CV

Education

  • Masters of Arts in Teaching – Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA Fall 09 – May 2012 
  • Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture – Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 1999-2003
  • Architectural Studies – Denmark’s International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark Fall 2002     

Public Art and Landscape Stewardship / Construction 

Arts and Culture Innovator – Independent artist and arts and culture organizer working with community groups and municipalities on projects related to Creative Placemaking, Green Infrastructure, and commissioned artwork that works closely with the site stakeholders to create work that conveys the spirit of place. Boston, MA 11/18 – present

Artist in Residence – Developed and implemented innovative public art projects to demonstrate planning priorities in action; developed creative community engagement approaches in planning projects; worked as part of a team to establish MAPC’s creative community placemaking practice. This was an 18 month residency.   Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Boston, MA 4/17 – 11/18

Green Ambassador Program Manager –Lead all aspects of a Boston Harbor Islands youth jobs program for Boston area high school students to engage in natural resource management. Duties included developing work plans, and managing youth workers and program instructors.  Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center, Boston, MA 4/10 – 5/12

Bumpkin Island Ranger / Artist in Residence – Used art as a point of departure to develop interpretive programs focused on history and ecology. Created six foot tall wheelchair sculptures with invasive and dead woody plants to recall the Burrage Children’s Hospital. Engaged the public in clearing invasives and making art with it.  Department of Conservation and Recreation, Boston Harbor, MA Summer 2009

Landscape Construction Supervisor – Responsible for the field supervision of capital projects.  Central Park Conservancy, New York, NY 2/08 – 6/08

Municipal Projects

Jon Norton Community Rain Garden – Worked with the City of Everett Planning Department, Public Schools, DPW and National Grid to design and build a new garden at the entrance to the Northern Strand Community Trail. The raingarden mitigates flooding, provides a visual demonstration of nature-based solutions and introduces pollinator species to improve habitat and biodiversity. This was a grant funded project administered by the MAPC and funded by the Barr Foundation. Everett, MA 2019

Hull Art Walk – Transforming underutilized land at the gateway to Hull into a beautiful venue for local and regional art, culture, community gathering and gardening space. Creating sculptural lighting elements that engage 144 community members in contributing painted buoys that will be incorporated in six pieces. Hull, MA 2019

Sole of Rockland – With REiMAGINE ROCKLAND and MAPC, developed the concept and design for an art cart, modeled after a shoeshine cart where residents and visitors highlighted the most valued downtown places on a map, and created unique watercolor footprints. Footprints were turned into stencils and painted on the sidewalks at Rockland’s favorite places and hung in an empty storefront window. I am currently working with Rockland High School students to create poetry and imagery in response to the theme of Transformation for butterfly shaped seating with shoeprint markings that will be installed adjacent to the Town Offices. Rockland, MA. 2018 – 2019

Vision Tree  – As part of the process of updating Revere’s Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP), I worked with a team to get residents to share their reflections on how they use open spaces in the city. Residents decorated leaf templates with words and images, which I incorporated into a tree sculpture, now on display at city hall. Revere, MA 2018

A Ripple Effect sculptural community garden – Paths and garden beds designed in concentric circles around a central sculptural bench represent a ripple of water that flows outwards from a drop of water. This site has a high water table and we built the garden beds over buried logs that were filled in with compost and covered in topsoil. The logs absorb the water and self-irrigate the garden. This demonstration project is intended to create a ripple effect for community-engaged public art and urban agriculture, and promote innovative thinking with regards to the beautification and improvement of public health and community building. Cutoffs from the bench were transformed into sculptural mural panels by Everett high school students and put on a garden shed that was built for the project.  I worked with the City of Everett and Everett Community Growers. This new garden helps advance the City’s 2017 Open Space and Recreation Plan update and a Community Food Assessment. Everett, MA 2018

Moses Youth Center Vertical Garden – In collaboration with the Boys II Men program, we transformed palettes into vertical gardens to provide aesthetic, ecological, and social benefit. Youth used some of the spices during weekly cooking workshops in which they cooked different meals from different parts of the world. This project beautified the entrance to the Moses, and demonstrated that food can be grown in small spaces using recycled shipping pallets. Funded by the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority. Cambridge, MA 2017

Art in the Park – Organized an open call and juried outdoor sculpture exhibition as a consultant for the Worcester Cultural Council in Elm Park, an historic community resource designed by Olmsted. Worcester, MA Summers 09 and 10

Teaching and Youth Work

Adjunct Faculty, Studio Foundations – Teaching Visual Language to first year students. The topics include learning about terms and concepts common to all of the visual arts (composition, space content, color); exploring material, media and presentation skills (traditional and digital technologies); initiating an historical and contemporary context for art and culture and furthering a student’s own sense of direction in the arts. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA Fall 2019

Rain Garden Design on the Northern Strand Community Trail – Through research, observation on the trail, meeting people who are stewards along the trail, and looking at maps, I worked with a team of 8th grade students to detect patterns and read the landscape, learn about plant communities and the movement of water. We designed a new rain garden and I worked with the City of Everett DPW and National Grid to build it.  Everett, MA Spring 2019

Guest Lecturer and Capstone Project Host– Spoke about Land Art and social justice to Urban Agriculture students and worked with three students over the course of a semester to support the design and installation of a community garden site in Everett. University of Massachusetts Boston  Fall 2017

Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Artward Bound – Supported the Director and all staff in all administrative capacities at this multi-year college access program in the visual arts that supports high school students academically, artistically, and with life skills. Served as Acting Director for over a year in leadership transitions. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA 1/12 – 12/15

Saturday Studios – Taught Middle School Sculpture and High School Fashion and Fibers. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA Fall 11/Spring 12

Workshops

Foundations of Shared Values in Public Art Projects – In this workshop, participants learn about developing foundations for public art projects that balance values established by the community and the values of the artist. Participants walk away from the workshop with clarity on their own values that drive their work, tools to understand the values of the community artists are working with, and strategies to use values to drive community participation. Assets for Artists, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Fall 2019

Creative Placemaking Workshops –Worked with the MAPC Arts and Culture team to develop and deliver three professional development workshops in to arts administrators, community groups and municipal staff, in partnership with MassCreative. Salem, Worcester, Boston 2017-18

Dancing Elotes – weekly from July-October at the East Boston Farmers Market. Drop-in collaborative artmaking experience for participants to build the bailarines sculpture with colored corn husks from Elotes we were serving. Participants were asked to reflect on “How do we cultivate peace in the community?” East Boston, MA Summer/Fall 2016

Rosie the Riveter Participatory Sculpture – as part of the National Park Service event “Rosies Invade the Yard,” I created the image of Rosie the Riveter using hardware on a panel of magnetic sheeting. One panel on either side invited people to use hardware and make their own images and designs. The question “Who is your shero?” invited people to create their own tin engravings in honor of their female heroes and add to the panels. Charlestown Navy Yard, MA Summer 2016

Birdseed Tree – collaborated on the creation of an evolving tree with toddlers and pre-school students. At first, it was a percussive tree with bamboo chimes for the children to make sounds with, and then students added birdfood and their signature fabrics to the pieces of bamboo to transform it into a giant personalized bird feeder. After winter, once the birds eat all the seeds, it turns back into an instrument.  Cambridge-Ellis School, Cambridge, MA Fall 2015

Shady’s Pond Bird Blind – Harvested oriental bittersweet vines with community members and showed them how to weave them into concentric circles. In our second workshop we made a bird blind with all the concentric circles. Waltham Land Trust, Western Greenway, Waltham, MA Fall 2012

Sculptural Weaving Workshop – worked with homeschoolers to learn about the different approaches different animals take to prepare for the winter, and then create imaginary creatures and winter homes for them.  Broad Meadow Brook Audubon Center, Worcester, MA Fall 2012

Trends – Collaborated with artist Cedric Douglas to facilitate a creative design process for youth interns to investigate the climate change trends in the Boston Harbor Islands and then redesign the ranger uniform to be appropriate for this climate. Youth presented the project at the National Youth Service Learning Conference. National Park Service, Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park Winter/Spring 10

Using art to engage and educate people with park resources – Presented at the Boston Harbor Educators Conference, one year at Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center, one year at UMass Boston. Boston, MA 2009, 2010

Arts Organizing Projects

Boston Harbor [Re]Creation – Consulting for Boston Harbor Now, Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the National Park Service, I am developing an Artist in Residence Program. This includes event organizing, design and implementation of evaluation, and coordinating a juried artist selection process and organizing an annual free arts and culture cruise, featuring music and performing arts, that draws 700 people.  Boston Harbor Islands national park area, MA Spring 16-present

Dancing Elotes  – Collaborating with the Veronica Robles Cultural Center, this project offered the community  weekly opportunities throughout the summer to eat Elotes, work on a collaborative sculpture with the corn husks and cobs, and learn and perform la Danza del Perrmiso. The sculpture was showcased this fall, and honored the lives of the young victims of street violence and substance abuse. My role included creation of the sculpture. East Boston, MA Summer–Fall 2016

Franklin Park Art Grove  – Collaborating with the Boston Art Commission, Franklin Park Coalition and the Trotter Institute of African American Studies to organize site responsive art interventions in the woods. Franklin Park, Boston, MA Summer 2015

Bumpkin Island Art Encampment – Organized and co-curated a 5-day outdoor art-making experience for artists to use island resources to create site-specific sculptural and performative artwork. Organized gallery exhibitions of work created during the experience at Mobius for two of the years,  and Thompson Design Group. Boston Harbor Islands national park area, MA 2007-2012

Racks of Art Sculptural Bike Rack Initiative – Developed project and recived funding from the Boston Art Commission. This program was adopted by Artists for Humanity and continues to grow as their own initiative. Mission Hill Main Streets, Boston, MA 2006-present.

Boston Art Windows: Beauty in Building Materials – Installations in empty storefronts in Downtown Crossing.  Boston Redevelopment Authority 7/1/06 – 9/30/06

Functional Art Competition and Show – In support of the Building Materials Resource Center. Competition and exhibition encouraged creative re-use of building materials. Featured 25 artists. JP Art Market, Jamaica Plain, MA May 2006

Dance Collaborations 

Or… – With choreographer Nathan Andary and composer Jane Wang. Made branches with detachable limbs for manipulation by dancers in a piece that explored relationships with the construction of environments. University of Ohio, OH Winter/Spring 17

Bittersweet – Collaborated with choreographer Carey McKinley to create sculptural installations using oriental bittersweet vines and other natural materials for a monthlong dance residency with 5 other dancers. Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA July 2015

Dance in The Fells – Worked with choreographers Tara Weaver and Kara Fili to create sculptural interventions using natural materials in the woods and perform in a site-specific performance called Common Spirits at Play. Wrights Pond, Medford, MA October 2013

Outdoor Sculptures

  • Nest, Franklin Park Zoo 2017
  • Birdseed Tree, Cambridge-Ellis School 2015-2016
  • Reset, Jewish Community Center, Newton, MA         2012
  • HarborArts, International Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at the Boston Harbor Shipyard     2010-2015
  • Sneaks, Bartlett Yard, Boston, MA         2013
  • Sprouting Green Ideas, Boston Latin School, Boston, MA         2013
  • Hands Up! Thompson Island, Boston, MA         2012
  • Portals, Art in the Park, Elm Park, Worcester, MA         2011
  • Old Frog Pond Farm, Sculpture Walk,         2010
  • Wheelchairs, Bumpkin Island, Boston, MA         2009

Indoor Exhibitions and Installations

  • Upstream, Commission, The Metropolitan Area Planning Council Lobby         2018-present
  • Mapping the Dorchester way Part II, The Medicine Wheel Gallery, Boston, MA         April-May 2015
  • Scraps, Group show, The Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA         Dec 2013 – Jan 2014
  • Off Hours Staff Exhibition, MassArt President’s Gallery         Dec 2013 – Jan 2014
  • O is For Oriole, window installation, Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA         2012-present
  • Kiddush Cup, CANstruction, Jewish Community Center, Newton, MA 2012
  • The Art of the Teacher,  Group Show, MassArt         Winter 2011
  • Collective Expressions, Group show, Wales Street Studios, Abington, MA         October 2009, 2010
  • Future Arts 2009, Group show, presented by Future Classics, Boston, MA         April 2009
  • Spring in Progress, show with one other artist, JP Art Market, Jamaica Plain, MA         April 2009

Skills

  • Facility with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, PC or Mac
  • Entrepreneurial, creative, and resourceful, with strong organizational and communication skills. 
  • Strong ability to coordinate and organize complex programs and events with multiple stakeholders. 
  • Adaptable to working with different personalities unfamiliar situations.
  • Successful at establishing and maintaining complex collaborations.

Press

  • Sutton, Rebecca. “Art Talk with Public Artist Carolyn Lewenberg.” Web blog post. Art Works Blog, 3/26/2019.
  • Nonko, Emily. “Metro Boston to Get More Creative with City Planning.” Web blog post. Next City, 3/20/2019
  • Hylton, Cecilia. “An Artist Walks into a Planning Agency.” Web blog post. Barr Foundation, 2/20/2019.
  • Greene, April. “AIRs bring fresh perspective to government.” Web blog post. ArtPlace America, 1/25/ 2019.
  • Lewenberg, Carolyn S. “A Reflection from MAPC’s First Artist in Residence.” Web blog post. ArtsBlog, Americans for the Arts, 1/25/2019.
  • Cook, Greg. “‘Franklin Park Art Grove’: A Guide To The Installations And Performances.” WBUR’s The ARTery, 8/7/2015.
  • Oliveira, Rebecca. “Art ‘grove’ coming to Franklin Park.” Jamaica Plain Gazzette, 4/10/2015.
  • Abraham, Yvonne. “Let’s open the door to the arts in Boston.” The Boston Globe, 8/29/2013. 
  • Schnieider, Dan. “Creative Destruction.” Weekly Dig, 7/24/2013.
  • Carlock, Mary. Review, HarborArts, Boston Harbor Shipyard Gallery. Sculpture Magazine. Pg. 68. April 2011.
  • Shea, Andrea.  “Looking Out: On Bumpkin Island, It’s ‘Survivor’ For Artists” NPR Interview, 8/5/2010.
  • Sweeney, Emily. “Harbor Islands Awash in Art for Summer.” The Boston Globe, 7/26/2009.