Nupur Mathur

Nupur Mathur is a Brooklyn based digital media artist, designer and educator. She works at the intersection of social practice art, research and visual media. In her work she uses archives both analog and digital to create works that reveal hidden histories, complicate myths and challenge our assumptions around borders, femininity, sexuality and identity. As a designer she works with individuals, cultural or academic institutions on large multimedia projects and exhibitions that bring awareness or criticality to the challenging social issues of our times. As an educator she works with young people to use art and design to tell stories using a variety of media such as video, photo, collage, and drawing.

Nupur is founding member of the artist collective ‘Radha May,’ and an alumna of the Rhode Island School of design with an MFA in Digital + Media.

Amanda Matles

Amanda Matles is a New York City based artist, educator and doctoral student of Geography at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She studies and collaborates with urban agriculture, food sovereignty, and related social justice movements. Amanda currently works with Paper Tiger TV and The CUNY Space Time Research Collective. Amanda’s first project with CUP, called “Chew On This” in 2006, was a Harlem investigation into the global flows of food. Since then, Amanda has worked with Human Geography classes at Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick leading students in collaborative mapping and neighborhood investigation projects that examine the social, political and structural forces that shape the urban landscape.

Dionne Matthias

Dionne was a BCCP student in the I Heart East New York Urban Investigation.

Brendan McBride

As a researcher in Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico, Brendan began to understand the powerful role immigrant remittances play in improving economic opportunities and standards of living in immigrants’ hometowns. Back in his native New Jersey, Brendan coordinated an outreach team that connected migrant farmworkers to medical services, an experience that that got him thinking about the transformational power of well-targeted information. Brendan has also worked in affordable housing development for over ten years, mostly in cities in the US. In 2010, he founded Remás, a nonprofit organization motivated by the belief that people everywhere, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have access to information that improves their financial options in life. He has written about microfinance, housing, and immigration issues for United Nations Habitat, Habitat for Humanity and as a Fellow at Kiva. Brendan earned a B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College and a M.Sc. in Urban Development and Management from Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He enjoys cooking, biking, and embarrassing himself in foreign languages. 

Sara McKay

Sara is a freelance designer based in Brooklyn. She has done work for Elixir Design, Carin Goldberg Design, Number 17, and New York Times Magazine. Prior to discovering that she was a designer, she had an entirely different career in social justice-based community planning and development. She worked with CUP to design the Barriers to Reentry MPP.

Yates McKee

Yates Mckee is a critic and Ph.D. student in the Department of Art History, Columbia University. His current project is entitled “Art and the Ends of Environmentalism: From Biosphere to the Right to Survival.”

Ruddy Mejia

Ruddy Mejia was born a Bronxite and an artist – his use of watercolor and ink allows him to translate his passion of movies, books, music, comics and graffiti into pieces of artwork that document, question and demand deep observation from its public. The fulfillment of his artistic expression and experiences inspires him to help provide opportunities that guide and support others through creativity.

Mejia has worked as an Teaching Artist Assistant for The Bronx Museum’s Teen council, the Center for Urban Pedagogy and is currently teaching students from k-5th grades at Bronx house Inc. In addition, he works with Free Arts NYC as a Program Associate and Volunteer Mentor to children and families though the Parents And Children Together with Art program.

Andrea Meller

Andrea Meller has worked on “PHTV: What’s up with public housing?”, and “Garbage Problems.”

Suzanne Menghraj

Suzanne Menghraj teaches writing in NYU’s Liberal Studies Program, where her courses emphasize the imaginative possibilities of critical reading and writing. Prior to joining NYU’s faculty, Suzanne taught at Columbia University, and served as director of its Writing Center, as well as assistant director of its Undergraduate Writing Program. She has also worked for the Vera Institute of Justice, where her research focused on reentry programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated parents. Suzanne is a contributing writer for Guernica and is at work on a book of essays on art, as well as experimental translations of French interventionist criticism. She served on CUP’s board from 2008-2009. 

Adam Michaels

Adam Michaels is a cofounder of New York-based design studio Project Projects, and is the editor and designer of Inventory Books. He collaborated on CUP’s 2005 public exhibition Values & Variety: Shopping on Fulton Street, which formed the basis for the first book in the Inventory Books series, Street Value: Shopping, Planning, and Politics at Fulton Mall, by Rosten Woo and Meredith TenHoor, with Damon Rich. His website is www.projectprojects.com

Greg Mihalko

Greg is a multi-disciplinary designer running a small design practice called Partner & Partners in Brooklyn, NY. His work ranges from printmaking and art books to digital interfaces in physical and virtual space. Previously, Greg has been a designer for Local Projects, Doyle Partners, The Concept Farm, ThoughtForm Design. His focus is on conceptual and visual design for projects such as the BMWGuggenheim Lab, The Jacob Burns Film Center, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Change by Us and The New York Botanical Gardens. Greg’s work has received recognition from AIGA, MoMA, Graphis, and The Art Director’s Club. He holds a B.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design. partnerandpartners.com

Greg was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.

Abbott Miller

Abbott Miller has evolved a design practice that crosses from page to screen to exhibitions, environments, and architectural signage. Embracing the role of editor, writer, and curator in many of his exhibition and publications, he has used design as a way of exploring and interpreting art, architecture, public space, performance, fashion, and design. Before joining the New York office of Pentagram as a partner in 1999, he founded Design/Writing/Research, a multidisciplinary studio that pioneered the concept of the “designer as author.” In 2014, Miller received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal, the profession’s highest honor.

Minkwon Center for Community Action

MinKwon Center for Community Action was established in 1984 to meet the needs and concerns of the Korean American community through immigrant rights and political empowerment. MinKwon Center has emerged as a leading organization in building a sustained community for marginalized individuals, including recent immigrants, minorities, low-income residents, limited English proficient persons, elderly and youth.

Denise Miranda

Denise Miranda is the Managing Director of the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center, shaping its research, advocacy, and litigation agenda. Born and raised in the Bronx, Ms. Miranda is a member of the New York State Bar as well as admitted to the Southern and Eastern Federal District Courts. She serves on the Board of Directors at Union Community Health Center and the Community Services Association and is an outspoken advocate in the fight against economic inequality.

Manuel Miranda

Manuel Miranda is designer and owner at MMP manuelmiranda.info, a critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art, and an AIGA New York board member. MMP’s current work includes identities, exhibitions, websites, and publications for the Center for Architecture, City of New York, Metropolis Magazine, the Nike Foundation, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at The New School, and Van Alen Institute. Prior to establishing his own practice, Manuel was an art director at 2×4, Inc. and a designer at Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy and Mather. He earned his M.F.A. in graphic design from the Yale School of art and B.A. from The Evergreen State College. Manuel is working with CUP on the upcoming Banks on the Fringe MPP.