Trained as an architectural designer and historian, my creative practice takes the form of cultural and educational programming focusing on architecture, art, landscape, and the city.

My professional experience spans museums, academic institutions, public spaces, and expansive civic infrastructure projects. Since 2013, I have found my “home” on small entrepreneurial teams of changemakers within big governmental structures. While a contributor myself, I support creative professionals and scholars, guiding them to achieve complex projects.

In my two most recent roles at the CUNY Graduate Center and Freshkills Park, I have approached community engagement through building program frameworks from the ground up, growing cross-functional teams, and optimizing operations and financial administration to scale. Working collaboratively, I drive innovative concept development through program management and data-driven assessment.

I am committed to producing knowledge for the public good, having had repeated success building alliances among community groups and academic institutions to broaden access and deepen connections between lines of inquiry and across fields.

Currently the Program Development Director in the Office of Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation at the CUNY Graduate Center, I established the vision, strategic priorities, best practices, and policies to incubate and launch a diverse portfolio of multidisciplinary cultural, academic, and professional development programs. My team shapes programming that brings in the public and shares broadly the scholarship of our esteemed faculty and graduate students at the CUNY Graduate Center. Along the way, I have prioritized cultivating a people-first office culture that influences a wider community of trust and care, aiming to model the future that “the big we” are collectively creating.

Prior to joining CUNY, I worked for NYC Parks as the Manager for Programs, Arts and Grants at Freshkills Park, where I built the art program for the landfill-to-park site through an inquiry-based artist residency program, Field R/D, and the on-site Studio+Gallery I founded in January 2018. My work at the Park has been the subject of articles in Hyperallergic, Art in America, ArtSpace, and BOMB Magazine.

My graduate thesis for the Masters of Science in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture & Art at MIT focused on the first documenta in 1955 in Kassel, Germany and related the exhibit design to the landscape and garden show in the midst of postwar urban reconstruction.

Other writings have been published by Sternberg Press, Thresholds, PLOT, MIT/Keller Gallery, RISD Int|AR, and Urban Omnibus independently and representing Freshkills Park. I occasionally update my blog and boards of visual inspirations and associations.

My superpowers are being an empathetic listener, quick learner, visioning the big picture and being able to break down goals for the short term, drawing and communicating connections between contexts.

Call on me for:
Program Building | Strategic Partnerships | Public Engagement | Creative Collaboration | Concept Development | Project Planning & Management | Team Leadership | Financial Management | Communications


mariel.anaise@gmail.com// LinkedIn