Say Hey

ryanconarro [at] gmail [dot] com

Artist Statement

I’m an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, and nonprofit leader. My work explores belonging, identity, and justice through storytelling. Working across audio and documentary media, performance, installation, and socially engaged art, I create projects that invite people to encounter one another through story and to imagine more connected, equitable futures.

I’m Co-Director of Programs & Partnerships at Colorado Radio for Justice, a media organization amplifying the voices of people impacted by the criminal-legal system. I’m also Media Arts Partner Artist with Youth on Record in Denver, and Arts Integration Consultant for Podcasting for the national arts education organization Focus 5. Over the past two decades, I’ve created collaborative documentary story projects in settings ranging from rural Alaska to New York City, from community centers and schools to prisons, galleries, and theaters. Through all of my work runs a common thread: exploring how people seek, lose, and create a sense of belonging.

Much of my work explores queer experiences of family, faith, and power, using my own personal narratives as catalysts for examining broader questions of cultural memory and social change through documentary storytelling.

Whether producing a podcast, developing an immersive performance, facilitating community dialogues, or leading organizational processes, I approach storytelling as both an artistic and a civic practice. My work is grounded in deep listening, shared authorship, and my insistent belief that stories can strengthen communities, expand understanding, and help create a more just world.

Biography

Ryan Conarro is an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, and nonprofit leader based in Denver, Colorado. His work spans media production, performance, community-based practice, and organizational leadership.

His past work includes a six-year staff role as Creative Producer at Ping Chong & Company in New York; Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver; statewide Content Coach for the Alaska Department of Education; Teaching Artist Advisory Committee member with the Alaska State Council on the Arts; ensemble member with Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Resident Artist with Theater Mitu, Perseverance Theatre, and Aquila Theatre; and more. His work has been presented on radio stations and in podcasts, in theaters, galleries, community spaces, schools, and correctional facilities across the United States and internationally. Ryan holds a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

Ryan grew up with four siblings as an Army brat living in various parts of the U.S. When he’s not in a media studio, a theater, or a school, he likes to spend time in wild spaces, to stroll his neighborhood, and to drink a second (or third) cup of coffee.