Ashley Gifford

Founder, Creative Director & Editor-in-Chief

Ash is a writer, art historian, and creative/tech professional currently based in Portland, Oregon — (on the traditional unceded lands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Kathlamet, Cowlitz, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other Indigenous peoples). She founded Art & About in 2014 and has been the primary contributing writer, photographer, and organizer since its inception. She has collected and cultivated all the resource-based information that is found in the Art Guide and Calendar. Through this, Gifford has created an extensive archive and chronicle of art in the Pacific Northwest.

She has worked with contemporary and nonprofit arts organizations, creative agencies, and technology-based companies for the past decade. She has an academic background in Art History, Studio Art, and Business from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Her writing can be found on the Portland Mercury, Oregon ArtsWatch, Art Practical, Ceramics Now, Journal FYI, and other publications.