KATIE HEATON
Katie Heaton (she/her) is a queer multimedia production designer and content creator born and residing in Brooklyn, New York. Coming from a music, arts, and performance background, Katie finds joy in developing rich visual worlds across all artistic mediums. She centers collaboration and adventure at the heart of her creative problem-solving practice.
Katie has Production Designed commercially for Visa, UberEats, Grey Goose, Essence Magazine, and Snipes, as well as served as a head art department member for Spotify and Raising Canes Chicken. She has Production Designed music videos for the artists French Montana, Clinton Kane, and John K, and has served in the art department for the artists The Black Keys, J Cole, Pusha T, Jon Batiste, Pentatonix, and more. She has production designed for narrative work, including Emmy award-winning actors, on Beneath the Fold, and as an Art Director for the short film Anniversary a semifinalist at Filcker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival as well as a nominee at the Woodstock, Newport Beach, Tallgrass, Broad Humor, and Bentonville Film Festivals.
Katie has also served as a creative director, co-founder, and content creator for the young arts collective Absolute Form, acrewing over 7,000 views and 200+ submissions for a free multi-media zine with the goal of accessibility through bridging the gap between performing and fine arts industries. She has also led as a Creative Director and concept artist with a team of 15 on the development of Homesick, a queer post-apocalyptic video game requiring 100+ character and environmental designs. In a more formal setting, she has served as a social media and content intern for the non-profit Gallery 23, where she searched and marketed fine artwork and community events through social media, independently garnering 100,000 organic views across platforms.
AWARDS & GRANTS
Susan Lipani Visual Arts Award for Community Organizing, 2023
Fordham University Dean’s Grant for Senior Thesis Exhibition, 2023
Willem DiPietri Film Production Grant, 2022
Governer’s Medallion (California State Summer School for the Arts), 2018
2nd Place Painting Award (Project LPIE), 2018
1st Place Painting Award (Project LPIE), 2017
PRESS
World Premiere of ‘La Cocina’ Leaves the Stage Sizzling
By Sophia Grausso / May 3, 2023
“The setting, all within a day’s work, begins with the employees clocking in, watching the kitchen and waiting staff trickle into an expansive restaurant full of everyone’s food service classics: brown crate barrels doubling as seats and tables, stainless steel surfaces with century-old stains, cubbies with forgotten memorabilia. The set of “La Cocina” — designed by Katie Heaton, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23 — could not be more perfectly staged.”
The Olio Collection
Rockwell Group / Civilian Hotel (Website + Socials)
The jewel of our latest collaboration, the @CIVILIANHotel, in the heart of NYC's bustling theater district, is the Olio Collection: a curated exhibition with over 350 pieces of art, both permanent and rotating artifacts, original works, and archival photography, including sketches, models, photographs, props, costumes, murals, and custom furnishings, located throughout the property and representing more than 100 years of Broadway history.
Fordham Theatre’s White Anti-Racist Working Group
By Sean Ryan / February 2, 2022
Following advice from the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Student Alliance, students within the Fordham theatre department created the White Anti-Racist Working Group (WARWG). In their introductory Instagram Post, the group called on white-identifying Fordham theatre students to join their meetings and educate themselves about issues surrounding racism…
Katie Heaton, FCLC ’23 and a social media chair for WARWG, noted that last semester the group had conversations that needed to be had. Heaton referred to WARWG as a microcosm of the larger community, which is how the group approaches which issues to address at meetings. “
The Role of Art During a Revolution
By Vicky Carmenate / July 8, 2020
Fordham students paired up with other students and friends across the country to start a Black Lives Matter Auction…
Lucy Murray, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, was one of the main organizers of the auction, alongside Katie Heaton, FCLC ’23. Lu Aubin, FCLC ’23, and other Fordham artists contributed their own work to be sold as well…
Heaton, who was responsible for marketing, addressed the fact that many older white folks have the funds to buy the art that they were making. “For the artists to realize that their talents could be used to appeal to an audience that, as sad as it is, wouldn’t donate otherwise is extremely important,” Murray said.
Production/Projection Design Feature
Lucid The Magazine
