
Community Arts grant 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
City Arts, 2008, 2009
HHCAI (Hip Hop) grant 2007, 2008, 2010
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, writing residency, July 2011
Future Aesthetics Grant, Ford Foundation/Hip Hop Theater Festival, 2008
Atlantic Center for the Arts, residency with John Jasperse, Nov. 2006
Cave Canem Summer Program Fellowship, 1997-1999