MAPC
Smart Growth & Regional Collaboration
Artist-in-Residence Program
The MAPC Artist-in-Residence program launched in 2017 as part of the Arts & Culture Department. The goal of the MAPC Artist-in-Residence program is to bring arts, culture, and creativity into the agency’s multidisciplinary planning work with cities, towns, and other organizations. By tapping the talents and perspectives of a visiting artist, the residency aims to infuse arts, culture, and creativity into planning projects while enriching and expanding the creative practice of the visiting artist.
The program has embedded two artists in MAPC for consecutive eighteen-month residencies. The residency of Carolyn Lewenberg began in April 2017 and concluded in November 2018. The residency of Hortense Gerardo began in late 2018 and will conclude at the end of June 2020. Gerardo’s term was extended to account for the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to leading a variety of creative projects at MAPC, both Carolyn and Hortense have helped shape the values and direction of the Arts & Culture Department through ongoing reflection, evaluation, and contributions to departmental work planning over the course of their residencies.
The Artists
Carolyn Lewenberg | April 2017 - November 2018
Carolyn Lewenberg is a visual artist with strengths in collaborating with government and non-profit entities and engaging at-risk youth in environmentally-responsive sculptural art-making. Since her time as the inaugural MAPC artist-in-residence, she has expanded her creative placemaking practice and her work with municipal partners.
Hortense Gerardo | December 2018 - June 2020
Hortense Gerardo is a playwright and movement artist as well as a professor of anthropology. Her skills in directing complex artistic collaborations, her commitment to engaging performers of all skills and disciplines, and her rigorous training in anthropological research and systems thinking are evident in the creative work she has led during her residency.