MCKEESPORT, Pa. — Lori Hepner, the 2023-24 Penn State Laureate, and professor of integrative arts at Penn State Greater Allegheny will bring her "Drawing with Light: Creating Community with Movement, Light, & Time Participatory Artmaking Workshop" to campus on March 20. The community is invited to her presentation beginning at 12:15 p.m. in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.

Hepner’s practice, "Drawing with Light," aims to make the invisible visible through movement, light, and time using programmable LEDs in devices that use photographic images in a light-based paintbrush visualized through movement in real-time projections. During the workshop, participants will use the devices, including wearable LEDs and a 6’ tall light stick to create art. Collaboratively created imagery will be used by Hepner to create public art for display across Penn State. 

Hepner has spent considerable time in community centered artist residencies in four Pittsburgh neighborhoods. In 2018 she was featured in WQED TV’s documentary, Visible, featuring five female artists from Pittsburgh. 

She has held artist residencies in Norway, Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Canadian Yukon, as well as in Virginia, Maine, Hawaii and Wyoming. Her work has been shown in exhibitions across the US as well as in Spain, England, China, Columbia, Northern Ireland, Cuba, Canada, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland and France.

Those attending the workshop are asked to refrain from wearing fragrances or other scented products, as these products can trigger serious health issues for the artist.