Heather McAdams

Heather McAdams is a Chicago-based fine artist, experimental filmmaker, illustrator, and cartoonist. She has taught at the Chicago Art Institute, University of Kentucky, and University of Rhode Island, and she has produced over 25 short films, judged numerous film festivals, and received a dozen regional and state grants. In 1994, Longstreet Press published “Cartoon Girl”, a book of Heather’s comic strips and illustrations. Heather and her husband Chris Ligon, a singer-songwriter, created an animated pilot and short pieces for MTV in the mid-1990s. Heather’s comics and illustrations have appeared in various publications including The Chicago Reader, New York Press, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Harper’s. She has staged one-woman gallery shows in 2019, 2022, and 2024 at Firecat Projects in Chicago and was part of a major exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2021. Heather's films have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) and National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) in 2024 and 2025.

Recent events 

Sunday, June 22, 2025:  Speed Art Museum, Lousiville, KY, "Six Restored Films of Heather McAdams"

Thursday, July 17, 2025:  Academy of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, "Kind of a Drag: Experimental Films, Documentaries, and Scratch Animation by Heather McAdams, 1980-1995"

Sunday, July 20, 2025:  Roxie Theater, San Francisco, "Cartoon Girl: The Restored Films of Heather McAdams"

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