A highlight of my professional career was serving as the Member Services and Outreach Director of Artisan’s Asylum. Scootering across the 40,000 square foot makerspace, at the time the largest independent makerspace east of the Mississippi, I watched members build a velodrome for the launch of their business. The public was invited to ride in the velodrome on a variety of civilian and SCUL starships that night.

At Artisan’s Asylum, a generous spirit and open source ethos was core to the organization and the membership I served. There my personal mission was to build the capacity of our membership’s gifts and their ability to share those gifts. Supporting hundreds of makers there, I am deeply aware of the challenges and opportunities that face creatives working in a variety of media.

My parents were always incredibly supportive of all of my creative and artistic pursuits, and my Uncle Mark would bring me to artist open studios in the Greater Boston area every year. He said that one day I would work in a place like that. He was right.

Following Artisan’s, I managed 50 artist studios and curated three galleries and outdoor exhibitions at The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, MA. Immersed in the landscape of freedom, I co-curated the Minuteman National Historical Park’s Inaugural Artist-in-Residence Program in 2019. I have a map from a visit to The Umbrella when I was 16 years old, and I was thrilled to read my notes about some of the artists I visited - some of whom were still working artists in their studios, more than 15 years later.

In the summer of 2020, I moved to a new role focused on data management and partnership efforts for the Creative Economy team at the New England Foundation for the Arts. I worked on Creative Ground’s upgrade and piloted data sharing through and state agency partnerships. Making this transition during COVID led me to travel to Acadia National Park and see more of the coast of Maine. In 2021 I accepted a position to lead Engine, a small arts nonprofit in Biddeford, Maine, a mill town much like Waltham where I grew up. In collaboration with many local artists and organizers, we piloted IGNITE, an arts business incubator that seeded individual and collective projects with mentorship, funding, and technical support.

I stepped down from that role to recover from Long COVID after two years. That experience transitioning into and out of leadership means I understand the impact of leadership transitions on small founder led organizations. Most recently as a resident of Biddeford I have worked with other local artists and the City staff to put forward a Public Art Commission, the city’s first arts focused public commission, to the City Council for consideration.  I have collaborated extensively with non-profits, municipalities, and government agencies in support of creative economy initiatives, including MassDevelopment’s funding initiatives for collaborative workspaces, and the City of Somerville’s Creative Space Task Force.