Heather ‘Bird’ Harris is an artist and history educator working in Atlanta and New Orleans. Through painting and social practice, she engages site-specific materials to explore the throughlines between land history and environmental crises, place and memory, as well as mothering in the face of climate change. 
 
Harris received her B.S. in art history and studio art from Skidmore College and master’s degree in education leadership from Columbia University. Harris has served as principal of a turnaround school in New Orleans and has consulted with school leaders across the South to implement equitable learning practices and empowering history education. Her environmental art practice has been featured nationally on NPR and she has exhibited widely across the South including exhibitions at Art Fields, Wavelength Space, and her 2022 solo exhibition Where the Water Goes as part of her Arts New Orleans Residency. In the spring of 2023, Harris facilitated the first iteration of her community-based experience and installation The Land Memory Project as part of Science Gallery Atlanta’s JUSTICE exhibition season. The project will travel next to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art where Harris will work with New Orleans schools to create a collaborative painting to be installed in the museum. Harris was recently announced as one of 6 artists selected for Emory University's Arts & Social Justice Fellowship.