Heather Molecke
Instructor
225-578-5400 | Digital Media Center
hmolec2@lsu.edu | heathermolecke.com
MFA Louisiana State University
Heather Molecke is an artist, academic, amateur archaeologist, and ardent admirer of alliteration. She earned her MFA in Sculpture from Louisiana State University and has since cultivated a rich teaching career, offering courses in sculpture, conceptual art, and art foundations at institutions such as Cleveland State University and Louisiana State University. As a co-director and founding member of The Lost and Found, an art collective and gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, she continues to foster creative communities while advancing her academic pursuits. Currently, Heather is back in Baton Rouge, pursuing a Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation at LSU, where she also teaches Design Foundations in the School of Interior Design.
Heather’s artistic practice revolves around themes of social alienation and the outsider experience, deeply rooted in an ontological exploration of agency within discarded objects. Her work transforms abandoned materials into culturally significant artifacts, breathing new life into them through discovery, collection, and relocation. Molecke’s research highlights the materiality of memory and the ways in which objects hold stories that are crucial to cultural identity. Her doctoral research further explores the artistic repurposing of discarded objects through the lens of found-object artists, bridging the gap between art, preservation, and community engagement, ultimately, contributing to the evolving dialogue on the role of art in documenting and interpreting cultural heritage.