Karen Baker
Karen Baker is a weaver and knitter focused on the design, history and critical studies of textile and fiber. She brings 25 years to the program as an award-winning business owner and executive specializing in design research, strategic planning, and marketing. Baker is the board president and co-founder of Social Art and Culture, a nonprofit founded in 2009, and creator and host of Behind The Mind Radio Show on the We Act Radio Network since 2013. Karen is a four time grantee of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship for her fiber artwork. In 2018, Karen was the recipient of the first DCCAH Curatorial Practice Grant, which led to the critically acclaimed, socially engaged art exhibition, Anacostia Unmapped 2.0.
Baker has been teaching for fifteen years in higher education and is part of the inaugural cohort for the MFA in Social Practice at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, where she is focusing on building an incubator entitled Fiber With A Cause. Ms. Baker received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Howard University, Master’s in Administration in Event Management from the George Washington University, and a Master in Arts in Design Thinking from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Karen is an active Surface Design Association member and sits on the Equity, Access, and Integration Committee.