Department of Art

IlaSahai Prouty is an interdisciplinary artist who uses art to lift up, to question, to connect, to give power, and to learn. She works with printmaking, painting, installation and community engagement to create art that explores who we are, and how we present our stories to the world. Recent projects have centered on co-making as a restorative process for women, elevating the work of her mother, the quilter Doris Prouty, and exploring race as a social construction made through language. She is committed to building and sustaining the connections between individual creative practice, co-learning and collaborating with others, and social justice. 

Originally from Gloucester, MA, Prouty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at Appalachian State University, where she teaches socially engaged art and leads the Semester at Penland program. Prouty has a BA in Painting from Brown University, and an MFA from the California College of Art. She was a core fellow and resident artist at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. Prouty has engaged with communities and exhibited throughout the United States, including Massachusetts, Michigan, California, and the Carolinas.

Prior to her work at Appalachian, she worked with two learning communities: the Waring School where she was Chair of the Art Department, and Project Adventure, Inc. where she focused on training facilitators and educators in experiential techniques, curriculum development, and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prouty remains involved with another learning community: the Penland School of Craft. She is a member of the Board, and was a core fellow, resident artist, and instructor.

She is the former director of HOW Space, an interdisciplinary arts and community space in Boone, NC that sought to engaged with the local community and advance creative and collaborative projects.