PRINCIPAL DESIGN DIRECTORinvisiblelabor | 2010-Present
» I partner with artists, institutions and civic agencies to design, envision and produce creative projects in the public realm; bringing ideas to life in parks, along streetscapes and through community-embedded design that connects people within vibrant places. I specialize in projects at the intersections of public art, ecological design, regenerative agriculture, waterfront restoration, and community empowerment.
» Recent clients include: Resilient Red Hook, 2023-25; Alice Austen House Museum, 2023-24; Brooklyn Public Library, 2018-21; The High Line, 2017-19; New York Hall of Science, 2016-19; Vera List Center for Art & Politics, 2017-19
LANDSCAPE DIRECTORGowanus Canal Conservancy, Brooklyn NY | 2024-25
« Directed & managed development and maintenance of a 5-year strategic plan with Executive Director to scale across 18 acres of new public waterfront landscapes within the Gowanus Canal watershed. Led site analysis, design & visioning for future restoration areas, developed drawings to support capital investment. Worked alongside Landscape Architects and Project Managers at SCAPE to fulfill the 2019 Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan and maintain landscapes along the Canal. Grew staff and budget by 20% for FY2026. Managed agency partnerships with DCP, DEC, DOT, DSNY, NYC Parks, local city council offices, developers, and community organizations. Developed a GIS database for street tree planting and management, supervised a team of staff members including Nursery Manager, Stewardship Manager and Maintenance Gardeners.
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONSSocrates Sculpture Park, Queens NY | 2023-24
« Cultivated city, state and federal partnerships for climate resiliency initiatives with the Executive Director, shaped strategy and fundraised for the $1.8M nonprofit organization. Re-structured a longstanding Artist Fellowship program to emphasize landscape interventions addressing the waterfront landscape. Directed and completed an $8M capital project, opened the Park’s first public building in April 2024. Oversaw GC and contractors, liaised with NYC Parks capital projects team and stakeholders at the DEC, FDNY and NYPD. Oversaw the development of a sustainable operations and conservation management plan; created, balanced and reported on budgets, incorporated infrastructure enhancements and waterfront resiliency improvements for the 6-acre urban Park. Supervised 10 direct reports, provided staff guidance, reviews, hiring, and terminations.
MANAGER OF SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGAGEMENT Pioneer Works, Brooklyn NY | 2016-23
« Designed and led cultivation efforts for the $8M arts organization to expand capital improvements, outdoor exhibitions and climate resilience programs. Managed $500K budget for Community Programs and $1M for Landscape Operations, served as a liaison to funders & board members. Represented the organization at community board meetings, cultivated strategic partnerships with environmental justice stakeholders in Red Hook. Reduced the organization's carbon footprint by 10%, eliminated single-use plastics and diverted over 300,000 tons of organic waste in partnership with DSNY.
ADJUNCT LECTURERParsons School of Design, New York NY | 2018-20
« Designed curriculum and facilitated Sustainable Systems Course, exploring environmental issues as complex and interrelated topics with Undergraduates. Fieldwork and applied research methods were developed into creative works that addressed diversity, adaptability and resilience in the face of changing ecological conditions. Class sessions combined field trips, lectures, discussion, studio-based workshops, lab experiments and seminars.
PROGRAMS & OPERATIONS MANAGERSwale, New York NY | 2016-19
« Led operations aboard a public floating food forest. Developed strategic partnerships with agency stakeholders at DOE, DPR, DSNY, EDC, FDNY to ensure the operational success and sustainability of the project, aligned resources with neighborhood food security and climate goals, coordinated vessel management and fundraising initiatives for the 200ft barge docked at public piers across NYC. Designed marine ecology and environmental design workforce training programs to empower the next generation of stewards and professionals.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORSprout Farms, Brooklyn NY | 2015-16
« Designed and developed farm-to-cafeteria gardens at 6 NYC Department of Education public schools. Managed 5 staff members, built gardens in partnership with over 1000 students, teachers and parents, partnered with over 30 teachers who led interdisciplinary garden-based curriculum in English, Social Studies, Math and Science classes.
TRAINING & EDUCATION
2024
2022
2018
2015
2010
« Fellowship Finalist, New York Foundation for the Arts, NY
« Year 11 Fellowship Mentor, New INC, New Museum, NY
« Fellowship, ClimateBase
« Forefront Fellowship, Urban Design Forum, NY
« Stewardship Salon Member, US Forest Service
« Board Member, Mudhouse, Crete, GR
« Citizen Pruner Certificate, Trees NY
« Decelerator 2.0 Residency, The Strange Foundation, NY
« Peacemaker, Red Hook Justice Center, NY
« Super Steward, New York City Parks
« Soil Science Certificate, Paicines Ranch, CA
« Permaculture Design Certificate, The Old Stone House, NY
« Master Composter Certificate, DSNY, NY
« Bachelors of Arts, Ecology & Sculpture, Bennington College, VT
SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS
2023
2022
2020
2019
2018
2017
2014
2012
The Socrates Annual, Socrates Sculpture Park, NY
Queer Ecologies Project, Alice Austen House, NY
Community Lunch in Coffey Park, Pioneer Works, NY
Xin Liu, Seedlings and Offsprings, Pioneer Works, NY
Dean Erdmann, And, Apollo: A Laboratory, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, NY
Grafters X Change: Branches & Networks, Colgate College, Hamilton NY, March 29-30, 2019
« Ecologies of Transition Roundtable: We Are All Compost with Earth Matter, Governors Island, NY, October 6, 2019
« Ecologies of Transition Roundtable: Urban Carbon Farming, Pioneer Works, NY, September 26, 2019
« Emergent Naturecultures Roundtable: Darren J. Patrick, Pioneer Works, NY, November 28, 2018
« Emergent Naturecultures Roundtable: Jane Bennett, Pioneer Works, NY, November 7, 2018.
« Seeds of Change: A Colonization of Botany in NYC, Green Thumb Grow Together, BMCC, NY, 2018
« Swale & Carbon Sponge in Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator, Wave Hill, NY, 2018
« Emergent Naturecultures Roundtable: Getting Physical at the Feral Edges with the Environmental Performance Agency, Pioneer Works, NY, August 4, 2018
« Swale: Workarounds and Coalition Building for Public Food, Open Engagement SUSTAINABILITY, Queens Museum, NY, 2018
« Maria Thereza Alves, Seeds of Change: New York—A Botany of Colonization, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, NY, November 3-27, 2017
« 404; in unlimited: C’hu, Warmoesstraat 139, Amsterdam, 2017
« WILD PLANTS, QUEER LANDSCAPES; SEEDborder CrossWALK, Weeksville Heritage Center, NY, November 19, 2017
« WILD PLANTS, QUEER LANDSCAPES; A ballast weed walk, The High Line, NY, November 5, 2017
Weeds: Queering Species Boundaries, Seeds as Storyteller/Witness, The Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics 2016-2018: International Biennial Prize Conference, The New School, NY, 2017
«alternative health care package in Know/How, Royal NoneSuch Gallery, Oakland, CA
« the upturned table in The Possible, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
« invisible labor: Bay Area Art Workers Alliance in Bay Area Now 7, San Francisco, CA
« breathing room in EVERYTHING IS TEMP, TEMP art space, NY
« live disaster (life amplified) in Without Reality, There Is No Utopia, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
« breathing room, SIGNAL, Brooklyn, NY, 2012
SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
« “The Urban Fruit-Tree Vigilantes Case Brooklyn” Adam Iscoe, The New Yorker, October 16, 2023.
« “At This Staten Island Garden, the Plants Are All Queer.” Alyson Krueger, New York Times, June 1, 2023.
« Maria Thereza Alves: Seeds of Change; Edited by Carin Kuoni and Wilma Lukatsch. Co-published by Amherst College Press and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School, May 2023.
« New Loops; How Buildings, Neighborhoods and New Yorkers Shape Waste, Urban Design Forum as part of the Forefront Fellowship, 2022.
« “Sam Van Aken’s Living Art Practice” The Broadcast, Pioneer Works, New York, January 7, 2021.
« Weeds: Queering Species Boundaries in Toward a Common Survival at Gas Gallery and Prairie Chicago, The Institute of Queer Ecology, 2018
« Weeds: Queering Species Boundaries, Seeds as Storyteller/Witness; The Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics 2016-2018: International Biennial Prize Conference, The New School, November 3, 2017.
« “A Seed Artist Germinates History” Annie Correal, New York Times, October 31, 2017.
« “A Forest Floats on the Bronx River, With Free Produce” Alexandra S. Levine, New York Times, July 7, 2017.
« Girls Like Us, Issue #07, BODY, September 2016.
« Breathing Room, Center for the Sustainable Practice in the Arts Quarterly, 2013.