Carolyn Sickles (she/her) is a contemporary arts leader and artist focused on sustained investment in artists and cultural workers, meaningful relationships with place, and the role of art in community life. As Executive & Artistic Director of Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a cultural initiative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, she leads a nationally recognized multidisciplinary fellowship providing artists with time, resources, and space for experimentation.

At Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Sickles guides artistic and organizational direction and oversees an active slate of exhibitions, public programs, commissions, and collaborations in Tulsa and beyond. Her artistic leadership spans project and presentation development and the broader cultural contexts in which they take shape. During her tenure, the Fellowship has expanded its presence across museums, artist-led organizations, public spaces, and national art fairs, creating new opportunities for fellows to experiment, connect, and develop their practices.

Prior to joining Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Sickles served as Director of Visual Arts & Engagement at Abrons Arts Center in New York, where she oversaw exhibitions, artist residencies, and interdisciplinary initiatives. As an educator and visiting critic, she has led workshops, critiques, and lectures for the New Museum, Dia Art Foundation, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, e-flux, Rutgers University, NYU, Hunter College (CUNY), Teachers College at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, and the University of Tulsa, among others.

As an artist, Sickles creates site-responsive sculptural installations informed by her training in metals and fibers. Working across material, scale, and landscape, her practice considers the relationship between constructed forms and the environments they inhabit. Her work has been presented with Beverly’s at Material Art Fair in Mexico City, EFA Project Space and Abrons Arts Center in New York, Living Room in Miami, and galleries and art spaces across the United States. Her residencies include the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and Pine Jog Environmental Center.

Throughout her career, from her years in New York to her leadership in Tulsa, Sickles has worked alongside artists, colleagues, and partners to develop exhibitions, programs, and initiatives that bring artists’ ideas into wider public conversations. Her leadership and collaborative projects have been featured by The New York Times, Art21, Artforum, Art Basel, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Artnet News, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, Modern Painters, and other leading platforms.

Sickles holds an MSEd in Museum Leadership from Bank Street Graduate School of Education and studied sculpture, art history, and gender studies at Florida Atlantic University School of the Arts and Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Born in the Washington metropolitan area and raised in South Florida, Sickles lives in Osage County, Oklahoma, with her husband, an experimental musician and public educator, their art-loving daughter, a frequent companion at exhibitions and cultural gatherings, and a rather generous number of adopted cats.