WALTER KITUNDU • INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Walter Kitundu is a Tanzanian-American multidisciplinary artist and educator. He creates sculpture, sound installations, and large scale public art works that address place, history, nature, and community. Kitundu also builds extraordinary musical instruments and mechanical devices when he isn’t obsessively documenting the natural world as a bird photographer. Kitundu is the director of Kitundu Studio, which focuses on the development and installation of public art works. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008.
EMPLOYMENT
• Owner and Director, Kitundu Studio, Evanston, IL
SELECTED HONORS
2021-2022 Osher Fellowship, California Academy of Sciences
2020 Kindle Project Makers Muse Award Recipient
2018 2 time Rockefeller MAP Fund grantee with Sharon Bridgforth & Joanna Haigood
2008 MacArthur Fellowship - prestigious award from the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation - https://www.macfound.org/fellows/803/
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
Jan 2023 Osher Fellowship, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
June 2022 Sound Art Installation, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, New York
Feb 2022 Composition, Grace Cathedral, Zaccho Dance Theatre, SF, CA
Feb 2020 PUBLIC ART Commission ($500,000) San Francisco Arts Commission
Oct 2018 Composition, Sound Design, Picture Bayview, Zaccho Dance Theatre, SF, CA
Aug 2018 Composition, Set Design, Fabrication, DBMML Project, Sharon Bridgforth
July 2018 Sound Art Installation, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, New York
Nov 2017 C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards 2017
July 2017 Nafasi Yako Ni Ya Kijani, Now Hear This!, Montalvo Arts Center
April 2017 La Llorona - a memorial, Del Rio, Texas (private commission)
Oct 2016 Interactive Installation, The Block Museum, Northwestern University
Jan 2016 Palo Alto Art Center exhibition “Bird in the Hand”
April 2011 Walter and Elise Haas Fund, SF 2011 The “West Wall” Commission
March 2011 PUBLIC ART, SF Arts Commission, San Francisco International Airport
2005-2008 Kronos Quartet Instrument builder in residence
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Aug 2022 A Plague of Starlings, Stove Works Gallery, Chattanooga TN
Oct 2019 The Chicago Sound Show, University of Chicago, The Smart Museum
Sept 2017 Infinite Games, Open House Contemporary
Aug 2014 Fondazione Prada, Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice, Art or Sound
April 2014 Oakland Museum of California, Vinyl: the Sound and Culture of Records
March 2014 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA Gallery installation of The Ceiling of our Day
Sept 2008 American Visionary Art Museum
May 2006 Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco
SELECTED ARTS RESIDENCIES
2022-22 Artist in Residence University of Washington 3D4M, Seattle, WA
June 2017 Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA
April 2017 Department of Art & Art History, Columbia College
2014-2015 Kaplan Residency, Northwestern University
2008 Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin County, CA)
Oct 2006 Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA
2005 Singapore Science Centre, Singapore
2004 Skriduklaustur, Fljotsdalur, Iceland
2003-2007 Exploratorium, San Francisco
TEACHING/LECTURES
2022 Keynote Speaker, EYEO Festival, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2018- Visiting Professor School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2019-2021 Adjunct Professor, MFA-IA Sierra Nevada University, Nevada
2014-2016 Visiting Professor and Artist Northwestern University
Dec 2015 Presenter/Panelist Chicago Cultural Center - Architecture Biennial
Oct 2015 Presenter, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Colloquium
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
May 2019 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Dec 2015 Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL)
Sept 2015 Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL)
Sept 2014 High Zero Festival (Baltimore)
May 2008 Walker Art Center Performing Arts (Minneapolis, MN)
Oct 2007 SF Jazz Festival (with Kronos Quartet)
March 2006 Carnegie Hall (New York, NY)
VOCATION
• Owner and Principal Artist, Iramba Studio, Chicago IL
RECENT TRADES
• Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University Department of Art Theory and Practice (sculpture)
• Senior Design Developer, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA.
• Lead Teacher and Educational Research Associate, The Exploratorium, SF, CA.
• Raptor Researcher with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory
SELECTED AWARDS
2018 Rockefeller MAP Fund grantee in collaboration with Sharon Bridgforth
2018 Rockefeller MAP Fund grantee recipient in collaboration with Joanna Haigood
October 2008 MacArthur Fellowship - prestigious Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - https://www.macfound.org/fellows/803/
SPECIALTIES
Sound art • Interactive art • Kinetic sculpture • Site-specific installation • Public art • Phenomena driven sculpture • Instrument building and performance • Improvisation • Composition for theater, film, and movement • Design of learning environments • Materials centered learning • Creative inquiry and innovative material exploration • Championing epistemological diversity • Taking imagination seriously • Responding to nature, technology and community • Ornithological observation and documentation • Photography • Woodworking and tool building
TEACHING/LECTURES
Spring 2018 Instrument Construction, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Dec 2014-2016 Visiting Professor and Artist Northwestern University
November 2016 Workshop Leader - The Promise of Peace Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago
November 2016 Guest Lecturer, Improvisation - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
December 2015 Panelist Building Blocks: the Architecture of Sound - Chicago Architecture Biennial.
October 2015 Invited presenter/workshop leader, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Colloquium
April 2015 Public lecture/conversation at Columbia College with Curator Jordan Stein.
2013-2014 Lead Teacher & Educational Research Associate Exploratorium, SF
2008 Wornick Distinguished Professor of Wood Arts.
ARTS RESIDENCIES
June 2017 Sally and Don Lucas Residency, Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, CA
April 2017 Artist in Residence, Dept. of Art and Art History, Columbia College Chicago
Dec 2014-2015 Jean Gimbel Lane Artist Residency, Kaplan Institute, Northwestern University
October 2008 Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin County, CA
Sept–Nov 2006 Sally and Don Lucas Residency, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA
Nov ‘04–Jan '05 Singapore Science Centre, Singapore
September 2004 Skriduklaustur, Fljotsdalur, Iceland
2003-2007 Exploratorium, San Francisco - Four year interdisciplinary artist residency
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
June 2017 Nafasi Yako ni ya Kijani - Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, CA
April 2017 La Llorona - a memorial in sound and movement - Del Rio, TX
January 2016 “Kuelea Kama Ndege” - Palo Alto Art Center
April 2014 Oakland Museum of California - “Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records”
April 2011 Walter and Elise Haas Fund, SF 2011 Recipient of the “West Wall” Commission.
March 2011 San Francisco Arts Commission - Public Art Installation at Terminal 2, SFO
2005-2008 Kronos Quartet - Instrument builder in residence. Received both Creative Work Fund & Rockefeller MAP Fund grants in 2005.
May 2007 Zaccho Dance Theatre (composition/sound design) - Departure and Arrival, SFO
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
August 2014 Fondazione Prada, Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice
March 2014 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA - Solo show.
November 2013 Center For New Music, San Francisco - Solo show.
December 2012 Gallery 1855, Davis, CA - Solo photography exhibition
September 2008 American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore
April-July 2007 San Francisco Airport Museum
March 2007 Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco
May 2006 Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco - Solo exhibition
February, 2002 Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco) with Edgar Arcenaux and Kamau Amu Patton
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
December 2015 Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL)
November 2015 Kinosonik (Chicago, IL)
November 2015 Krannert Art Museum (Champaign, IL)
September 2015 Museum of Contemporary Art
September 2014 High Zero Festival (Baltimore)
November 2008 Artisterium (Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia) - In coordination with the Ministry of Culture, the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, and Parsons the New School of Design in New York City.
May 2008 Walker Art Center Performing Arts (Minneapolis, MN)
October 2007 SF Jazz Festival (with Kronos Quartet)
March 2006 Carnegie Hall Premiere (New York, NY)
GUEST ARTIST
March 2007 Auckland Arts Festival (Auckland, NZ)
August 2005 Lincoln Center Outdoors (New York, NY)
August 2005 Wave Hill Gardens (New York, NY)
June 2005 Headlands Center for the Arts (Marin County, CA)
SELECTED PUBLICATION
2013 Bird Knowledge: Life Lessons Learned from Birds, Vol I. - A photography based e-book available on iTunes
MILESTONE
June/July 2015 Six week, 12,235 mile, solo motorcycle journey - From Chicago to the Arctic Ocean in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and back