FOUNDER / DIRECTOR
HENRY G. SANCHEZ
Henry G. Sanchez is a project based, an interdisciplinary social practice artist and curator who’s initiatives concentrate about history, environmental and social justice and the natural sciences. He is the founder of the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT, a socially engaged, bio-art project that proposes community based initiatives to introduce bio-remediation in Newtown Creek, a Superfund site in Brooklyn, NY. In 2015 he established the Law Office Center for Citizenship and Art (L.O.C.C.A.) www.loccart.org in Houston, TX. Located in Houston’s East End district. L.O.C.C.A. is art and social justice platform addressing issues confronting the Latino/a/x, Hispanic and Mexican-American community. Sanchez’s work has been exhibited and screened at Electronic Arts Intermix, NYC; Microscope Galley, Brooklyn New York; DiverseWorks, Houston Texas; Civic TV, Houston; Momenta Art, Brooklyn; The School of Visual Arts, NYC; Greenpoint Film Festival, Brooklyn; Guggenheim Museum, NYC; McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX; Rooster Gallery, NY; Lab Gallery, NYC; Jersey City Museum; Here Art Center, NYC; Pera Musuem, Istanbul, Turkey; Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ; Rupert Ravens Contemporary and Affero Gallery, Newark, NJ; City University of New York; 58 Gallery, Jersey City, NJ; Taller Boriqua Gallery, NYC; Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University; Ben Shahn Center, William Patterson University; and Centro de Arte de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain. His curated exhibitions include AQUA-CULTURE at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, Texas (2014), GEO-LOCO at Outpost Artists Resources and DATA-DADA at Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn, NY. Sanchez received his M.A. in International Relations from Rutgers University in 2000. After a brief career in politics and working in non-governmental organizations, he has devoted his time and efforts to his art-work. He is a 2014 graduate of the Art Practice in Interdisciplinary Arts M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts. Sanchez taught fine arts digital media at the School of Visual Arts, BFA Fine Arts Department from 2009-2016. Recently he created a new socially engaged and science based project, The BioArt Bayou-torium, http://www.bioartbayoutorium.org. The Bayou-torium a science lab/art studio on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston’s East End/2nd Ward that invites the general public of all ages to investigate nature with the aid of science tools to make art from what is observed and provides bilingual pontoon boat tours of the nature and history of the area. Sanchez resides in Houston while maintaining his art project in Brooklyn, NY.
http://www.bioartbayoutorium.org
contact: hgsanchez3@yahoo.com
COLLABORATOR
DR. SARAH E. DURAND
Sarah E. Durand, Associate Professor of biology, received a dual 4-year BA/MA degree in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Pennsylvania for a field study that examined shorebird foraging patterns in the intertidal zone along the Maine cost. Her doctoral degree in Neurobiology and Behavior was conferred by the Center for Molecular and Behavior Neuroscience of Rutgers University for a dissertation on novel auditory pathways in the avian brain, which received the Dean’s Dissertation Award for Excellence. For her postdoctoral work, supported by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, she studied the parrot forebrain system for vocal learning at the University of Maryland. Dr. Durand has published in and reviewed for the Journal of Comparative Neurology (JCN), co-authored papers for Nature Reviews Neuroscience and the New York Academy of Science and has reviewed grant proposals for the National Science Foundation. By way of the NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate grant to LaGuardia, Dr. Durand mentors research students in both ecology and neuroscience, with two students in the latter group winning "Best in Neuroscience" awards at the national conference for minority research students, ABRCMS. She is currently assisting development of the new major in Environmental Science that emphasizes collaboration with local high schools, community organizations and government agencies and she directs the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program at LaGuardia.
VOLUNTEERS
ELIZABETH SKOLNICK
Elizabeth isa professor of classical philosophy, a former park ranger and environmental educator with a background in environmental science. A resident of Bushwick and frequent sailor of Newtown Creek, she joined the English Kills Project in the fall of 2015 and has been assisting with the installation of mussel habitats for bio-remediation and helping to promote the project to residents of the area.