CUP’s core staff supports the organization from day to day, but CUP projects are designed and implemented by teams of artists, designers, educators, activists, and researchers.
Alice Shay is an urban planner and city designer. She worked with CUP in 2005 on a performance art walking tour of Governor’s Island’s past imagined futures and an episode of Public Housing TV about tenant’s rights. Alice studied Modern Culture and Media at Brown University and City Planning at MIT.
closeGreat design is more than style; its a combination of strategic thinking and creative solutions. Nadia Shen strives to deliver design concepts that are smart and engaging, and realized with clarity and imagination. After working as a lead designer at Parsons Institute for Information Mapping, a research and development lab for emerging design and technology, and Post+Beam, an integrated marketing and communications firm, she started Brite Lines-a design consultancy focusing on brand development and user experience for start ups and entrepreneurs. She is a graduate of Chelsea College, London and Parsons School of Design here in New York. britelines.com
Nadia was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.
closeMolly Sherman is an artist and designer living in Portland, Oregon. Her practice is made up of socially engaged art projects and graphic design work. As a designer, she has worked at Project Projects and with a wide range of clients including the Hammer Museum and Portland Art Museum. She is currently an MFA candidate in Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice Program and holds a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
closeVictoria Shire has over 20 years of experience mobilizing public, private and philanthropic investments to advance community, neighborhood and organizational development. She is the Chief Program Officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, where she leads and develops programs that reach over 3,000 youth each year. Victoria holds an MPA from Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and a BA in philosophy from Wittenberg University. She lives in Harlem with her husband, daughter, and son, and has never given up on the Chicago Cubs. Victoria joined the CUP board in 2012.
closeShristi was a Program Assistant at CUP. She received a BA from Mount Holyoke College with a major in Studio Art. She is interested in using art as a means of community engagement. As an artist for a public art project called Kolor Kathmandu, she painted murals around the city of Kathmandu, Nepal, where she was born and raised. Before CUP, she was an Intern at Renegade Performance Group. She enjoys walking, biking, and cooking.
closeNika Simovich, a New York based graphic designer, uses interactive experiences to explore the relationship between history and the internet. She is interested in non-designed spaces and the intersection of technology and design
closeAndrew Sloat is a graphic designer and filmmaker. His studio makes books, identities, educational videos, ads, and websites for non-profits, cultural institutions, and corporate clients. He lives and works in Brooklyn, is active in local and state-level good-government activism, and teaches in the graphic design MFAprogram at RISD.
closeBecky Slogeris is a social designer and educator based in Baltimore, MD. A graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, her work is focused on re-thinking public education and empowering students to create change in their communities. She worked with CUP and students at CUNY College Now to create “Get Money!” Becky’s website is http://designing-education.com/
closeDavid Smiley teaches architectural design and urban history at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. His research and teaching focus on the ways the discipline of architecture overlaps with planning, policy, preservation, finance and community-based initiatives. His book, Pedestrian Modern: American Architecture and Shopping, 1925-1956, (Minnesota, 2013) examines how architects joined modernist design and planning ideas with new programs and scales of retailing. Smiley has organized conferences on the use of public spaces and streets in New York City and has written about malls, urban design and suburban housing. He previously taught at Barnard College were he organized symposia including “Rights of Way” in 2009 and “Moving Toward Utopia” in 2010, at which invited planners, architects, community advocates and public officials examined bikeways and other changes to public space in the NYC. Previous publications include Redressing the Mall: Sprawl and Public Space in Suburbia (2002) and Hell’s Kitchen South: Developing Strategies (2001). David is a member and the Chair of CUP’s Board.
closeStudents from the Academy of Urban Planning, in Aisha Haynes’ English Language Arts Class, collaborated with CUP on “Soda Census.”
closeMaxwell Sorensen is a Brooklyn- and sometimes Philadelphia-based director and animator specializing in stop-motion animation, traditional puppetry, and a handmade aesthetic. His work has been featured on MTV2, MTVU,FUSE, as an official selection at SXSW, and on small screens across the globe. He has experience as a stop-motion animator and as a digital motion graphics artist working in Adobe After Effects. maxwellsorensen.com
Maxwell was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow and worked on Shifty Business.
closeJuliette Spertus is an architect and curator. Her work focuses on the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and public space. She uses cultural programming to publicly draw parallels between overlooked experiences of the recent past and current strategies for the built environment. She organized the exhibit Fast Trash: Roosevelt Island’s Pneumatic Tubes and the Future of Cities, and collaborated with CUP on the educational programming. She is continuing her research on pneumatic collection and is planning a new exhibition.
closeAngela Starita is a graduate student, freelance writer and teacher. Her work has been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, Print, Metropolis, The New York Times, and other publications. She is interested in industrial architecture and the work of Lina Bo Bardi and other Brazilian modern architects. Angela was an intern at CUP.
closeSam Stark is the author of the children’s book Diderot: French Philosopher and Father of the Encyclopedia. He works as an assistant editor at Harper’s Magazine.
Sam Stark has worked on Building Codes, and Social Security Risk Machine.
closeStudents from the BCCP collaborated with CUP and Mads Lynnerup on “Store Stories.”
closeThe Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with nearly 2,000 vendor members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. We reach out to vendors in the streets and storage garages and teach them about their legal rights and responsibilities. We hold meetings where we plan collective actions for getting our voices heard. We publish reports and file lawsuits to raise public awareness about vendors and the enormous contribution they make to our city. Finally, we help vendors grow their businesses by linking them with small business training and loans.
The Street Vendor Project Collaborated with CUP on the Vendor Power! MPP.
closeStreetwise & Safe—also known as SAS—is a project by and for youth of color in New York City that shares the ins & outs, do’s & don’ts, and street politics of police encounters between LGBTQQ youth of color and the police. We also stand for and with LGBTQQ and youth with experience trading sex for survival needs. We feel knowing your rights makes you more confident in protecting yourself during and after interactions with the police. We also know that the reality is that the police don’t always respect our rights but knowing what they are is important so that we can fight for them later. We also create a space to share strategies to stay safe from all forms of violence experienced by LGBTQQ youth, and advocate for policies that will change the ways police interact with us.
closeCelina Su is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York and a co-founder of the Burmese Refugee Project. Her research focuses on civil society organizations, participatory community development and policy-making, and youth empowerment. She authored Streetwise for Book Smarts: Grassroots Organizing and Education Reform in the Bronx (Cornell University Press, 2009) and co-authored Our Schools Suck: Young People Talk Back to a Segregated Nation on the Failure of Urban Education (NYU Press, 2009). She is a long-time CUP fan, as well as a contributing researcher and writer to its City Without a Ghetto project.
closeHot Sundae is 50% Amelia Irwin and 50% Nicole Killian. They met a year ago while working their design day job at Nickelodeon. After realizing they both had the same beliefs over Degrassi Junior High they decided to join forces to create a new super-powered design duo. Amelia had already been trained at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Nicole decided to do the same. 50% of Hot Sundae is from the trails of Appalachia and the other half is from the snow piles of Buffalo. 100% of them like kittens, ice cream, drawing, typography, and pizza. Hot Sundae is currently working with CUP on the Keeping Parks Public MPP.
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