EDUCATION

• 2002: MFA in Painting, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
• 1997: BFA in Art Education, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

EXPERIENCE

• 2006-current Associate Professor of Art, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Director of the Art NY Program, 2021-present
  Professor of the Year in the Humanities, U of R Student Association, 2013 with nominations in 2012, 2014, and 2015
• 2004-2005 Lecturer of Art, University of Rochester, New York Studio Art Coordinator, 2004-2005

EXHIBITIONS: SOLO and TWO-PERSON

• 2022: The Weight of Optimism, Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY (solo, scheduled)
• 2022: Tools for Post-Partisan Dreaming, Arts Place, Portland, IN (solo, scheduled)
• 2019: The Sum of Wishful Thinking, MoCA LI (Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island), Patchogue, NY (solo)
• 2017: Coping Mechanisms, Buffalo Art Studios, Buffalo, NY (with Allen Topolski)
• 2015: 59 Days of Independence, Ortlip Gallery, Houghton College, Houghton, NY (with Brian Bailey)
• 2013: The Magnificent Ascension of Irreplaceable Objects, artist residency and exhibition, At Home Gallery and Contemporary Art Centre, Šamorín, Slovakia (solo)
• 2013: Home Drone, Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst, CT (with Brian Bailey)
• 2013: National Apology Project, global intervention project reaching 196 world leaders (solo)
• 2012: The Inevitable Defeat of the Tree-Huggers, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK (solo)
• 2012: Living Room Churches and Outspoken Saints, Buffalo Art Studio, Buffalo, NY (solo)
• 2011: Ally/Enemy, Arts West Gallery, Elon University, Elon, NC (solo)
• 2010: Parables for a Compassionate Revolution, Colacino Gallery, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY (solo)
• 2010: Preparing to Lose, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY (with Joshua Greene)
• 2009: Letters to a Future Generation, exhibition and artist-in-residence, Economics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (solo)
• 2009: Thank you for Everything, Bruises and Bumps, Firehouse and Wiseman Gallery, Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, Oregon (solo)
• 2009: When the Gods Prayed Back, Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, NY (solo)
• 2008: I Know It Happened and It Happened Like This, George Eastman International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY (solo)
• 2006: Hearing Aids, Union Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (with Yevgeniya Kaganovich)
• 2006: (sub)Urban Homicide, public intervention performance, Rochester, NY (solo)
• 2006: Hearing Aids, Towers Art Gallery, SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY (with Yevgeniya Kaganovich)
• 2005: When the Gods Prayed Back, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL (solo)

GLOBAL COMMUNITY BUILDING and SOCIALLY ENGAGED PROJECTS

• 2020: Artist and Guest Speaker for the first Saudi <-> American Art Exhibition (8 artists from each country), co-organized by the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah and SASCA (Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts)
• 2020: Visiting Artist and Lecturer, virtual programming, U.S. Consulate Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• 2020: Huther Doyle Substance Abuse Recovery Center, co-designed student internship program, oversaw students teaching art workshops for clients in recovery, Rochester, NY
• 2019: International Visiting Teaching Artist and Speaker, Tasami Art Gallery, Jeddah, and Desert Designs, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, sponsored by a U.S. Government Award through the U.S. Consulate Jeddah, U.S. Department of Public Diplomacy
• 2018: Nagaland/U.S. Cultural Exchange, co-developed and co-administered a nine-year cultural exchange program with artists, musicians, filmmakers, museum curators and cultural development government workers from the United States and the tribal Northeast Indian state of Nagaland (ongoing)
• 2017: Batavia Federally Administrated Detention Facility, co-designed and co-taught series of 15 art workshops for detained immigrants, Dreamers, and people seeking asylum, Batavia, NY
• 2017: Collaboration with Anthony L. Jordan Health Centers, led university painting students and health professionals to re-imagine and visually transform hospital spaces to reflect cultures of patients using the space, Rochester, NY
• 2016: Visiting Artist, bookmaking workshops for social workers and foster care professionals serving southeastern Alaska, Community Connections, Ketchikan, Alaska
• 2015: Refugees Helping Refugees, led collaboration with painting students, refugee community members, and doctors to create Painting for Health, a visual guide to health and wellness
• 2012: “Social Intervention Conference 2012: A Better Tomorrow for the Coming Generation”,
  Co-organizer of cultural exchange programming, Keynote Speaker at conference, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan (with Anila Amber Malik, Brian Bailey, and Maqsood Ahmed)

NOTABLE JURIED EXHIBITIONS

• 2020: A Woman’s Work, curated by Beth Giacummo, Br. Kenneth Chapman Gallery, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
• 2019: America Is…, curated by Rachel Adams and Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Touchstone Gallery, Washington D.C.
• 2019: Social Justice in the Misinformation Age, curated by Susan Crite, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, PA
• 2018: Crossings, El Sótano Art Space, Brooklyn, New York
• 2018: The State of Our Shared Land, curated by Wassan Al-Khudari, St. Louis Artists Guild, St. Louis, Missouri, First Place Juror’s Award
• 2018: Science + Art, curated by Alison Neville, Underground Gallery, Bountiful Arts Center, Bountiful, Utah
• 2015: Compartmented, curated by Evelyne LeBlanc-Roberge and Missy Phohl-Smith, Rochester Lyric Opera Theatre, Rochester, NY
• 2014: The Blind Spot Underground, an installation for Shock-u-mentaries, curated by Beth Giacummo, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY
• 2014: Inevitable Defeat of the Tree-Huggers, curated by Saša Nabergoj, PORTIZMIR 3 International Contemporary Art Triennial, K2 Contemporary Art Center, Izmir, Turkey
• 2012: The City is Asleep and Dreaming, curated by Evelyne LeBlanc-Roberge and Jason Bernagozzi, vacant National Bank pop-up, Rochester, NY
• 2011: Naming the Animals, Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ
• 2009: Repressed: May Day IV, Gallery 55, Richmond, VA
• 2008: Borderlands, SSCC Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
• 2008: Trading Spaces, SUNY Binghamton Art Gallery, Binghamton, NY
• 2007: I/We Case Studies, SCAD, Defoor Art Center, Atlanta, GA
• 2007: Last Gasp, Washington Gallery, Washington School of Photography, Bethesda, MD
• 2006: Un(Bound), RoCo (Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery), Rochester, NY

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

• 2016: Biophilia, Ayatana Art and Science Research Residency, various locations, Canada
• 2015: Haslla Art World and International Artist Residency, Gangneung, South Korea
• 2014: Grand Central Art Center Artist-in-Residence Program, California State University at Fullerton, three-year residency sponsored by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, Santa Ana, CA, (collaboration with Brian Bailey)
• 2014: Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD
• 2014: Provacateur-in-Residence Program, First Unitarian Church, Rochester, NY (with Brian Bailey)
• 2011: Dorothea Fleiss East West Artists Residency, Mallnitz, Austria

INNOVATION in TEACHING GRANTS and AWARDS

• 2020: Lead Investigator, Art in Recovery, Community-Engaged Course Operational Grants, Rochester Center for Community Leadership, University of Rochester (a collaboration with the Huther Doyle Substance Abuse Recovery Center)
• 2018: Lead Investigator, Food Matters: Gender, Ethnicity, Religion and Justice course, Teaching Innovation Grant, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (with Tatyana Bakmetyeva)
• 2018: Lead Investigator for four separate Community-Engaged Course Operational Grants, each of which engaged UofR students in projects at Refugees Helping Refugees and three health care centers in the Rochester Community students with Rochester Center for Community Leadership, University of Rochester (2017, 2018)
• 2017: Co-designed curriculum for new, cross-disciplinary Certificate in Community Engaged Scholarship, University of Rochester. Continued on Community Engaged Scholarship Advisory Committee through 2018 (with Professors Amy Lerner, Nancy Chin, Karen Berger and Community partners)
• 2016: Committee Member, POSSE Program, University of Rochester
• 2016: Lead Investigator, Humanities Center Grant to bring filmmakers Njogu Touray and Ian Williams from the Gambia and Lebanon for eight days of campus programming, Humanities Center, University of Rochester
• 2014: Named “Citizen Diplomat” by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs for intercultural projects in Pakistan and Nagaland (with Brian Bailey)

ARTIST TALKS

• 2022: The Weight of Optimism: Contemporary Art that Honors Women’s Labor, Gender Equality for a Sustainable Tomorrow: Celebrating Women’s Role Conference, Centre of Excellence for Women’s Studies, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan (virtual).
• 2022: Art and Creativity as a Pathway to Tolerance (panel, virtual), U.S. Consulate, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• 2020: Artist talk series (virtual) including Storytelling in Contemporary Art and From the Bottom of the Universe to the Top of the Ocean: Artists Reinterpret the Natural World, U.S. Consulate Jeddah and the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Art, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• 2018: Feminism is a Verb, with Brian Bailey, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY
• 2017: A World Within a Library Within Prison Walls, artist talk with Prof. Allen Topolski and Prof. Evelyne LeBlanc-Roberge, IES Abroad Faculty Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2016: Socially Engaged Art, Theertha Collective, Red Dot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
• 2015: Sustaining Engagement: Art Diplomacy to Social Media, with Brian Bailey, Global Ties U.S. National Conference, U.S. Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, Washington D.C.
• 2015: Art Residencies and Found Spaces, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
• 2015: Socially Engaged Art: 59 Days of Independence, with Brian Bailey, HI International Conference on Arts & Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii
• 2013: Stories from Nagaland, Rubin Museum of Art, New York City, NY
• 2013: The Power of Socially Engaged Art, TEDx Rochester talk with Brian Bailey, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, NY
• 2013: Art Diplomacy as a Pathway to Peace: Three Projects about Violence, Fear, and the Visualization of Hope, New Directions in the Humanities Conference, Eotvos Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

PUBLICATIONS and PRESS

• 2021: Featured artist on PBS/WMHT’s program AHA! (A House for Arts). Season 6, Episode 27. Segment can be found here: https://fb.watch/3qoe3L08XQ/. Full program can be seen here: https://www.pbs.org/video/aha-627-exdvos/.
• 2018: Layton, Heather. “Meleko Mokgosi: Pax Kaffraria”, CAA reviews, February 132018 Rafferty, Rebecca, “Amplifying Voices”, City Newspaper, Rochester, NY, March 14.
• 2014: Jacobson, Aileen. “Pieces that Invite a Closer Look: A Review of Shock-U-Mentaries at the Islip Art Museum”, New York Times, February 12.
• 2014: Rafferty, Rebecca. “Women’s Work”, City Newspaper, December 10.
• 2013: Rafferty, Rebecca. “Global View”, POST magazine, November issue.
• 2013: Bailey, Brian, and Heather Layton. “Art at the Border of America and the Muslim World”, Huffington Post, March 27.
• 2013: Ferro, Shaunacy. “A Bedazzled Drone Replica Asks Us To Ponder Deadly Strikes at Home”, Popular Science, March 1.
• 2013: Rafferty, Rebecca. “Domestic Violence”, City Newspaper, February 27.
• 2013: Ferro, Shane. “VIDEO: Artist Bedazzles a Predator Drone Replica at UMass Amherst”, ARTINFO, March 3.
• 2013: Goodman, James. “Couples Drone Art Drives Home a Point” Democrat & Chronicle, February 22.
• 2013: Inclema, Michelle. “Woman to Watch: Heather Layton”, Democrat & Chronicle, April 5.
• 2012: “Meeting with International Visitors is Just the Beginning for New York Couple”, U.S. State Department, Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs website, 2012.
• 2012: Foran, Jack. “Works by Heather Layton and Karine Giboulo at Buffalo Arts Studio”, ArtVoice, Issue v11n26, June 28.
• 2012: Guriro, Amar. “US Professor Sees Cultural Diplomacy as Peace Solution”, Pakistan Today, March 10.
• 2011: Finnegan, Molly. “From New York State to Nagaland, Art, Film, and Hospitality are Common Bonds”, PBS NewsHour ArtBeat, September 2.
• 2011: Shenfulette, Jinelle. “On the Ladder”, Democrat and Chronicle, December 11.
• 2008: Ward, Rachel, “Violence Memorial Installed on Eastman Lawn”, WXXI public radio, February 21.
• 2008: Lee, Nicole. “Penfield Artist Creates a tower of remembrance”, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY, February 19.
• 2008: Morrell, Alan. “Tower Symbolizes pain, hope”, Democrat and Chronicle, March 6.