Jeff Kasper is an artist and educator working in between design, media, and public pedagogy. He facilitate participatory experiences, creative curricula, publications, and conceptual social spaces that center support and wellbeing. His various public art projects and arts-based workshops engage with methods from peer-to-peer education and topics from environmental psychology. Over the years, his work has been dedicated to building cultures of support as an artist working in arts management, community health, and social planning. In addition to working directly with communities on creative projects, Kasper leads long- and short-term programs for artists, collectives, art students, universities, and organizations. He creates interactive projects from a healing-centered lens based in disability justice and trauma informed practice. Available Arts Services & Programswrestling embraceArtist-game facilitated prompts on caretaking and consent for pairs. Exercises include deep listening, role-play, contemplative arts.[Sliding Scale or Artist Fee]Relational AthleticsWorkshop on conflict transformation, collaboration, and the creative process for arts organizations, university programs, teachers and students.[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, or Artist Fee]Available for 3 hour to 3 day intensive workshopsGive & Take CareArts-based, peer-to-peer support events for anxiety, survivorhood, and depression through confidential social spaces and care circles, including: non-circulating library for queer and crip sexuality, trauma and disability studies; art-making, movement, and writing based exercises; rest spaces for destimulation and holistic mental health resources[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, Commission (permanent or temporary), or Artist Fee]This service requires a host institution or venue and volunteers. Practicing DistanceWorkshop/Playshops and interactive projects that use spatial proximity as framework to explore interpersonal interaction, isolation, community care, personal boundaries, conflict, and accountability. *Revised remote/online version for COVID-19 and the challenges of physical contact during the pandemic*[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, or Artist Fee]Sketching Mutual AidParticipatory arts activities on transformative justice and mutual aid for youth (5-12) and adults.[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, or Artist Fee]This service requires a partnering institution or organizationFree downloadCritique As SupportWorkshop or range-term consultation on trauma-informed practices for studio instruction and critique in community settings and higher-ed, including: pre-professional/vocational arts instruction, and artist professonal development.[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, or Artist Fee]This service requires a host institution or organizationTrauma-informed Design FacilitationWorkshop or range-term consultation on trauma-informed practices for design thinking and facilitation.[Contract-based or Grant Funded]This service requires a host institution, business, or organizationCultural Accessibility & Disability Justice ConsultingAudits on the integration of accessibility and disability justice principles in organizational culture[Contract-based or Grant Funded]This service requires a host institution or organization focused on arts and culture or designArtist Peer-MentorshipOne-on-one and small group session on planning long-term creative practices through a trauma-informed lens[Sliding Scale, Grant Funded, Barter, or Artist Fee] Strategic Planning for EngagementWorking with organizations and movements to develop long-term plans for community based programs and civic engagement.[Contract-based or Grant Funded]This service requires a host institution or organization Awards & RecognitionKasper has presented his work in the United States and internationally. He has received awards and residencies from CUE Art Foundation, Downtown Art, Art Beyond Sight, Social Practice Queens, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and served as a mentor for the NYFA Immigrant Artist Program in Social Practice. Writing & PublicationsHis various contributions to socially engaged art can be found in the books: Art As Social Action: The Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art (Skyhorse Press), Futures Worth Preserving: Cultural Constructions of Nostalgia and Sustainability (Transcript Press), and Bridging Communities Through Socially Engaged Art (Routledge). He is the co-editor of More Art In The Public Eye (Duke University Press.) Teaching & Public EngagementKasper has taught at The New School, Pratt Institute, Fordham University, and CUNY. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Integrated Design and Undergraduate Program Director at University of Massachusetts Amherst where he works in the Department of Art and is a Civic Engagement & Service Learning Fellow. He has been invited to lectured and led workshops at the MoMA Department of Education, Cooper Union, Brooklyn Museum, Fashion Institute of Technology, Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, School of Visual Arts, New York Hall of Science, The New School, and the School at the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). In 2018, he served as a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program in Social Practice. Kasper has lectured on design education, public art, and social art pedagogy at CAA, FATE, AIGA, and Interaction Design & Children conference, as well as at the Art Directors Club, the Kansas City Art Institute, and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.He has hosted public town-hall style events and panel discussions on disability arts at Brooklyn Museum, CUE Art Foundation, Queens Museum, School of Visual Arts, The 8th Floor, and BRIC.
