Ed Woodham

Ed Woodham (born 1957) is a global public artist^[1] and a NYC cultural provocateur^[2] based in the Kips Bay section of New York City.^[3] As a performer, puppeteer, and curator active in civic interventions, community art-making, and arts education for more than forty-five years,^{[4] [5]} Woodham has performed and presented in Australia, Europe, and North America.^[6] He is the founder of Art in Odd Places, and the co-founder of 800 EAST, Atlanta, whose archives are housed at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.^[7]

Woodham was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1957.^[7] His mother, Carrol Woodham, was an artist,^[1] and his father was B.J. Woodham.^[8] He grew up as a southern queer^[9] in McDonough, Georgia.^[10][11] He graduated from Henry County High School in 1975, and studied for two years at Middle Georgia State University in Cochran.^[11] Woodham went on to attend Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia,^[12] where he received a bachelor's degree in 1979.^[7][13]

In 1980, Woodham moved to New York City to become a Broadway star.^[9][10] In 1987, he left New York and returned to Atlanta to open an arts space.^[11] Woodham managed the "Living Room", an art gallery that was staged in his living room.^[12][14][7]

In 1990, Neil Fried, William Morar, and Woodham co-founded 800 EAST,^[14][7] and turned a derelict post-industrial space^[15] into a multi-disciplinary arts center and collective located at 800 EAST Avenue in the Little Five Points section of Atlanta.^[12][16] Wayne Sizemore was an 800 EAST co-collaborator.^[17] Musicians Scott Berlin, Crash Hot Man (Robert Johnson), and Michael Kilburn were involved in the organization's early years.^[18] Terry S. Hardy, an artist and curator, served on the 800 EAST board of directors from 1991 to 1997.^[19] Woodham served as director of the organization until its closure in 1998.^[7][20]

During its history, 800 EAST produced more than 250 visual and performance art events.^[21] In 1992, 800 EAST presented "Homo" a visual and performance art weekend,^[16][22] and "The Big Style Show",^[23][24] that featured a "Tok Sho" where artists and audience talked with each other on camera.^[25] The group's 3rd Annual "24 Hour Show" showcased performances by local bands, musicians, and other artists.^[17] In 1993, 800 EAST under the direction of Woodham and Sizemore presented the "Short Play Series", including new plays by Alice Dinnean and others.^[26] In 2017, the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University purchased the 800 EAST archives for an undisclosed amount.^[7]

In 1996, Woodham and a group of artists founded Art in Odd Places as part of the Cultural Olympiad for the Atlanta Summer Games.^[27][28][29] Art in Odd Places was created as a response to the disappearance of public space and personal civil liberties.^[4][1][9] The organization took a hiatus from 1998 to 2005.^[30]

Since 2005, Art in Odd Places has been headquartered in New York City.^[20] The annual festival presents work in all disciplines outside of traditional public arts presentation and performance spaces, most notably along 14th Street in New York.^{[31][7][12][32][33]} In addition, Art in Odd Places has produced events in Boston, Massachusetts; Greensboro, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; Los Angeles and West Hollywood, California; New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Sydney, Australia.^[6][34]

In 2012, Art in Odd Places was selected as a representative in the U.S. pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good" received a special mention from the Biennale Jury,^[35] the first exhibition in a U.S. pavilion to receive the honor.^[36] Spontaneous Interventions featured 124 urban interventions by architects, artists, city planners, designers, and others designed to bring positive neighborhood and urban solution to cities.^[36][6]

In 2024, Art in Odd Places was curated by husband-and-wife team Christopher Kaczmarek and Patricia Miranda,^[29]and involved more than 75 artists, roughly half the amount who submitted proposals for the festival.^[10][29]

In 2025, Art in Odd Places celebrated its 20th Anniversary with the multi-day outdoor festival VOICE presented by the City of West Hollywood and featuring 35 artist projects.^[37] and "Nothing" in New York City in response to the organization losing funding from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA).^[31]

In 2016, Woodham received a commission from by The Gowanus Public Arts Initiative to create a performance piece, "The Keepers", in his neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn.^[38] The "durational still performative group action"^[2] as an extension of his 2013 "Numb and Number" that was performed on the beaches of Australia.^[11][39] In 2023, Woodham produced "The Keepers" at three different locations near New York's Penn Station: The Church of St. John the Baptist, Gimbel's Skybridge, and the demolished Hotel Pennsylvania.^[2][39] The goal of "Keepers" is to raise awareness to the demolition and destruction of historic buildings and to encourage preservation of historic spaces and structures.^[2] In 2025, The Keepers at Coney Island appeared along Coney Island beaches in response to aggressive redevelopment of urban areas where historical environments and communities have been ignored.^[40][41]

From 1995 to 1998, Woodham was the founder and director of Exciting Parlor.^[12][7]

In 1999, Woodham created "Useful Tables", a public art commission by DreamWorks Puppetry for the New York Village Halloween Parade.^[11] The title referred to tables that are used for collection and presentation of data, i.e. Table of contents, Periodic table, and Multiplication table.^[11] During the parade, a puppeteer walked a 10 foot wooden table up Sixth Avenue for twenty-three blocks.^[11] Woodham expanded the table concept for a puppet stage and projections at St. Ann's Warehouse.^[11]

Woodham created and co-produced the Bravo documentary series, The It Factor, about actors and actressess attempting to 'make it' in Los Angeles and New York.^[30]

In 2003, Woodham performed "Constance Holiday: Hollywood Nurse" at Labapalooza! Mini Festival of New Puppet Theater in Brooklyn.^[42]

In 2016, Endicott College presented "Chickenarama," a performance installation by Linda Mary Montano and Woodham and the accompanying "Dad and Mom: Art Giving Life" gallery exhibition.^[1] "Dad and Mom" featured showed works by Montano's father, Henry Montano, and drawings by Woodham mother's Carrol Woodham, who died in 2012 from Multiple System Atrophy,^[8] and that were created during their end-of-life art therapeutic practice.^[1]

In 2016, Woodham and Samantha Hill were selected by the Macon Arts Alliance to be the inaugural artists-in-residence for the Mill Hill Visiting Social Practice Program in Macon, Georgia.^[5][11] The artists were scheduled to work in the East Macon Fort Hawkins neighorhood.^[43] Without notice, the Macon Arts Alliance terminated the artists two weeks into their three-month residency project.^[43][44]

In 2020, Woodham was a featured artist in The Babel Masks exhibition.^[11]

Woodham has performed around the world, including at 54 Columns; Art Prospect Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia; Center for Puppetry Arts; Cherry Lane Theater; Eramboo Art Environment, Sydney, Australia; EyeDrum, Atlanta; HERE Arts Center; High Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Le Poisson Rouge; Lincoln Center Out of Doors; Old Stone House; Orlando Museum of Art; Siren Arts, Asbury Park, New Jersey; St EOM's Pasaquan, Buena Vista, Georgia; Telfair Museum; and other venues.^[12] In 2025, he was part of the inaugural performance art biennial, The Enduring Power of Play, at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn.^[45] In addition, Woodham operates the Showroom Gallery in the Kips Bay/Murray Hill section of New York City.^[3][46]

Woodham is a faculty member of the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts, where he teaches Social Malpractice Art.^[47] Since 2013, he has been an Invited Artist Faculty member at NYU's Hemispheric Institute.^[38] In addition, he has taught at Wilson College's MFA program in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.^[13][48]

In 2013, Woodham delivered a Tedx Talk in Gowanus, New York,^[49][6] In 2014, he presented, "Public art as social engagement" as part of TEDxIndianapolis.^[50]

At Columbia Teachers College, Woodham serves as visiting speaker for the Arts Administration program.^[30]

• "Absurdity is an aesthetic choice that reflects my politics."^[11]
• "It is vital for Art in Odd Places to always be an artwork–a new work of art created by the team of each edition."^[9]

• Blade of Grass Fellow in Social Engagement, Jim Henson Grant -- 2013^[4][12]
• Artist-in-Residence, thedrawing(shed) residency, London, to create "IdeasFromElse[W]here", a performance work in Lloyd Park, East London -- 2014^[38]
• Public commission and residency, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Queens, New York --2015^[12][38]
• Advisor, Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE -- 2015^[5]
• Artist-in-Residence, Hambidge Center -- 2017^[11][12]
• Artist-in-Residence, Smith Gallery, Appalachian State University -- 2017^[12][51]
• Artist-in-Residence, Studio Arts Board, University of Virginia -- 2018^[4][12][52]
• MacDowell Fellow and Artist-in-Residence, MacDowell Arts Center -- 2019^[12][53][54]
• Artist-in-Residence, City of West Hollywood, California -- 2019-2020^[4][12]

• Official website
• Art in Odd Places
• 800 EAST Archives