Professionals

Since 2008, co-founders Max Frieder and Joel Bergner—first independently and later jointly— have led hundreds of Artolution community-based public art projects around the world. Artolution became incorporated as a non-profit corporation in 2016 with a focus on developing sustainable programs in communities where we have been active, to be facilitated by local artists trained by Frieder and Bergner.

Ms. Mitchell is Executive Director of Passion Works Studio and CEO of Creative Abundance Consulting. She believes that collaboratively creating art and inviting community participation offers a vehicle for staff and agencies to move away from institutionalized thinking and develop individualized programming. As an artist in residence, Patty Mitchell has helped organizations nationally and internationally start up arts programming ventures

As an artist, Nicole wants to see more art in her community. After teaching art to k-12 students, and working as a studio assistant for artists such as McArthur recipient Amalia Mesa-Bains, Nicole along with 4 follow female artists formed the nonprofit-The Artist Collective. When moving back to Southern California, Nicole wanted to create a similar nonprofit, thus the creation of Building Community Through Art.

Hank Willis Thomas is a photo conceptual artist working with themes of identity, history and popular culture. Eric Gottesman is an artist, teacher and organizer with his work in various collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Open Society Institute. The nonpartisan group has organized events, exhibitions, nationwide campaigns, and public art projects—including works by Pedro Reyes, Carrie Mae Weems, Jorly Flores, and Christine Sun Kim—to advocate for the importance of those core principles. In 2018, they launched the “50 State Initiative” timed to the midterm elections in the U.S., and sought to heighten civic engagement by coordinating exhibitions in every single state.

Using repurposed materials, Theater Gates founded the Rebuild Foundation. Gates creates work that focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, Gates redeems spaces that have been left behind.This foundation hosts exhibitions and event alongside a library within the transformed Stony Island Arts Bank. It also operates the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative.

"Based in North Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, the Tessera Arts Collective (TAC) has only been around for two years but has already developed a broad slate of initiatives, from exhibitions, lectures, and workshops to its fledgling publication Abstractions Magazine and its “Free Art Bin” program, which makes small abstract works of art by Black and Brown women artists available for free. The TAC was founded by artist A’Driane Nieves to support and show the work of artists of color who are womxn (including femme, nonbinary, queer, and trans individuals) and who make abstract art. Discussing her decision to create a space focused on showing abstract art in a recent interview with Artblog, Nieves explained that “as a Black person, especially, if you have had to fight for your survival, nothing about your existence or your imagination is abstract. Everything has to be concrete and tangible.”

Kelley Lindquist is renowned for building Artspace Projects, Inc.--America's leading nonprofit real estate developer for creative communities--from the ground up. Since Mr. Lindquist joined Artspace in 1987 as the sole employee managing a budget of $60,000, he has grown the nonprofit organization to a team of 70 with a national Board of Directors, and an annual average budget of $20 million. Today he oversees the stewardship of 51 mixed-use projects that Artspace owns and operates nationwide, representing more than a $600 million investment in America's urban and rural arts infrastructure. These properties provide more than 1,700 live/work units to low-income artists and their families, as well as more than $3 million in rent subsidies delivered annually. Nearly 500 commercial tenants--including arts and cultural organizations, creative entrepreneurs, and small businesses--also benefit from below market rate spaces.

Tionenji Aiken (Tio Aiken) is the Vice President of Communications for Artspace Projects Inc. Recruited to Artspace in 2016 as the Communications Manager, Aiken has slowly shifted the Artspace brand to focus on multi-format storytelling with a deep desire to highlight the intersectionality of Artspace's diverse residential communities and partnerships nationwide. In 2017, Aiken became the Director of Communications. She also became the Program Director for the Rafala Green Fellowship program, a two-year fellowship that promotes equity and inclusion in non-profit real-estate by training the next generation of POCI emerging leaders working at the intersection of arts, real-estate, and community development, funded by the Ford Foundation. Outside of her formal roles at Artspace, Aiken is a practicing poet and a champion of anyone using their creative expression to make space in the world for positive change. She currently sits on the advisory boards of Made Here MN and Giant Steps MN, and the Board of Directors for the Twin Cities Jazzfest.