Shannon Welles is a thoughtful arts professional who has worked with deep passion for 25 years in the live music sector. She is a visual artist with a love for study and writing. Her work weaves art and ecology together, always rooted in place and community. Shannon has studied systems thinking, warm data, permaculture, earthen building, herbalism, Pacific Northwest native plants and ethnobotany, and ecological design.
Shannon has 20+ years of experience in community organizing, advocacy, and service in Seattle. She founded Hypha, a collaborative free plant nursery project to grow community networks of plant sharing, and Friends of The Showbox, a community coalition to save Seattle’s iconic music venue. She currently serves as a Mayoral appointee on the Seattle Music Commission.
Shannon holds an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University, with a focus on the intersections of art, artistic citizenship, and ecology. She recently completed a Masters in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College in the UK. Her research inquiries explore the role of artmaking in the Anthropocene and an ecological approach to collective imagination through collaborative making practices.
