Dawn Weleski co-founded Conflict Kitchen, a take-out restaurant serving cuisine from countries in conflict with the U.S. Their art practice tests cultural norms, transforming protests and public offices into social stages. Notable projects include City Council Wrestling, where citizens and officials became wrestling characters representing their political passions, and Refuse Refuse: Radio, a climate-focused radio series supported by the Anonymous Was a Woman Environmental Art Grant and NY State Council on the Arts, which dramatizes survival stories in rural New York.
With over 25 years in hospitality, Weleski also co-leads emergentCNY, a mutual aid network in Central New York, which uses a repurposed ambulance to share stories of aid and resilience. Currently the Student Life Sustainability Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan, they co-initiated Noon at Night, a solidarity network of transgressive learners bonded by food and collective resilience.