Hettie Barnhill is an award-winning educator, filmmaker, director, choreographer, and arts activist whose work lives at the intersection of performance, community engagement, and social justice. She is the founder and Executive Director of Create A Space NOW, an interactive multimedia and performing arts platform that uses art as a tool to challenge bias, racism, and systemic oppression. Create A Space NOW produces the Activated Artist Fest, a free multidisciplinary arts and social justice festival now heading into its fourth season. Hettie is also the Artistic Director of the Barnhill Movement Collective (BMC), a professional contemporary dance and physical theater company creating socially conscious work grounded in movement, activism, storytelling, and human connection. BMC will present its debut concert, What We Carry, on September 27, 2026, at Proctors in Schenectady, New York.
Hettie was the recipient of the 2025 New York State Choreographers Initiative Grant and has been nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Choreography. Her community-centered work has earned numerous additional honors, including the In Our Own Voices 2026 Jasán M. Ward LGBTQ+ Community Advocacy Award, recognizing her leadership and work advancing health equity, community safety, and social justice. The NAACP “Top 21 Leaders 40 & Under” Award in Arts and Culture, the Shirley Chisholm Women of Excellence Award, recognition as a Rising Star by the Young & Powerful for Obama Group, and a California Senate honor recognizing her use of film as a vehicle for community engagement and education. Her award-winning film, A Love Letter to Brian, Lesley, and Michelle, has screened nationally and internationally.
As a performer, Hettie brings more than 20 years of professional experience across theater, dance, film, and television. Her Broadway credits include Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, FELA! (original cast), and Leap of Faith (original cast). Her directing and choreography credits span theater, dance, film, and interdisciplinary performance, with work presented locally, nationally, and internationally, including collaborations with La MaMa Umbria International in Spoleto, Italy.
An active educator, presenter, and speaker, Hettie has shared her artistic practice with arts, educational, and social justice organizations across the country. In New York’s Capital Region, she has served as a Visiting Professor at Skidmore College and Union College and is a Resident Director with the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York. Her teaching and creative practice center movement, theater, identity, social justice, performance creation, and the transformative possibilities of art. Hettie holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Performance Creation and Art Activism from Goddard College. For more information, visit HettieBarnhill.com.
Photo by Andrew Elder
HETTIE BARNHILL
Founder of Create A Space NOW