Catherine Menard is a Los Angeles based artist working across a range of media including video, performance, installation, painting, and sculpture. She often unites these elements to create site-specific and immersive environments that may amount to “total works.” Menard trained classically as a ballet dancer for over ten years, graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy as a Theatre Performance major (2005) and received both her Bachelor of Science in Spatial Experience Design (2014) and Master of Fine Art (2023) from ArtCenter College of Design. She has trained theatrically with Playhouse West (Sanford Meisner), clowning with Idiot Workshop and Kira Nova, Butoh with master Oguri (student of Hijikata) as well as with master Hiroko Tamano of Harupin-Ha Dance Theater. She has studied shamanic practices with The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Jungian Psychology with Pacifica Graduate Institute, and divination with The Golden Dome School and the Philosophical Research Society.
She has been internationally recognized for her permanent public artwork—The Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial—completed in 2015 and located in Pasadena’s Memorial Park. She has lectured at Glendale Community College, has presented for Place By Design at the SXSW Eco Conference in their inaugural year, and served in panel discussions at the Brand Library and Art Center which explored “Art as a path to social justice and collective healing.” Menard recently exhibited and performed at The Box in downtown Los Angeles.