Hannah Brancato

Hannah Brancato, M.F.A., is an artist and educator based in Baltimore. As a Doctoral Student in American Studies, her research is about memory work and the role of art in anti-sexual violence movements, with a theoretical grounding in Indigenous studies, women of color feminisms and disability studies. 
 

Hannah’s research is informed by her role as co-founder FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an art/organizing collective active from 2010-2020, that produced a range of creative interventions to create a culture of consent. FORCE is best known for the Monument Quilt, a collection of 3,000 stories from survivors of sexual violence, written, painted and stitched onto red fabric. The “quilts” literally blanketed public spaces across the US and Mexico 50 times between 2013-2019, culminating in a massive installation on the National Mall, when the quilts were assembled across 1 mile to spell “Not Alone” and “No Estas Solx.” In addition to widespread media coverage, the Monument Quilt was featured on the Summer 2025 cover of Signs Journal, along with the publication of the article ““You Are Not Alone”: Feminist Memorialization and the Present Tense of Gender-Based Violence in the Monument Quilt,” by Harriet Gray and Phoebe Martin.
 

Brancato has 15 years of teaching experience, including part time faculty roles at Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University, and University of Maryland Baltimore County. Brancato lectures and holds  workshops related to her art practice and her research about trauma informed pedagogy, most recently leading trainings at Northern Virginia Community College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and giving artist talks at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Colgate University Women’s Center.