Most of my early professional work was ethnographic, having received doctoral training in anthropology. I later began crafting stories with materials, sounds and light to express what is beyond language. I still work in relationship with people but mostly, nowadays, with plants and soils whose lessons are far worthier of our attention.
MAKALÉ CULLEN, My work has been guided by two focal points: my ethnographic training and my curatorial interests. Both are shaped by a lifetime of navigating family across three continents and three languages. In June, 2019, I completed training in Horticulture (focus Arboriculture) from the New York Botanical Gardens, expanding my ecological work that begin in 2005. During that year and a half of intensive study, I was also an active Advisory Board member of the international lighting think-tank, PhoScope. From 2016-2018, I developed an occupational folklife collection at the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center titled, "Food Processing and Legacy Trades." I populated it with oral histories of American agricultural workers as they negotiate tradition and 21st century digital, mechanical and cultural innovations. My collection sits within the “Occupational Folklife Project,” the largest national portrait of the US workforce since the WPA. Prior to that, I was principal of the research and design studio lore and its retail arm, Wilderness of Wish, where I pursued my interest in the artful presentation of contemporary ethnography and material culture. I've worked with mannequin builders, squid packers, cranberry bog harvesters, neon sign makers, tanners, seed savers, tide-clock makers and bra fitters among dozens of others—a pursuit ignited by my formative experiences at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. As Program Director with Slow Food, I co-launched the Renewing America’s Food Traditions project, a venture of seven US environmental and cultural agencies documenting and creating viable markets for North American agricultural biodiversity. For three years, I travelled North America documenting agriculturists and developing local and regional markets for high-quality, endangered fruits, vegetables and heritage livestock breeds in 30+ states. Early in my career, I was a staff anthropologist at City Lore in New York City where, for six years, I collaboratively designed and produced school and community arts residencies that partnered local performing and visual artists with global immigrant tradition bearers to teach experientially across the curriculum.
I have degrees in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia (MA) where I was a Commonwealth Fellow for Doctoral Studies and George Mason University (BA, Lambda Alpha). I've received art training and soul-rounding from continuing ed coursework at RISD and Parsons. From 2009-2012 I served on the Board of Directors for the Southern Foodways Alliance during which time the the organization produced The Global South and The Cultivated South symposia. I've also regularly served as a juror to the National Endowment of the Arts (Folk & Traditional Arts) and NJ, NY and PA state arts councils. From 2015-2017 I served on the inaugural Steering Committee of the American Institute for Architecture's Social Science Research & Architecture Committee, part of the Best Practices Division of the New York City chapter where we regularly produced radical, provocative and pragmatic programs for the industry. November 2018 marked my launch of annual dinners by and for urban arborists called, Branch Union .I live in New York City with my husband and our son.
With thanks to my talented team of subcontractors over the years:
CYNTHIA MERHEJ, art direction, graphic design. Cynthia explores the fine line between the real and the imaginary. Working across different disciplines and mediums, she draws from diverse historical and cultural influences to create humorous and surreal narratives. Cynthia lives and works in her hometown of Beirut. She’s also a bit of a Londoner—a graduate of Central Saint Martins and, for graduate school, the Royal College of Art.
SHINJI HORIMURA, fabricator, stylist, designer studied anthropology as an undergraduate in Osaka before moving to America to pursue a degree in product design and merchandising at FIT. During his almost decade in New York City, Shinji worked as a designer for IKEA. Shinji helped to launch the LORE retail arm, designing and producing signage, fixtures and interiors. He currently lives and works in his hometown of Osaka.
CAITLIN VAN DUSEN, editing, copywriting is an editor and writer with training in long-form documentary journalism from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and a BA in English from Swarthmore College. She has been a purveyor of pirate supplies for 826 Valencia, in San Francisco; a student of anthroposophy; and the senior editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. She is the copy editor for the Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and McSweeney’s Books.
SCOTT SHEPARD, architectural and exhibit renderings is a painter, illustrator and printmaker by training. A long-standing member of Ralph Appelbaum Associates' award-winning exhibit design firm, Scott's robust portfolio includes the Clinton Presidential Library, Singapore National Visitor's Center and the Corning Glass Museum. He received his BFA from Hampshire College and his MFA from American University.
ANDREW BEAHRS, fieldwork, research, writing is the author of "Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens," and the paired historical novels "Strange Saint" and the "The Sin Eaters." He has written about food and history for Smithsonian, the Atlantic, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, Alligator Juniper, and many others. Born and raised in Connecticut, he earned his BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, his MA in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of Virginia, and his MFA in Fiction from Louisville's Spalding University.
KEVIN JÉAN, design engineeringreceived his BFA in Product Design from Parsons School of Design. He has gone on to become an adjunct professor in the department and a head designer at three firms all while maintaining a robust freelance practice. Kevin's specialities are industrial painting, Auto CAD, Solidworks, 3-D prototyping and rendering.