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.
Jonathan is an architect who worked on the Sewer in a Suitcase project; where he honed his tablesaw skills on a Red Hook rooftop. After receiving a Master of Architecture degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Jonathan worked for architecture firms in New York and Shanghai. The next place is unknown…
closeTahnee Pantig is an artist and designer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is characterized by taking on the stuff that people don’t like to talk about because she believes in the value of having difficult conversations. Tahnee’s practice is medium agnostic, producing work that is reflective of her own experience and her community’s.
closeMinh Anh Vo & Victor Schuft are two French graphic designers, though their names may sound either Vietnamese or German. Minh Anh was born in Annecy and grew up in Paris. Victor comes from Troyes. They met in Brussels, where they studied Graphic Design and Typography at La Cambre School of Arts. After graduating in 2006, they decided to move to Los Angeles and eventually got married at LAX. They are now living and working in Brooklyn. Papercut worked with CUP to design What’s In The Water?
closeKevin Park was CUP’s spring 2015 intern. A junior at Hunter College, he is majoring in Asian American Studies and Media Studies. Previously, he was an intern for CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and Girls for Gender Equity. Currently, Kevin is on the Steering Committee of Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of NY. Born and raised in NYC, Kevin is passionate about all things related to social justice and community organizing. He loves working with video and is a self-proclaimed YouTube geek.
closeis a nonprofit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money, primarily in the US and Canada. They create and support participatory budgeting processes that deepen democracy, build stronger communities, and make public budgets more equitable and effective.
closeThe Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) is a non-profit organization that helps communities decide how to spend public money. PBP’s mission is to empower community members to make informed, democratic, and fair decisions about public spending and revenue. PBP works with governments and organizations to develop participatory budgeting processes, in which local people directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. CUP has worked with PBP since 2011 to develop maps, outreach materials, and ballots for Participatory Budgeting in New York City.
closeis a joint program of NYC Parks and the City Parks Foundation that helps New Yorkers work together to make neighborhood parks thrive.
closeJazlyn was the Communications Assistant at CUP, as well as a former intern. She studied Urban Studies and Education at Stanford University. Prior to CUP, Jazlyn worked at the Diversity and First Generation Office at Stanford, where she developed a pedagogy and curriculum of diversity engagement and social justice dialogue strategies. In addition to her work at CUP, she studied at Farm School NYC working towards a certificate in Urban Agriculture.
closeDouglas Paulson is an artist who explores the ways people construct cultural moments and spaces through collaboration. Douglas has organized and participated in expansive projects, adventures, and shows across the U.S. and Europe, and loves asking the question: “What art are you for?”
He is the New York wing of the international collective Parfyme, initiator of an informal collaborative group Action Club and a member of Flux Factory, where he runs the residency program. As a CUP teaching artist, he explored vacant property in Flatbush with middle school students, street-level banking mechanisms, and affordable housing placement with high school students.
closeIn the fall of 2013, CUP worked with students from Danielle Cardarelli’s Economics class at the Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice. Those students were Iqra Ahmed, Kiran Amin, Saeeda Batool, Zasica Chowdhury, Quratulain Chughtai, Zannatul Farah, Rose Flores, Sedef Iqbal, Alyssia King, Shania Lett, Aisha Loane, Sidrah Malik, Robyn Pacheco, Dulce Parra, Amna Riaz, Khadija Sarwar, Shazma Shahzad, Shaiza Shakeel, Sanya Shema, Iqra Tariq, Rasanya Taylor, Lizmarie Vazquez, Fevzie Vila, and Jazmine Williams.
closeThe Pennsylvania Farmworker Project (PFP) of Philadelphia Legal Assistance is a legal services program whose mission is to provide legal assistance to low-income migrant and seasonal farmworkers throughout Pennsylvania. PFP represents Pennsylvania farmworkers in matters relating to the violation of local, state, and federal employment laws, and now, through a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant, in tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service. A large part of PFP’s work is conducting outreach at labor camps throughout Pennsylvania to educate workers about their employment and tax rights.
closeMike Perry works in Brooklyn, NY, making books, magazines, newspapers, clothing, drawings, paintings, illustrations and teaching whenever possible. His first book, titled Hand Job and published by Princeton Architectural Press, hit the book shelves in 2006. His second book, titled Over & Over, hit the shelves in 2008. He is currently working on two new books. In 2007 he started a magazine called Untitled, that explores his current interests. He has worked with clients from New York Times Magazine, Dwell Magazine, Microsoft Zune, Urban Outfitters, eMusic, and Zoo York. In 2004 he was chosen as one of Step Magazine’s 30 under 30, as a groundbreaking illustrator by Computer Arts Projects Magazine in 2007. He received Print Magazine’s New Visual Artist award in 2008, and was chosen by the Art Directors Club as one of this years Young Guns. Doodling away night and day, Perry creates new typefaces and sundry graphics that inevitably evolve into his new work, exercising the great belief that the generating of piles is the sincerest form of creative process. His work has been seen around the world including a recent solo show in London titled “The Place between Time and Space.”
Mike was a MPP juror.
closeParppim is a graphic designer and design strategist focuses on social innovation. Born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. She studied in Architecture for undergraduate and moved to NYC to pursue an MFA in Design for Social Innovation at School of Visual Arts. Currently, she is a designer at Data, Research, and Policy at UNICEF. Parppim has a passion for art, design and social issues, her works centered around children, education and the blind community. She also enjoys exploring the diversity of culture through food and ice cream and trying to create less trash. ppimmaratana.myportfolio.com/
closeNicole Pivirotto is a designer specializing in print, interactive, identity, exhibition, motion, and whatever lies in between. She graduated in 2011 with her MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts, and has had the pleasure of working at W. W. Norton & Company, Milton Glaser Inc., and Victoria’s Secret among others. She currently lives in Brooklyn with a chubby cat named Georgie. nicolepivirotto.com
closeMaria Popova (@brainpicker) is the founder and editor of Brain Pickings. She writes for Wired UK, The Atlantic, and Design Observer, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow.
closeZach Postone is interested in neighborhood planning, community gardens, climate change politics, and technologies of the future. He’s originally from Berkeley, CA, and studied Political Science and Art at Swarthmore College. As an intern at CUP, Zach was involved with several CUP projects, including “What the Cell?”, the Soda Census, and the Zoning Toolkit.
closeDave Powell has worked as a tenant organizer and tenant advocate for the Metropolitan Council on Housing, The Fifth Avenue Committee, and Tenants & Neighbors. He is currently working on a documentary film, “It Took 50 Years: Frances Goldin and the Struggle for Cooper Square”. In 2001, CUP interviewed Dave for the “Building Codes” exhibit at the Storefront for Art in Architecture. While at the Fifth Avenue Committee, Dave collaborated with CUP on workshops about housing and land use. These workshops utilized the first proto-type of CUP’s Affordable Housing Toolkit.
closePrisoner Reentry Institute (PRI) works on a range of issues, including reentry from jail, entrepreneurialism and reentry, employing formerly incarcerated people, and siting residential facilities in the community. PRI creates access to higher education and pathways to satisfying careers. PRI advocates for the right to housing, employment, healthcare, and other human rights too often denied people with criminal convictions. CUP collaborated with the Prisoner Reentry Institute to create Is College For Me?, a foldout poster that breaks down the process of enrolling in college for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. https://justiceandopportunity.org/
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