Elizabeth Stehling Snell is a cross-disciplinary artist and community organizer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Rooted in improvisation and collaboration, her socially engaged practice bridges performance, video, and community-based projects that explore human connection, place, and shared motion. Raised in South Carolina and shaped by movement and dance, Elizabeth’s early works such as A Hey for 4 and 481 Falls examine vulnerability, uncertainty, and our human condition.
Her creative journey has evolved through partnerships with artists and communities nationwide, including a solo exhibition at Plug Projects and support from Charlotte Street Foundation’s “Art Where You’re At” grant. Recent work focuses on sustainability, neighborhood engagement, and art as civic practice. She curated Earthwork: Artists & Sustainable Living and now serves on her neighborhood association board, planting native gardens and co-organizing the Hyde Park Farmers Market. She also serves on the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Environment and Climate Council. She is communications manager at Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Elizabeth seeks an artful life—an improvisational art of care, connection, and community.
Elizabeth’s work and collaborations have taken her to the Currents New Media Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Omaha Film Festival and more. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Wassaic Project, Rensing Center, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Plug Projects. She received the Robert Altman Emerging Filmmaker Award, a grant from Kansas City's Art in the Loop, Plug Projects, and was recently a Studio Resident with the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City.
She earned her MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 2010 and her BA from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC in 2005.