John Early

John Early is a visual artist working across the fields of socially engaged art, installation, and drawing. His recent work focuses on spatial equity in St. Louis’ public parks and how issues of race, class, and gender shape the recreational landscape of the city. Since 2021, he has collaborated with sports studies scholar Noah Cohan on the interdisciplinary activist project “Whereas Hoops,” which examines the longstanding absence of basketball courts in St. Louis’ Forest Park. In part because of their work, basketball courts opened for the first time in Forest Park’s history in July 2024. An artists’ book accompanying the project was acquired by several collections including the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Library & Research Center at the Missouri Historical Society. The Regional Arts Commission awarded Early a grant to continue the work of Whereas Hoops, the next phase of which is aimed at restoring and beautifying public outdoor basketball courts in St. Louis City and ensuring their long-term maintenance for the communities they serve. In 2022, Early contributed an essay to the edited volume, “The Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson,” and was interviewed for a chapter in the newly published book, “Athletic Activism: Global Perspectives on Social Transformation.” Early is a senior lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and a faculty affiliate at WashU’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2). He is also the undergraduate academic advising coordinator for the Sam Fox School and serves as the faculty director for the college of art’s summer pre-college program.