Faculty

Melanie Crean is an artist and educator working primarily with video, performance, emerging technologies and social engagement. She frequently references myth and different forms of storytelling to investigate contemporary social issues and reimagine cultural archetypes such as the hero, the unruly woman, the nature of justice, and the story of America.

Crean often works collaboratively, experimenting with different forms of participatory world building and design futuring, celebrating the imagination as a political space, and storytelling as a means to access that space. Originally from Waterbury, CT, she works with collaborators in formerly industrial cities ranging from the Northeast US to the North of England, to intervene in civic systems formed by extractive economies. Crean’s practice investigates how history is recorded and what can be read from evidence left behind in contested sites, that include the historical archive, the built environment, or one’s own body.

She has received commissions from Art in General, NY; Artspace, New Haven; and FACT Liverpool; fellowships from Creative Capital, Franklin Furnace, and A Blade of Grass; residencies from NYC Public Artist in Residence program (PAIR) and KODA; and participated in exhibitions at The New Museum of Art, NY; Southern Exposure, CA; and No Longer Empty, NY.

MFA, School of Visual Arts, Computer Art

BA, Brown University, Art Semiotics

A Machine to Unmake You, FACT Liverpool, 2024, downloadable from https://www.melaniecrean.com/work/machine

For Fates, A.I.R, 2019