The Jury
Christine Gaspar
christine@anothercupdevelopment.org
Christine Gaspar is Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to use art and design to improve public participation in shaping the built environment. She partners with designers and community organizations to create visually-based educational tools that help demystify complex issues from zoning law to sewage infrastructure. The projects are designed with and for advocacy organizations to help increase their capacity to mobilize their constituents on important urban issues. CUP's print, audio, video, and media projects, along with tactile interactive workshop tools, are in use by dozens of community organizers and tens of thousands of individuals in New York City and beyond. The projects have been featured in art and design contexts such as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's National Design Triennial, PS-1, and the Venice Biennale.
Christine has over ten years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
Henry Kay
hkay@mta.maryland.gov
Henry Kay is the Executive Director for Transit Development and Delivery for the Maryland Transit Administration. Henry manages MTA’s three major system expansion projects: the Red Line, Purple Line, and Corridor Cities Transitway, which together total more than $4 billion in investment. Henry was appointed to his current position in 2011. Previously he was MTA’s Deputy Administrator for Planning and Engineering, and prior to 2004 Henry was MTA’s Director of Planning. Henry holds a Bachelors degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University.
Alex Rinsler
arinsler@featsinc.com
Alex Rinsler is a recent transplant to Baltimore from London, UK, where he set up Pirate Technics, building and burning large installations for major music and cultural festivals. Projects this year include a giant straw fox, exploding pyramid, 15m dragonfly stage and a lighthouse. He also ran the Hub in London: a space, platform, network ... home to 600 social entrepreneurs working to bring about a better world. Here in Baltimore he is sponsored by International Arts and Artists to work with the events company Feats, inspiring people to act, one event at a time. He is passionate about the power of live experience to bring communities together.
Scot Spencer
Associate Director for Advocacy and Influence, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
sspencer@aecf.org
Scot Spencer is the Associate Director for Advocacy and Influence for The Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. Since his arrival at Casey in October of 2002, the Foundation’s work in Baltimore has largely been focused on a revitalization effort on the city’s east side that includes the responsible relocation of several hundred households as part of a comprehensive plan to strengthen community and economic development in an historic working class neighborhood.
Scot’s previous experience includes Transportation Specialist for the Environmental Defense Fund, where his focus was on state level smart growth policy and market-based incentives for transit use; deputy director for Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition, a Baltimore Empowerment Zone Village Center, where he spearheaded the federal Bridges to Work demonstration; and several years work in private architectural practice, community development and university relations in upstate New York.
In Maryland, he currently chairs the Maryland State Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities and serves on the board of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. In Baltimore he serves on City’s Commission on Sustainability, its HIV/AIDS Commission and the boards of the Mount Vernon Cultural District, Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, CENTERSTAGE and chairs the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative. Beyond Baltimore, Scot serves as vice chair of The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and Smart Growth America.
Scot holds a Bachelor in Architecture and a Masters in Urban and Environmental Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Mimi Zeiger
mimi@loudpapermag.com
Mimi Zeiger founded loud paper, an architecture zine and now blog, in 1997. The publication received grant awards from the Graham Foundation for the Arts and the LEF Foundation. Zeiger is author of New Museums: Contemporary Museum Architecture Around the World, Tiny Houses, and Micro Green.
A Brooklyn-based freelancer, she writes on art, architecture, and design for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Wallpaper, Dwell, Domus, Azure, and Architect, where she is a contributing editor. She has taught at Parsons New School of Design, the California College of the Arts (CCA) and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc.) Her cross-disciplinary seminars explore the relationships between architecture, art, urban space, and popular culture. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from SCI-Arc and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University.