Gigi McGraw
Gigi McGraw is a performance artist, cultural preservationist and public presenter interested in hyperlocal history. She has a Master’s Degree in theater from Villanova University. Gigi currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she is developing several projects that combine performance and history.
As a creative artist she strongly believes that social artistry is a powerful way to push art beyond the mere aesthetics- for it to be used as a vehicle for positive change. Gigi is also fascinated with the life stories of individuals; a concept which is best exemplified by the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930’s, which recorded the narratives of the formerly enslaved. Gigi documents life through-performance based lectures, writing, exhibits, social projects, recorded testimony, print, and creative missions locally and abroad.
Awarded Grants
2025
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
SHE’s GG is launching the Philadelphia Museum of Neighborhoods (PMON), a temporary mini museum exhibit celebrating the history, culture, and resilience of Black and Brown communities across Philadelphia. Located at The Rotunda in West Philly from Memorial Day weekend through late August, PMON will use video, visuals, artifacts, and printed text to honor communities often excluded from mainstream narratives and tourism circuits. Building on over 15 years of place-based storytelling through walking tours, plays, and workshops, SHE’s GG will curate and document this social practice installation to preserve and amplify local history, particularly in gentrifying areas like Southwest Philly, where she resides.
The WOO Grant will support professional documentation, video editing and captioning, and web storage costs to archive the work.
2021
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Gigi's project, Re-Memory Places & WayBack Spaces, will document hyper-local neighborhood histories through visual and performance art, personal stories, and temporary historical markers. Through interviews with community members and historians, Gigi will preserve and amplify the histories of several sites (such as the Capital Movie Theater and Foo-Foo's in West Philly) in communities that are largely Black, many of which are experiencing gentrification. Culminating with a performance called the Doo-Wop Corner that highlights the communal singing of youth during the 1950s & 1960s, Gigi's goal is to educate people about lesser-known city histories, especially in communities of color.