Ed Woodham (born 1957) is a global public artist[1] and a NYC cultural provocateur[2] based in the Kips Bay section of New York City.[3] As a performer, puppeteer, and curator active in civic interventions, community art-making, and arts education for more than forty-five years,[4][5] Woodham has performed and presented in Australia, Europe, and North America.[6] He is the founder of Art in Odd Places, and the co-founder of 800 EAST, Atlanta, whose archives are housed at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.[7]
Art In Odd Places 2021:NORMAL, Julia Justo, New York. Photo: Marcela Ariaz
In 1980, Woodham moved to New York City to become a Broadway star.[9][10] In 1987, he left New York and returned to Atlanta to open an arts space.[11] Woodham managed the "Living Room", an art gallery that was staged in his living room.[12][14][7]
800 EAST
In 1990, Neil Fried, William Morar, and Woodham co-founded 800 EAST,[14][7] and turned a derelict post-industrial space[15] into a multi-disciplinary arts center and collective located at 800 EAST Avenue in the Little Five Points section of Atlanta.[12][16] Wayne Sizemore was an 800 EAST co-collaborator.[17] Musicians Scott Berlin, Crash Hot Man (Robert Johnson), and Michael Kilburn were involved in the organization's early years.[18] Terry S. Hardy, an artist and curator, served on the 800 EAST board of directors from 1991 to 1997.[19] Woodham served as director of the organization until its closure in 1998.[7][20]
During its history, 800 EAST produced more than 250 visual and performance art events.[21] In 1992, 800 EAST presented "Homo" a visual and performance art weekend,[16][22] and "The Big Style Show",[23][24] that featured a "Tok Sho" where artists and audience talked with each other on camera.[25] The group's 3rd Annual "24 Hour Show" showcased performances by local bands, musicians, and other artists.[17] In 1993, 800 EAST under the direction of Woodham and Sizemore presented the "Short Play Series", including new plays by Alice Dinnean and others.[26] In 2017, the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University purchased the 800 EAST archives for an undisclosed amount.[7]
Art in Odd Places
Thank You for Your Visit, Have a Nice Day (Wearable Sculpture) by Agata Olek, Art in Odd Places 2009 SIGN, New York City.
Since 2005, Art in Odd Places has been headquartered in New York City.[20] The annual festival presents work in all disciplines outside of traditional public arts presentation and performance spaces, most notably along 14th Street in New York.[31][7][12][32][33] In addition, Art in Odd Places has produced events in Boston, Massachusetts; Greensboro, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; Los Angeles and West Hollywood, California; New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Sydney, Australia.[6][34]
In 2012, Art in Odd Places was selected as a representative in the U.S. pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good" received a special mention from the Biennale Jury,[35] the first exhibition in a U.S. pavilion to receive the honor.[36] Spontaneous Interventions featured 124 urban interventions by architects, artists, city planners, designers, and others designed to bring positive neighborhood and urban solution to cities.[36][6]
In 2024, Art in Odd Places was curated by husband-and-wife team Christopher Kaczmarek and Patricia Miranda,[29]and involved more than 75 artists, roughly half the amount who submitted proposals for the festival.[10][29]
In 2025, Art in Odd Places celebrated its 20th Anniversary with the multi-day outdoor festival VOICE presented by the City of West Hollywood and featuring 35 artist projects.[37] and "Nothing" in New York City in response to the organization losing funding from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA).[31]
The Keepers
In 2016, Woodham received a commission from by The Gowanus Public Arts Initiative to create a performance piece, "The Keepers", in his neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn.[38] The "durational still performative group action"[2] as an extension of his 2013 "Numb and Number" that was performed on the beaches of Australia.[11][39] In 2023, Woodham produced "The Keepers" at three different locations near New York's Penn Station: The Church of St. John the Baptist, Gimbel's Skybridge, and the demolished Hotel Pennsylvania.[2][39] The goal of "Keepers" is to raise awareness to the demolition and destruction of historic buildings and to encourage preservation of historic spaces and structures.[2] In 2025, The Keepers at Coney Island appeared along Coney Island beaches in response to aggressive redevelopment of urban areas where historical environments and communities have been ignored.[40][41]
Other Projects
From 1995 to 1998, Woodham was the founder and director of Exciting Parlor.[12][7]
In 1999, Woodham created "Useful Tables", a public art commission by DreamWorks Puppetry for the New York Village Halloween Parade.[11] The title referred to tables that are used for collection and presentation of data, i.e. Table of contents, Periodic table, and Multiplication table.[11] During the parade, a puppeteer walked a 10 foot wooden table up Sixth Avenue for twenty-three blocks.[11] Woodham expanded the table concept for a puppet stage and projections at St. Ann's Warehouse.[11]
In 2003, Woodham performed "Constance Holiday: Hollywood Nurse" at Labapalooza! Mini Festival of New Puppet Theater in Brooklyn.[42]
In 2016, Endicott College presented "Chickenarama," a performance installation by Linda Mary Montano and Woodham and the accompanying "Dad and Mom: Art Giving Life" gallery exhibition.[1] "Dad and Mom" featured showed works by Montano's father, Henry Montano, and drawings by Woodham mother's Carrol Woodham, who died in 2012 from Multiple System Atrophy,[8] and that were created during their end-of-life art therapeutic practice.[1]
In 2016, Woodham and Samantha Hill were selected by the Macon Arts Alliance to be the inaugural artists-in-residence for the Mill Hill Visiting Social Practice Program in Macon, Georgia.[5][11] The artists were scheduled to work in the East Macon Fort Hawkins neighorhood.[43] Without notice, the Macon Arts Alliance terminated the artists two weeks into their three-month residency project.[43][44]
In 2020, Woodham was a featured artist in The Babel Masks exhibition.[11]
Woodham has performed around the world, including at 54 Columns; Art Prospect Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia; Center for Puppetry Arts; Cherry Lane Theater; Eramboo Art Environment, Sydney, Australia; EyeDrum, Atlanta; HERE Arts Center; High Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Le Poisson Rouge; Lincoln Center Out of Doors; Old Stone House; Orlando Museum of Art; Siren Arts, Asbury Park, New Jersey; St EOM's Pasaquan, Buena Vista, Georgia; Telfair Museum; and other venues.[12] In 2025, he was part of the inaugural performance art biennial, The Enduring Power of Play, at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn.[45] In addition, Woodham operates the Showroom Gallery in the Kips Bay/Murray Hill section of New York City.[3][46]
Teacher and speaker
Woodham is a faculty member of the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts, where he teaches Social Malpractice Art.[47] Since 2013, he has been an Invited Artist Faculty member at NYU's Hemispheric Institute.[38] In addition, he has taught at Wilson College's MFA program in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.[13][48]
In 2013, Woodham delivered a Tedx Talk in Gowanus, New York,[49][6] In 2014, he presented, "Public art as social engagement" as part of TEDxIndianapolis.[50]
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