Qiaira Riley is an interdisciplinary artist + educator +cultural worker, raised on Chicago’s south-side and based in Philadelphia. She holds a dual BA in Black Studies and Studio Art from Lake Forest College, as well as a MFA in Socially Engaged StudioArt from Moore College of Art & Design. She is a co-founder and curator of 2.0, a collective collaborating with artists and organizations to curate free, experimental offerings for Black women and femmes. Qiaira’s 2021 MFA thesis-turned-zine “How Tiffany Pollard Built the Internet: Representations of Simulacra, Virtuality, and Black women and femmes on the Internet and Its Art” is a part of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection. Qiaira’s studio practice utilizes painting, ceramics, cyanotype, and various other visual practices to explore themes of Black American aesthetic memory and material culture. Her studio work has been shown across the United States including Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL;  Cherry Street Pier, Paradigm Gallery, and Public Trust in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Qiaira has enjoyed residencies with the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI; Ma’s House on the Shinnecock Reservation, NY; The Arts League and Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, PA. Her work as both a cultural producer and socially engaged artist has led to collaborations with and awards from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, the Barnes Foundation, Mural Arts, Monument Lab , the Friends of the Tanner House and the Leeway Foundation. She also hosts "Something You Can Feel," a contemporary Black art history podcast, that can be found on Apple and Spotify. Qiaira is currently a PhD student in the University of Delaware’s Art History Department, studying Black American house museums and historic domestic interiors. Qiaira will serve as the 2026-207 African American Historic Places, Los Angeles Graduate Intern at the Getty. You can find her CV here.