Exhibitions, Community-Based Projects, & More
Below you will find a selection of exhibitions, projects, and community initiatives that I have organized in and around New York City. You can read my reflections on topics that include Harlem, parenting, entrepreneurship, placemaking, affordable housing, and more here.
The Oracle of Amplitude: A solo exhibition with Heather Hart at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
On View: May 2, 2019 - January 20, 2020
[Placeholder] Interdisciplinary artist Heather Hart brings to Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling the newest iteration of her interactive installation series of rooftop Oracles. The Museum presents The Oracle of Amplitude, an independent rooftop, similar to the Artist’s own gabled roof from childhood removed from its house and edging its way into the gallery floor. Hart invites visitors to interact with the life-sized roof to explore, to look, to talk, and to listen. Over the course of the exhibition, the roof will be further activated with live performances and storytelling sessions. The Oracle of Amplitude is Hart’s ninth site-specific installation in this series and the first to be installed in Manhattan.
Recuérdame: A solo exhibition with Justin Favela at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
On View: October 17, 2018 - September 29, 2019
[Placeholder] Recuérdame, a new mural by Las Vegas-based artist Justin Favela, commissioned by Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, is a celebration of Mexican history and culture through the lens of landscape.
Organized by guest curator Petrushka Bazin Larsen, Favela’s murals take visitors on a phantasmagoric adventure, rending the Mexican landscape in piñata-cut tissue paper. From the imagery found in Jose Maria Velasco’s expansive 19th-century canvases, to Walt Disney’s 1944 live-action animation film The Three Caballeros and 2017 Pixar animated film Coco, Favela covers over 1,000 square feet of the Museum in a full array of chromatic hues. The result is a larger-than-life immersive environment that recalls some of Favela’s memories of driving through Mexico’s countryside during his visits as a child, as well as contemporary cinematic references that were created for both Latin-American and non-Latin-American audiences to celebrate and exoticize Mexican culture.
This exhibition will be accompanied by a host of storytelling programs and artmaking activities inspired by the artist’s use of materials, a celebration of Mexican culture and the delight affiliated with piñatas.
Our City: A Group Exhibition at Brooklyn Children’s Museum
On View: March 10, 2016 - September 4, 2016
[Placeholder] Our City was an interactive exhibit featuring the work of contemporary artists exploring the components that make up our neighborhoods and city. Children took on the roles of urban planners, artists, architects, and visionaries as they talk about the places they call home. Our City included artwork by Aisha Cousins, Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine (Oasa DuVerney and Mildred Beltre), Elizabeth Hamby, James Rojas, Priscilla Stadler, and Rusty Zimmerman.
Our City sought to challenge visitors to consider what it means to be a neighbor and what makes a neighborhood. Who do you greet when you step outside or walk down your street? What are the characteristics of a happy and healthy neighborhood? What do the people in your neighborhood look like? What do the buildings look like? What’s your favorite thing to do in this place? This exhibition created an opportunity for children from different parts of the city to be in conversation with each other and their caregivers about these questions. Additionally, it champions curiosity and lifelong learning by way of inquiry-based teaching, which creates opportunities for children to lead the conversation.
Wilderness Camp: Tattfoo Tan at Brooklyn Children’s Museum
On View: January 21 - May 28, 2017
[Placeholder] Wilderness Camp was an indoor experience that brought the great outdoors to family audiences through role-play and the exploration of nature. This interactive installation, created in partnership with contemporary artist Tattfoo Tan, gave families the opportunity to explore how we interact with and rely on nature for our basic needs and resources. Kids and their caregivers learned about different ways of creating shelters, plants that provide food and building materials, and techniques that transform natural materials into functional, everyday objects. Wilderness Camp offered visitors the opportunity to take on the roles of outdoor explorers and gain a heightened appreciation of our precious natural resources that we can all work toward preserving.
MakerSpace: An Artist Residency with play:groundNYC at Brooklyn Children’s Museum
On View: January 21 – February 19, 2016
[Placeholder] Inspired by Scandinavian adventure playgrounds, MakerYard invited children to test their motor skills and imaginations as they construct, build, and invent structures and other creations using everyday materials such as cardboard, tape, fabric, string and recyclables. Parents and caregivers were invited to sit back and let children explore independently, or work collaboratively to create together. Play:ground NYC is a non-profit adventure playground that has operated on Governors Island in New York City since 2016 and advocates for access to space for free play. Prior to operating on Govern'or’s Island, the group installed and led this indoor play space as artists’ in residence at Brooklyn Children’s Museum.