BIO
Photo by Quinlan Corbett.
Tonya Lockyer is a writer, artist, and cultural strategist.
She first came to international prominence as a critically acclaimed dance/theater and movement artist.
Widely praised as a “key cultural changemaker” (The Seattle Times), Lockyer's groundbreaking work as an artist and arts leader has been recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts, Arts International, Princeton University, NPR, The Banff Center, Canada Council, TEDx, and the City of Seattle.
Lockyer has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the transformational leader of the nationally celebrated Velocity Dance Center and in collaboration with a range of contemporary dance, theater, and visual artists, writers, composers, architects, and filmmakers. Her creative work spans writing and editing books and creative nonfiction; performance-making and curation; producing community activations and public dialogue projects; arts leadership and institutional transformation.
Lockyer has published and exhibited her work inter/nationally, choreographed commissions for international venues, served on national funding panels, curated performance for world-class festivals and art fairs, organized 100s of major cultural events, and devised artist-development programs that continue to have a profound impact on the US dance ecology.
Her essays are published in international journals, exhibition catalogues, and anthologized in the French volume Vu du Corps. She founded the first Journal of Choreographic Culture (2011-2018), and she is author and editor of the book Artists on Creative Administration.
Beginning her artistic career as a dance/theater artist and solo performer, Village VOICE critic Deborah Jowitt described Lockyer’s stage art as, “Outstanding and irreplaceable . . . Her performances can raise the hairs on the back of your neck.” As the founder of the cross-disciplinary collective VIA, she performed, gave workshops, and conducted collaborative performances across North America, Europe, Russia, and Asia for two decades; and she continues to collaborate across the US. Lockyer's performances often combine story, movement, and participatory scores. She has created or produced more than 300 performances and community-scores in cathedrals, train stations, and waterfronts; across museums, city blocks, and neighborhoods.
Collaboration and finding connections across diverse aesthetics, media, and perspectives is true of Lockyer’s work whether she is editing a book, curating a festival of performances and forums, or activating an arts space. During Lockyer’s tenure as Artistic & Executive Director, Seattle’s Velocity became a national nexus for artists and a recognized innovator in community-led programming. “Her by-the-numbers accomplishments are impressive (more than $2 million in direct and in-kind support for artists; growing Velocity’s audiences by 398 percent)” wrote Seattle’s Crosscut, “but Lockyer will also be remembered for transforming Velocity into a venue of national import and an incubator for Seattle talent.”
Born in Newfoundland, Canada, Lockyer was awarded a US O-1 VISA for “Individuals of Extraordinary Ability and International Achievement”. She serves on the faculties of Seattle University’s Arts Leadership MFA and Cornish College of the Arts.