Niki Read is an artist, end-of-life practitioner and researcher whose work explores grief, care and connection. Drawing on socially engaged arts practice, death literacy and participatory inquiry, she creates projects that make visible the often-overlooked ways people care for one another through loss, change and uncertainty. Her current work investigates grief entangled and the aesthetics of care, exploring how relationships, creativity, place and collective acts of attention shape our capacity to belong, remember and flourish.

At the forefront of the death literacy movement for over 15 years, Niki’s work in the sector has spanned research, arts and health, funeral services, community development and education, and includes social and arts-based approaches to death, dying, memorialisation and bereavement.

Niki’s creative practice has included the visual arts, installation, writing, theatre design, arts management, community arts and a few forays into performance. Niki graduated from WSU with a Visual Arts degree in the 1990’s. Common themes in her work include loss and grief, social justice, climate and feminist issues, her love of nature, and birds, lots of birds.