Elise Butterfield is a curator, arts administrator, and performer. She currently works as a Curator of Exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center. Most recently, Elise curated an exhibition of new work by Bryana Bibbs, two hundred and fifty one days (Feb 1 - May 18, 2025). Elise developed and oversaw the 2024 Exhibition Performance Residencies, curating Tend, a project by Khecari. In the last two years, Elise has organized numerous exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, including Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures, A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration and Images on Which to Build: 1970s - 1990s.
As a performer, Elise recently appeared in Água Viva at Elastic Arts (March 2025) and Willingly with TSMP (Feb 2025).
Elise is a graduate of the dual Contemporary Art History and Arts Administration and Policy MA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she received the New Artist Society full merit scholarship. While she was a student at SAIC, Elise worked as a Graduate Curatorial Assistant in the Exhibitions department and curated Eiko Otake's residency and exhibition, I Invited Myself, vol. 1 (Jan - Feb, 2022).
Prior to moving to Chicago, Elise served as Gallery and Programs Director at Art Access in Salt Lake City, Utah. Elise is originally from Seattle and holds BAs in Dance and International Studies from the University of Washington.