Faythe Levine

Faythe Levine has been in service to the arts for over twenty years, advocating for creativity to be used as a vehicle to build community, personal independence, and empowerment. Motivated by reimagining archives and collections through a queer feminist lens, her creative labor intersects with curatorial projects, consulting, writing, documentary film, and community events. Her core belief is that visual culture is a conduit for radical change and generative dialogue. She strives to perpetuate momentum toward a liberatory future with space for collaboration, transparency, and complexity.

Levine recently published her fourth book, As Ever, Miriam (2024), which explores the expansive lives of Charlotte Partridge (1882–1975) and Miriam Frink (1892–1978) through extensive archival research spanning many years. The second edition is available online via Combos Press. A related exhibition will open at the Lynden Sculpture Garden gallery in November 2025.

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During the week, Levine serves as the Hauser & Wirth Institute Archivist for Women's Studio Workshop, a feminist organization founded in 1974 in Rosendale, NY, where she manages, oversees, and enhances the public visibility of the archives, special collections, and exhibition management. Her position focuses on WSW’s work as a hub for radical thought, for modeling economic viability for print and book culture, and storytelling.

In 2021, Levine left her position as director of the Arts/Industry program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, where she was responsible for developing and administering the residency hosted at Kohler Co., as well as curating related exhibitions and projects at the Arts Center and Art Preserve in Sheboygan, WI.

Significant curatorial work includes Can't Take My Eyes Off You; Speedwell Contemporary, 2022; Ruffles, Repair & Ritual; at the Wedding Cake House with the support of the Warhol Foundation, 2019; and For Hire: Contemporary Sign Painting in America, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 2017. Further back, Levine was the gallerist of two non-traditional spaces, Sky High (2010–2014) and Paper Boat (2005–2009), that focused on collaborations with emerging artists and makers. Additionally, she founded and operated Wisconsin’s premier maker fair, Art vs. Craft (2005–2015). 

Her most well-known projects are Sign Painters (2013) and Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY Art, Craft, and Design (2009). Both are feature-length documentaries with accompanying books published by Princeton Architectural Press and were toured extensively. Some highlights include programming the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Dundee Contemporary Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Bar Dykes (2015), published by Pegacorn Press, can be found in the Whitney Museum of American Art Special Collections, Joseph C. Sloane Art Library of the UNC-Chapel Hill’s University Libraries, Colby College Libraries, and the Pratt Institute Library. 

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After years of bouncing between various cities and towns in the United States, Levine landed in New York State. She lives with her partner and their cat, Goldie, on a dead-end street with no home mail delivery or garbage service, adjacent to a cemetery and creek on the unceded ancestral land of the Mochican Nation, in a hamlet now called Mellenville.​

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Last updated: June 2025. Please ask permission before using site content or images.

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