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.
CUP and CUP teaching artist Douglas Paulson worked with students from College Now at Brooklyn College on an Urban Investigation about neighborhood financial services. Those students were: Roodlyne Vilsaint, Kimberly Saintelus, Maniza Pritila, Alyssa Lau, Cynthia Dunston, Tommi Ann Davis, Shannae Braham, Alexa Betancourt.
close13 milliseconds is the fastest time it takes for your brain to process an image. It is also the creative studio run by Sharon Bach and Francois Huyghe. Coming from California and France, the two met in New York and have been working together on a range of projects in print, interactive, motion, and web design. They now live and work in Austin.
closeFatima was born and raised in NYC and is interested in all things urban. When not working, she likes to explore and relax in different parks around the city. Fatima is completing her bachelors in urban studies at Barnard College and is teaching this fall’s class on disaster planning.
closeMaggie Acevedo and Edwin Rodriguez, from City-as-School, were part of the Water Underground crew in 2006.
closeIan Adelman is Director of Digital Design at The New York Times, leading the team of world-class designers and user experience professionals responsible for the Times’s digital experiences. Previously, he was the Director of Design and User Experience at New York Magazine, a consultant in digital product design and business innovation, and founding art director of Slate.com. Ian graduated with a BFA in Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
closeAdhikaar, meaning rights in Nepali, is a nonprofit organization working in Nepali-speaking communities to promote human rights and social justice for all. Adhikaar provides a safe space for diverse Nepali-speaking new immigrant communities to gather, develop life skills and leadership, and be a voice for social justice.
closeShana Agid is an artist, teacher, writer, and activist whose work focuses on relationships of power and difference, particularly regarding sexuality, race, and gender in visual and political cultures. Agid is an Assistant Professor of Arts, Media, and Communication at Parsons the New School for Design where he teaches book arts, collaborative design, and service design. She has an MFA in Printmaking and Book Arts and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts. He is on the Editorial Board of Radical Teacher.
closeAHRC NYC is a family governed organization committed to finding ways for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities(I/DD) to build full lives as defined by each person and supported by dedicated families, staff and community partners. To help people with I/DD understand their options for living independently in New York State, CUP worked with AHRC-NYC to create What Does It Mean To Live In My Own Place?, an illustrated guide. The foldout poster helps people with I/DD understand their rights and options, and address their questions on living independently. https://www.ahrcnyc.org/
closeIn 2019 we were heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our Board Member and dear friend, Kofi Aidoo. Kofi had a passion for community engaged design and helped make CUP stronger through his service. His kind words, thoughtful remarks, seemingly boundless energy, and profound sense of joy lifted all of our spirits. We are grateful to have known Kofi and will continue to honor his memory in our work. Rest in power, Kofi.
closeCUP and CUP teaching artist Heidi Neilson worked with students from Lyons Community School in Brooklyn on “Air it Out,” a City Studies about NYC’s air pollution. Those students were Jonathan Bryant, Jordan Byrdsell, Monica Castro, Kamani Harrell, Elijah Harris, Devale Johnson, Marcell Lopez, Matthew Lopez, Jahquon Mackey, David Mahon, Lleymi Martinez, Shearod Meadows, Devante Mitchell, Isaiah Morales, Jayda Nadal, Isabel Negron, Andrew Ruiz, Francisco Santos, Ebanny Santiago, and Destiny Soto.
closeMizue Aizeki is the Deputy Director of Immigrant Defense Project, promoting fundamental fairness for immigrants accused or convicted of crimes. She has focuses on local and state advocacy efforts to end collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE and to minimize the immigration consequences of contact with the criminal legal system. She has over fifteen years experience in organizing around workers’ rights, racial justice, and immigrant rights. She is also a photographer whose work has appeared in Dying to Live, A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid, published by City Lights Books in 2008.
closeIsil is a creative designer with a Master of Science Degree in Sustainable Environmental Systems. She has worked in the field of architecture for many years and has taken on the role of project manager on various projects. Since she arrived in New York City for her Master’s she has worked with not-for-profits on complex issues regarding Climate Change and Sustainability. She is passionate about designing for urban resilience, both in physical and social environments.
My website: www.isilakgul.com
closeOriginally from Ethiopia, Liya’s personal and professional interests include finding ways to bridge writing, creativity and a love of the world with interests in program evaluation, international development, anthropology and public health. Liya has worked in international health and evaluation for about 15 years on projects covering various countries in Africa, Asia and Central America. She is currently focused on setting up an evaluation practice centered on combining storytelling with quantitative data, culturally responsive and contextually relevant approaches and on strengthening organizational capacity to use data for decision making, planning, and program design. She is also working on a project highlighting systemic gaps within the practice of international development. Liya has a Master of Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a Master of Science in Applied Anthropology from the University of North Texas.
closeYasmin is a recent graduate from College for Creative Studies and is a graphic designer currently based in Brooklyn. She is interested in using design as a tool to examine questions pertaining to race, gender identity, and the other complex systems we live within.
closeALIGN is a longstanding alliance of labor and community organizations united for a just and sustainable New York. ALIGN works at the intersection of economy, environment, and equity to make change and build movement. CUP collaborated with ALIGN and Transform Don’t Trash NYC to create Don’t Trash NYC to shed light on the dirty secrets behind NYC’s commercial waste. This short animation follows a discarded milk jug on its journey from trashcan to landfill, exposing the impacts the current commercial waste system has on workers, community members, and the environment. https://alignny.org/
closeAll Other Services is a multidisciplinary design team working to enrich arts and advocacy projects. Through design, we collaborate to understand social conditions and develop communications that promote collective empowerment. Founded by Joel Stillman and Kevin Wade Shaw, All Other Services produces work which ranges from identity, strategy, and awareness to interaction, service and product design. Selected experience includes IDEO, MoMA, The New York Times, Pentagram, Ralph Appelbaum and Associates, and Project Projects.
closeMax Allbee is a visual artist, muralist and educator from San Francisco, California. Max specializes in community mural art and illustration, yet teaching has always been in the forefront of Allbee’s creative practice. In 2013 Max worked with CUP on Voice Recognition, investigating decision making in NYC public schools. Max studied art education, community art and Spanish at The Evergreen State College, whose mascot is The Geoduck. Allbee has worked with arts organizations, schools and community groups to create professional quality artwork, in a variety of different communities from California to Central America and New York.
closeThe mission of the Alliance of Families for Justice is to support, empower, and mobilize families with incarcerated loved ones and people with criminal records so that they can marshal their collective power and bring about the systemic changes they want to see in the world. AFJ was founded in September 2016 to address the need for an organization with a specific focus on the empowerment and support of families impacted by the criminal justice system.
AFJ empowers directly impacted families and individuals by providing them with training in advocacy and communications. Families and individuals are then mobilized to tackle the issues that directly impact their lives and their communities.
closeClara was the Program Manager for CUP’s Public Access Design program from 2012 to 2014. Before coming to CUP, she worked in Structured Credit for Barclays Capital. Clara has a Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
closeAmid Amidi is the award-winning author of numerous books about contemporary and classic animated filmmaking, including the essential “Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation” and “The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation.” He is the editor-in-chief of the influential industry website cartoonbrew.com. In addition to writing extensively about the animation art form, he lectures at studios, schools and festivals internationally. He lives in Brooklyn.
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