Personal Biography:

Since graduating from Columbia University, Xavier Leonard has forged a career that has merged his efforts as a multimedia artist, community educator, and technology ambassador. Beginning with work in West Africa as an International Artist Fellow under the auspices of the Institute for International Education, he has gone on to present conceptual multimedia works, create award winning commercial designs, and develop community-based technology training programs on five continents.

Leonard has been featured in museums and galleries, nationally and internationally, including the Pamela Stockwell Gallery, the Knitting Factory, and the Kathryn Bache-Miller Theater in New York; the Henry Gallery in Seattle; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Painted Bride Art Center and The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; Intermedia Arts-Minnesota in Minneapolis; The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, England; the Treppentheater Festival in Florsheim, Germany; and the Centre Culturel Francais in Burkina Faso. His community programs have been recognized and supported by national institutions in several countries including the United States Department of Justice, and he has garnered awards from the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest International Artists' Program, The Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Franklin Furnace Emerging Artists Program, New American Radio, The International Association of Webmasters and Designers, The Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and The Western States Arts Federation. In 2003, Leonard was honored with the ET3 Tec Champion Award by the Congressional Black Caucus.

His work is profiled in the book Parallaxis: Fifty-five Points to View by Lucy Lippard and Rina Swentzell, and he is founder and Executive Director of Heads On Fire.

Goals:

• Learn from others.
• Be a catalyst for new ways of thinking about technology tools.
• Engage in vibrant discussions about actions that can strengthen communities in need.