Music & Art Creator / Community Arts Leader

BIo

Katie Elevitch (she/they) is a Rockland County, NY based multi-disciplinary artist and director, award-nominated arts educator, acclaimed recording artist, and the Founding Director of StorySpace Arts, a mission driven inter-generational non-profit Artist Collaborative based in Nyack, NY.

A performing artist since the age of 11, taking part in school, community and professional theater and music programs and productions in Rockland County and NYC, Elevitch is one of the youngest theater artists to be accepted into and attend Circle in the Square’s Summer Theater Intensive at Skidmore College (1988).

As a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and recording artist, Elevitch has shared stages and written, recorded and performed with Grammy- and Emmy-Nominated jazz and rock musicians and producers, receiving critical acclaim for her live performances and her recorded projects (Village Voice, The Big Takeover, Lucid Culture, Carl Hancock Rux).

Elevitch graduated Cum Laude from Barnard College, Columbia University (Women’s Studies/Music/Performance, B.A. 1996), studied music at Mannes College of Music/New School and was mentored by Performance Artist/Educator Holly Hughes, Dance/Theater Artist Sara Pearson, Music Artist, Writer and Cultural Innovator Rha Goddess, Musician/Composer Ed Pastorini and Jazz Artist Peter Apfelbaum.

After the honor of learning from, and taking part in, multiple NYC and Brooklyn, NY showcases, circles and retreats produced by the Women’s Feminist Hip Hop/Spoken Word/Performance Artist Collectives “W.E.R.I.S.E” led by Imani Uzuri & Rozz Nash and “DAWTAHZ” led by Yejide the Night Queen (1998-2001), Elevitch went on to curate and produce a series of New Artist Music & Performance Showcases and spaces throughout Brooklyn, NY, including “Strange Brew” (Multiple Venues, 2000-2002) and “M’Sonic Sessions” (Brooklyn Masonic Temple, 2006-2009).

Elevitch is known for her riveting, fearless live performances. She has toured Europe as a singer-songwriter and has supported her various music releases and band projects at such NYC venues as Joe’s Pub, The Blue Note, Mercury Lounge and more. As a poet and performance artist she has performed at NYC’s WOW Café, Barnard College, the Bowery Poetry Club and was a 2017 Rockland Poet’s Women’s Slam Finalist.

After the death of her father in late 2006, Katie moved back to Rockland County to care for her aging mother and to reconnect more deeply with nature and to the healing arts. While studying for her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training (2010-2011), Katie immersed herself in the lower Hudson Valley arts scene, creating strong relationships with local area musicians, theater, visual and literary artists, and arts and social justice organizers. Her focus shifted from performing and recording - to serving the community.

Since 2015 she has donated her talents to Community Benefits as a performer/consultant in support of the Rockland County Pride Center (2016), Love Yourself Organization (Union Arts Center, 2016, Invited by artist Charlotte Mouquin), Bel-Ans Art Center / Volition Gallery’s Expressions of Women Rising (2016), Center for Safety and Change “She Is”, (April 2023, 2024, 2026), and the Arts Council of Rockland Arts Awards Benefit, (June 2023).

In June of 2016, she instigated, organized and produced a community wide fundraiser and visibility campaign with the Nyack Art Collective for the Rockland County Pride Center at Casa Del Sol in Nyack, NY. The event, hosted by LGBTQ Youth Director Alessandra Francisco, featured live music by Jennifer O’Connor and others, as well as a live art auction and art show. The Mayor of Nyack, Jen White, wrote a letter of support and celebration for Elevitch and NAC, read by Deputy Mayor Don Hammond.

In August 2017, responding to the lack of in person, intimate, accessible spaces for artists / creatives of all ages, and a community of people grieving after the election results in November 2016, Katie opened a Storefront Creative Art Space and Gallery in downtown Nyack, NY, 95 ½ MAIN Gallery (2017-2019) and later, Studio 101 (2022-2026) with the intention that each space become the physical manifestation of the community who needs it - an immersive, interactive creative project unto itself - the physical homes of community storytelling for creatives, women, youth, and members of the LGBTQ+ communities.

StorySpace Arts and its partner incubator spaces bring people together to explore, develop and share their authentic voices, stories and works in artist-led, sober spaces created by their own community. The ongoing monthly Open Mic Program for All (2018-present) is an example of one of the long running programs of StorySpace Arts that is heralded by supporters and participants as truly accessible to all.

At the end of Elevitch’s March 2020 TedX talk at Bergen Community College: “Community Story Space as Revolution” - unknowingly prepared and performed on the eve of a worldwide Pandemic - Elevitch asks a pointed question: “What would happen if every Main Street in our Country had a Community Story Space?”

Elevitch’s community focused projects, programs and Story Spaces over the last 10+ years, and her on-going resilience during and after the Pandemic, has shown that Rockland County, Nyack and the surrounding area has immensely benefited from her artistry, vision and leadership. Community Story Spaces can indeed spark hope, create change, and build lasting connections and inspired creativity for all.