Fellowships
Supporting artists, researchers, and community-based initiatives that connect people to environmental solutions.
Past Fellows
2019
Heather Falconer is the founder of Hatchers’, a container for stories about the jubilant but sometimes painful act of expression, and everything that goes along with it. These stories are about the difficult, yet rewarding journey of being a creator. Hatchers’ mission is to hold space, to educate and inspire each other and future generations, encourage collaboration and build community.
Kwame Opoku-Duku is a Ghanaian-American poet and fiction writer. His work is featured or forthcoming in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, BOMB, The Literary Review, Bettering American Poetry, The Massachusetts Review, and other journals. Kwame lives in New York City, where he is a teaching artist and an Impact Artist Resident, and along with the poet Karisma Price, he is a founding member of the Unbnd Collective.
Sound Mind Collective is an organization based in Brooklyn, NY founded in the Spring of 2017 by Katherine Powell (KP Artist Management), Chris St. Hilaire (musician, London Souls, Sinkane) and Nikhil P. Yerawadekar (musician, Nikhil P. Yerawadekar & Low Mentality). Our aim is to connect independent musicians and artists with our local communities to encourage meaningful positive growth through education, social justice advocacy and creativity.
SMC also provides resources for independent artists to help foster a socially conscious and self-sustaining creative community in the face of an increasingly corporate music industry.
Justin D. Johnson is a self-taught, contemporary, and multi-disciplinary American visual artist from Atlanta whose goal is to shine light on themes of ancestry, the human connection to nature, dichotomies of beauty, and humanity. His work extends from mixed-media, painting, and photography to film and sculpture; that explore topics ranging from history, science, mythology, and spirituality. His theological mythologies and ideologies are demonstrated through the body of work in forms of found materials, utilizing certain pieces from his past and traditional African works/sculptures.
Jill Kubit is the director and co-founder of DearTomorrow, which she started when her son Gabriel was 18 months old and has been working to build it ever since. After spending a decade working with the U.S. labor movement on climate change, she has become fascinated with how to best engage people on the complex issue of climate change. She has a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.A. from Northwestern.
Aurash Khawarzad: Aurash Khawarzad is an Artist, Educator, and Urban Planner. His work emphasizes the combination of creative practice, scientific research, and multi-disciplinary collaboration, in the process of urban redevelopment. Most recently he created The Upper Manhatta(n) Project, a multi-disciplinary plan for climate change preparedness.
Kelly Todd is a native of Houston, TX, where she began her training in classical ballet at Festival Ballet and contemporary dance at Metropolitan Dance Company. Continuing her education, she received a BFA in Modern Dance from Texas Christian University and a Double Minor in Biology and Environmental Science. Kelly has been awarded the LEIMAY Fellowship in Brooklyn, NY which provides fully subsidized rehearsal space along with a public New York Garden Showing for the creation of Under Review: Katahdin and Riding Red.
Tarik Mohamed and Kristin Gutekunst are the co-founders of the Overview Collective is a vocational & educational program that uses immersive multimedia and offline community building to spur awareness and action – inspiring the Next Generation of the future economic workforce to seek green careers.
Tarik is an award-winning Immersive Media Specialist and founder of Captivision with an entrepreneurial mindset, a passion for innovation and a drive to solve complex creative problems through strategic planning and leadership. He works directly with tourism boards, travel & cultural organizations, and brands to create spell-binding virtual and augmented reality experiences that inspire the right audience at the right time. Along with producing engaging VR & AR experiences for organizations such as Explore Brooklyn, UNICEF, USA Today VR, NowThis and Qatar Airways, he crafts effective marketing strategies incorporating innovative 360° digital Ad placements across the web and social media channels, as well as launching VR installations in high-trafficked areas and during special events.
Kristin is an expert in new media, brand, and partnerships with over 8 years of progressive experience working at the United Nations in campaigning for development, particularly through the combination of high-level advocacy strategies, grassroots mobilization, youth engagement, and innovative communications such as immersive and new media. Many of the projects she developed and launched have been streamlined, becoming standard for new media and communications at the UN as it has embraced the opportunity of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Nate and Hila are a NYC-based duo that crosses hip-hop with philosophy, comedy and performance art to address ecological concerns in an urgent, hilarious and hopeful manner. Sir Kn8 (pronounced Sir Nate, aka Nathan Dufour Oglesby) is a writer, rapper and producer. Hila the Killa (aka Hila Perry) is a rapper, comedian and filmmaker. Their endeavor as Killin H8 is to make you think, laugh and gyrate your booty in harmonious simultaneity.
Sara Boccaccini Meadows is a print designer and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from the rolling hills of the Peak District, England. She graduated from Leeds College of Art with a 1st class Hons in Textiles and Surface Pattern.
The Lovelies are a 4th generation compositional improvisation company working to uncover, establish and conclude the present through investigation, curiosity and discovery. Makers of dance and sound, sculptors of space and designers of time, the Lovelies push each other, question the possibilities, radically listen and generally help, hinder, intersect, bypass, support, infiltrate, destroy and create pieces in the moment.
Annalee Fisher (Chris Goodrich) is a theatrical director and drag queen living in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Nashville, TN, Analee’s alter ego Chris went to the University of Miami for his BFA in musical theatre. In addition to directing theater and making visual art, Analee’s specialty is writing parody lyrics to classic songs and performing them live.
Madame Vivien V (Scott Dennis) is the larger than life goddess of New York City nightlife best known as the Resident Drag Queen of House of Yes. She produces and emcees events across the city, as well as produces and headlines at national festivals including Electric Forest and Bonnaroo where this year she performed with pop country sensation Kacey Musgraves. An award winning fire performer and alumni of the prestigious Commercial Theatre Institute; she’s appeared in The New York Times, VOGUE.com, BrokeAssStuart, the viral Facebook TV show “Nowhere Men,” and is currently featured in Planned Parenthood's cross-platform campaign.
Sophie-O-Path (Nathaniel Harrington) is a NYC based drag queen. She does aerial performance art, as well as make music and occasionally costume commissions. She is never one to turn down a good time; this queen will turn out every performance, whether it be a benefit for reclaim pride or a competition.
SustainUS is a youth-led organization advancing justice and sustainability by empowering young people to engage in advocacy at the domestic and international levels. We mobilize as US youth at key political moments to push political leaders, multinational institutions, and other global actors to stand on the side of justice.
2018
Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario is the Founder and Executive Director of Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE). As a committed human rights activist, artist, educator, and advocate for youth, Marissa launched ARTE in 2013 to help young people amplify their voices and organize for human rights change in their communities through the arts.
Monica Montgomery is a cultural entrepreneur, curating media, museums and memory to enhance creative inspiration. Monica is the Founding Director of the Museum of Impact leading MOI in working within communities to amplify grassroots movements, at the intersection of art and activism thru a creative lens.
Christopher Lee Kennedy is a transdisciplinary artist and educator who creates site-specific projects that examine conventional notions of ‘Nature’ and the biocultural possibility of interspecies agency and collaboration. His projects aim to highlight the ecological and social value of so-called wastelands for both humans and non-humans.
Olivia Scott is a Printmaker and fine artist living in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in Printmaking with a minor in the History and Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Founded by veteran public media producers Josephine Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum, Future Projects Media offers consulting and production services for select partners with the goal of pushing the boundaries of what multimedia can do. Josie is a multi-platform storyteller, composer and journalist. Isaac is an audio producer, designer and journalist.
Christine is a Creative Director working in the advertising/entertainment industries creating catchy phrases for brands and also designs music videos for social impact, including for such artists as Katy Perry, Pink and Jay-Z. Christine’s concepts have been nominated for Cannes Lions awards, AICP awards and her concept for Katy Perry’s “Firework” music video was awarded MTV’s highest honor of ‘Best Music Video of the Year.’
Niki Singleton is a Canadian Brooklyn-based painter, illustrator, and sculptor. She is interested in devising fictitious narratives and subversive characters to explore the issues her contemporary society faces through fantastical roll play and metaphor. Her paintings witness injustice while celebrating difference, the power of the underdog and resilience in the face of adversity.
Chance Ecologies is a framework for artistic gestures and research projects exploring the un-designed landscapes and wilderness found in abandoned spaces, post-industrial sites, and landfills. Catherine Grau is an artist based in Long Island City, Queens, working in the field of public and participatory art practices. Nathan Kensinger is a photographer, filmmaker, installation artist and curator based in Brooklyn. Sarah Nelson Wright creates media projects about the urban experience.
The interdisciplinary performance group of Lemon Guo, Mengtai Zhang, and Jing Li is a New York based performance group. Lemon Guo is an interdisciplinary artist from China, and her recent solo and ensemble work often creates intimate yet distant listening situations for evocative and subtle vocal performances. Mengtai Zhang is an artist currently based in New York, and his works appear as ambivalent allegories of power. Jing Li focuses on costume design.
Howl II Yoni is a movement of creative, socially conscious women and femme-identifying people. We come from all walks of life, woven together by similar stories of classism, racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia. H II Y supports Women of Color from low-income communities of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Brooklyn by using engaging hyper-local programming and events that empower women to find their creative expression, community support and sisterhood.
2017
N. Scott Johnson is an architect and founding principal of XDEA, a design firm located in New York City focusing on the cross roads of public space, performance and architecture. Prior to XDEA, Scott was a Principal at Diller Scofidio+Renfro, COO at Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and COO at Richard Meier and Partners, all in New York City. XDEA's recent clients include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
A dancer-choreographer from New York, Jody Sperling is the founder and Artistic Director of Time Lapse Dance. She has created more than 40 works and has performed and taught in the US, Bahrain, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Scotland and north of the Arctic Circle. In 2014, Sperling participated in a polar science mission to the Arctic as the first-ever choreographer-in-residence aboard a US Coast Guard icebreaker.
Mark John Smith is a British artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and BA Hons Degrees in Fine Art and Art History from The University for the Creative Arts, in the United Kingdom. Mark is a founding member of Franklin Collective and currently serves on the advisory board of Rutgers University's Design Thinking program.
Lanxing Fu is a Chinese-American writer, director, and performer. In addition to being a lead administrator for Superhero Clubhouse, Lani is the project director for the Living Stage and a co-creator of PLUTO and JUPITER. She holds a B.A. in Humanities, Science, and Environment and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Virginia Tech. She has collaborated and led interdisciplinary theater projects about contemporary consumerism, globalization, and the environment in Sri Lanka, Morocco, Turkey, and the U.S.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Carolyn Monastra received her MFA in photography from The Yale School of Art. For the past fifteen years her work has focused on creating and discovering mystery in the natural world. Her project The Witness Tree honors and preserves places affected by climate change. Over the past four years she has visited nineteen US states, seventeen countries and every continent researching and photographing for this project.
Jeremy Pickard founded Superhero Clubhouse in 2007, and has since become a leading voice on theater and environmentalism. In 2015 his essay "On Eco-Theater" was published by TCG in the book Innovations in Five Acts, edited by Caridad Svich. Jeremy is the lead playwright, co-creator, and co-director of the Planet Play series, Flying Ace and the Storm of the Century, and Salty Folk. He continues to teach and direct for the annual Big Green Theater Festival, which he co-created.
Christine is a Creative Director working in the advertising/entertainment industries creating catchy phrases for brands and also designs music videos for social impact, including for such artists as Katy Perry, Pink and Jay-Z. Christine’s concepts have been nominated for Cannes Lions awards, AICP awards and her concept for Katy Perry’s “Firework” music video was awarded MTV’s highest honor of ‘Best Music Video of the Year.’
Sergey Pigach is a designer at XDEA Architects - a New York-based practice that operates at an intersection of art, architecture and cultural research. As a Pratt graduate, Sergey has devoted a considerable portion of his academic career investigating the relationship between art history, current architectural theory and innovations in computational design.
Chantal is a playwright and translator whose work explores the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change. She is the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle – an organization created to support the writing, development and production of eight plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states; the founder of the blog and international network Artists and Climate Change, and; a co-founder of Climate Change Theatre Action.
Eve Mosher is an artist, interventionist and playworker-in-training, living and working in New York City. Her works use investigations of the landscape as starting points for audience exploration of urban issues. Her public works raise issues on the environment, public/private space use, history of place, cultural and social issues and our understanding of the urban ecosystem. Her work has been profiled in international media including the The New Yorker, New York Times, ARTnews, and Le Monde.
Julia Levine is a creative collaborator and vegetarian. She is Marketing Assistant at HERE, Associate Producer for the International Human Rights Art Festival, co-organizer for Climate Change Theatre Action, and writer for the blog series Artists & Climate Change. Julia creates new performance pieces as part of The Food Plays, an initiative she founded to raise questions about food, climate, and justice.