Savanah Pennell

Savanah Pennell is an artist, activist, and curator from Gilbert, Arizona. She is currently based in New York City and is working on a series of projects revolving around borders, identity, and memory. Savanah received her BA in Art History from Arizona State University in December of 2016, and her MA in Arts Politics from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2019. She has recently shown artwork at the Fringe Art Bath Festival in Bath, UK, and has showcased her co-created video installation and conversation based event From Palestine to Mexico: Fronteras, Hudud, Borders at the Bowery Poetry Club. In 2019 Savanah was awarded the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research Grant to attend the Sharjah Biennial 14 and to investigate the role of socially engaged art in the biennial setting. She has also recently launched her co-curated online collection of artists Insert Woman Here. This collection is an ongoing database of female artists who work within the theme of unseen labor. Savanah has worked in various capacities for such institutions as the ASU Art Museum, the Museum of Walking, and Scottsdale Public Art. She has also been an art educator, working as an afterschool art instructor for Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale. As an activist, Savanah has worked with such organizations as Amnesty International USA as an organizer of student chapters and coordinator of events revolving around campaigns to end human rights abuses.