Kate Tepe

Drop a stitch. Break a needle. Make.Do is rebuilding the craft-to-community pipeline.

These Black History themed advent calendar labels reflected a vibrant, American, history while engaging Make.Do’s audience to explore, create and get experimental with unexpected new materials.

In 2021, the Kennedy Heights Arts Center hosted four free community focused summer festivals. The goal - to use the arts to bring the community together after the long pandemic isolation. I developed a bright and cheerful identity for the festival, intended to generate excitement for the series.

As a child, the Jungle Book, was a story of a boy who lived a magical life. I was inspired by the fantasy of having a rainforest as your happy home to stretch and grow; to be able to talk to the animals, the leaves provide your shelter from the sun and rain, the soft moss your perfect bed for a perfect nap, and the tree tops your personal gymnasium. When I thought of creating art for a playground, I wanted to create something as playful as Mowgli’s magic jungle.

As an alumni of SCPA, it was so special to develop this project.

While Directing Kennedy Heights Art Center’s Vibrancy Fellowship, I collaborated with Vibe Fellow, Jamie Lee Elizabeth to develop a visual identity for her 4 month, community-based poetry workshop series, called Writing to Exhale.

​​Making Art Work

Working with photographer Deogracias Lerma, I developed a “people first” visual strategy to talk about the mission of the organization. Shifting the focus from the creative outcome, the murals, to the youth who paint them. We highlighted the excitement and playful attitudes of the ArtWorks apprentices to tell the story.

Hey. Let’s Talk, is an artistically driven, peer lead, social impact project intending to reduce mental health stigma. I worked with ArtWorks Youth Apprentices to research, test, and create Hey. Let’s Talk, with the support of ArtWorks and Interact for Health.

Hey. Let’s Talk, was developed with the sincerest hope that it will empower young people to share and advocate for their needs, ultimately reducing stigma and leading to collective menthol health support and wellness.

The idea was conceived in a coffee shop across from a tattoo parlor, naturally, by myself and Linnea Gartin. We later built the co-hort to a group of 5 women that included; Liz Miller, Cori Wolf, and Amy Scarpello. The Hags were a group of friends, also known as a coven, who identified as a feminist collective of artists. They wanted to make space to nurture creative growth, while recognizing each other’s talent and developing an inclusive approach to address the realness.

Branding for the group happened organically, but with intention. The Hags’ goal was to support each other coming into their own. The tone was strong, powerful, and unapologetic. Bold and unflinching, the Hags were also playful, contemporary, and folksy. This was reflected in “give-away” materials such as pins, patches and stickers. The items reflected the brand colors, which also incorporated shiny and assertive elements, there was an additional influence from punk DIY culture.

https://creativemornings.com/talks/kate-tepe 

CreativeMornings is a global breakfast lecture series for the creative community with a local chapter in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I was invited to speak about the theme, “action” where I discussed the possibility for art to be a performative medium that enacts inclusivity, identity exploration and communal growth. I used my Off-Line Dating Game as an example of viewer centric performances that build intimacy among strangers, as well as creating an opportunity for people to understand themselves more clearly.

Sensationalize was a series of games I developed for the IACT Installation series at the University of Dayton. The games reduce complex questions of morality and reduce them to a simple vote.  As individuals note their perspectives, it become a reflection of the values belonging to the community at large. Students were encouraged to discuss their feelings with each other as well as add elements or game “pieces” during the duration of the exhibition.

Photography Credits to Sean Foster, Mandy McCabe and Mike Puckett.

Sensationalize

September 2016

White Box Gallery

Artstreet, University of Dayton

IACT Installation Series

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The Off-Line Dating Game is an interactive, viewer-centric work that critiques the use of social media as a means to establish sustainable intimacy, especially among popular dating forums.

The game uses common devices found on a variety of digital networks. These devices work to push participant’s comfort zones by asking personal questions or suggesting that viewers engage physically. The game takes advantage of its tangible position, which is in opposition to the digital landscape where it appropriates much of its identity. 

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From my graduate thesis:

“Often, normalcy is expressed in a series of visual codes. The way people choose to visually communicate their identity can be discounted or underestimated because those communications become so embedded in preferred cultural demonstrations - it can take an outsider to draw attention to inconsistencies in commonly held beliefs.  I am interested in observing how people discuss personal representations. I believe the nose is a deeply embedded social cue.”

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