Maggie Leininger is a Chicago area artist and educator utilizing visual art as an engagement tool to activate creative communities. Leininger's studio practice explores the intersectionality of social patterns and coded languages primarily through the use of threads that are woven, stitched, collaged, or assimilated. Having grown up in a Southern mill town during the decline of the textile industry, Leininger's work explores the relationship between anonymous labor, the extraction of resources, and systems of production within an industrialized framework. Another recurring theme in Leininger's work considers identity and social expectations related to garment construction and the history of handwork such as sewing, embroidery, knitting, and weaving. In tandem with her studio practice, Leininger also founded and runs 10 Fold Projects, an artist studio and gallery space in Greencastle, IN that offers artist residencies, workshops, curated exhibitions, and other art-related events.

Leininger has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships, and artist residencies. Notable artist residencies and fellowships include support from Kala Institute in Berkeley, CA, The Present Group in San Francisco, CA, Scottsdale Public Art Commission, the Kentucky Historical Society, Mansfield Institute of Social Justice, Illinois Arts Council, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Leininger has exhibited her work nationally including the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM, South Bend Museum of Art, and the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, IL.