MissionFriends of Public Art (FPA) will contribute to the historic, social, cultural and economic vitality through the creation of public art installations. FPA will implement art projects that are open to the public at no charge but does have a cost to create, engage the community, and ensure a broad audience.
We are proudly supported by Arts Alive! Arts Alive! has been a big supporter of FPA since day one and they are our fiscal sponsor. By having them as our fiscal sponsor it allows us to achieve a 501-c3 status which gives us the opportunity to raise money through grants and other sources of funding! A big thank you to Arts Alive! Goals & Values
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Who We Are |
Georgia Cassimatis is the Founder of FPA. She arrived in Keene to study at the local college Keene State in Business Management 09'. After KSC, Georgia decided to peruse her masters from Antioch University in Sustainable Development and Climate change. During her studies at Antioch she discovered her city was missing an important feature, Public Art. She and member Adam Schepker imagined what a community would look like if it could benefit from public art and decided Keene was the perfect blank slate. With her internship focused purely on forming FPA, she brought together a diverse group which is committed to public art in Keene and the greater Region. Georgia also is a photographer in her spare time and is a full time employee of the wonderful company Badger Balm. Also while attending Antioch, Georgia helped mobilize a community group focused on bringing Solar to their local Co-Op and the array will be installed later this year. Most recently Georgia started an artist studio space called 17ROX. With a downtown location artists have a front seat to what's happening and stay connected on our Main St.
Rowland Russell received a PhD in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England. A writer, editor, educator and 3rd generation artist, he has a special interest in the American nature writing tradition and how it addresses the human-nature relationship. He has offered coursework in natural history, place-based writing, environmental literature, and ecopsychology. Since 2005 Rowland has been managing director of Whole Terrain, Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice. He is currently working on three separate manuscripts; The Ecology of Paradox, Thinking Like a Mountain and Radical Slowness. Rowland was a long time member of the Art Not Terminal collective in Seattle, co-organized the Monadnock Literary and Arts Festival in Marlborough NH, and has curated numerous art exhibits and multi-arts performance events on each coast. He has also co-founded or served on the board of a number of organizations at the crossroads of youth, nature, creativity, education and restoration, including King County World Conservation Corps, Seattle Youth Garden Works, Compassionate Connections Youth Mentoring, Monadnock Farm and Community Connections, and the Glen Brook Writers & Artists Retreat. Rosie Benardi Professor of Art, KSC - Professor Bernardi has exhibited nationally and internationally in over 200 solo and group exhibitions. Her prints and drawings are included in the many public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Nelson Atkins Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. She has been awarded numerous grants and awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a year long Roswell Museum and Art Center Residency, and five MacDowell Colony Residencies. She has received a Frans Masereel Centrum Printmaking Residency in Kasterlee, Belgium, a John Anson Kettredge Educational Fund Award, and numerous Faculty Research Grants fro the institutions where she has been tenured, Professor Bernardi has been an invited visiting artist across the country, including at such institutions as the California Institue of the Arts, Cranbrook Academy of Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Georgia, Kansas City Art Institute, Wellesley College, and the Universuty of Nebraska. Currently, Professor of Art at Keene State College where she teaches drawing and printmaking, Rosemarie has previously held tenured positions at the University of Arizona (where she was the coordinator of the Graduate and Undergrad Printmaking Program), and the University of Delaware. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree with an emphasis in Printmaking from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame. And many helping hands who contribute to making our projects happen!!! |