Engaging Artists

About the Program

Engaging Artists (EA) is More Art’s 2-tiered, Fellowship and Commission program for artists seeking to both develop and sustain their public art and socially-engaged practice. The program curriculum encompasses a professional development series, public art commission opportunities, mentorship, and peer networking.

Fellowship

More Art’s year-long Engaging Artists Fellowship is designed to help emerging NYC artists and community organizers develop and sustain a socially engaged and public art practice. The Fellowship program curriculum includes mentorship, peer networking, access to programming opportunities in New York City, and workshops and artist talks tailored to the interests/needs of the cohort. The infrastructure and laboratory provided by More Art allow selected emerging and underrepresented artists to gain a deeper understanding of the history and vitality of public and socially engaged art and encourage artists to expand and develop social practice.

The 2025/26 call for Fellowship applications is currently closed. Applications will open in Spring 2026.

Commission

More Art’s Engaging Artists Commission is an opportunity for early career artists focused on the incubation and commissioning of a public art project and carries an $8000 award to realize the project, plus curatorial, conceptual, budgetary, and logistical mentorship. The infrastructure and laboratory provided by More Art allow one selected early career and underrepresented artist (or collective) to gain a deeper understanding of the history and vitality of public and socially engaged art.

The 2025/26 call for Commission applications is currently closed. Applications will open in Spring 2026.

2025/26 Commission: Danielle Jagelski

Danielle Jagelski is a composer, conductor, and creative producer. She is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Renegade Opera, Producer for First Nations Performing Arts, and Founder of Simmer Arts.

“Danielle Jagelski is a prime example of socially responsive artistry in the 21st century.” – I Care If You Listen

Her work has been performed at distinguished art spaces including Performance Space New York, Roulette Intermedium, The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and Green Room 42. Recent commissions and collaborations have been with Voices of Ascension, New Native Theatre, North American Indigenous Songbook, Colleen Bernstein- Percussionist, MUSE Cincinnati Women’s Choir, Hear Us Hear Them, and the Sister Singers Network. Upcoming commissions include works for Portland Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, and More Art.

An enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, Danielle often collaborates and performs with other Indigenous and Native American artists. She is passionate about kinship building and decolonization through interdisciplinary projects.

Click here to learn more about Danielle’s practice, and explore her work at daniellejagelski.com. Stay tuned for more information about the 2025/26 Commission project!

2024/25 Engaging Artist Fellows

Meet our current cohort of Engaging Artists Fellows, who will be cultivating their socially engaged art practices through artist & organizer talks, practical workshops, guided reflection, and one-on-one support from More Art staff from September 2024 through July 2025.

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  • Current Fellows (8)
  • Engaging Artists Fellow (8)
Wenjun Chen
Wenjun Chen (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist working on new media, focusing on exploring the mixed relationship between real and virtual. His work involves the fields of self-identity, internet and technology, data and personal data.
Cam Mbayo
Camille-Louise “Cam” Kouba Mbayo (she, they, we) is a queer Congolese-born Brooklyn-based abolitionist, nerd-artist, daughter, sister, friend, process becoming.
Tatiana Lahera Kalainoff
Tatiana Lahera Kalainoff (she/her) is a multidisciplinary designer, data visualization artist, environmental/3D maker and educator. With experience at the intersection of data + design, she transforms complex information into impactful narratives, using data analytics + visual design.
Bella Stenvall
Bella Stenvall (she/her) is a queer, mixed Filipino movement artist based in the unceded homeland of the Lenape people (colonially known as Brooklyn, New York). She considers herself a life-long student of many movement practices.
Tracia Banuelos-Rovaris
Tracia “trae” Banuelos-Rovaris (she/they) is an artist, social researcher, and facilitator based in Harlem with roots in Wichita, KS, where she developed a foundational, reproductive justice approach that guides all of their work.
Cindy Hwang
Cindy Hwang (she/her) is an artist and organizer who lives and works on unceded Lenape land (Brooklyn, NY). She organizes both autonomously and with Art Against Displacement, a collective of artists and cultural workers that opposes predatory development in Chinatown and the Lower East Side.
Dena Igusti
Dena Igusti (they/them) is a queer Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2022 Perennial Award Winner, Entropy Mag Best Of 2020-2021, and 2020 Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick.
Cal Fish
Cal Fish (they/them) is a cross-disciplinary artist from Sea Cliff, NY based in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn. Their work is multi-modal and immersive, often employing interactive sonic tools/sculptures, experimental pop music, video, sewing soft and social sculpture.

Engaging Artists Projects

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  • Events (5)
  • Engaging Artists (12)
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  • Activism (1)
  • Aging (1)
  • Climate Change (1)
  • Community (12)
  • Displacement (3)
  • Education (2)
  • Empathy (4)
  • Engaging Artists (17)
  • Environment (1)
  • Gentrification (3)
  • Health (2)
  • Housing (6)
  • Immigration (5)
  • Installation (4)
  • LGBTQ+ (1)
  • Multimedia (5)
  • Music (1)
  • Performance (3)
  • Photography (3)
  • Racism (1)
  • Sculpture (4)
  • Sound (2)
  • Storytelling (7)
  • Wellness (3)
  • Youth Engagement (4)
Artists
  • Anna Adler, Corinne Cappelletti, & Julia Rooney (1)
  • Bridget Bartolini & Priscila Stadler (1)
  • Bryan Rodriguez Cambana (1)
  • Hidemi Takagi (1)
  • Immanuel Oni (1)
  • Lily & Honglei (1)
  • Multiple Artists – 2024/25 Fellowship (1)
  • Multiple Artists – Building Stories (1)
  • Multiple Artists – Engaging Artists at Queens Museum (1)
  • Multiple Artists – Futures Narratives, and Networks (1)
  • Multiple Artists – Networks of Collective Care (1)
  • Multiple Artists – Rituals of Social Transformation (1)
  • Nolan Hanson (1)
  • Sean Desiree (1)
  • Soi Park (1)
  • Xenoduo (2)
2024/25 Fellowship Showcase
By Multiple Artists - 2024/25 Fellowship
(2025) More Art's 2024/25 Engaging Artist Fellows share their practices, cultivated research findings, and transformative routines.
Opening & Performance: Xenoduo’s A Mobile Home
By Xenoduo
More Art's 2024 Engaging Artists Commission, A Mobile Home by creative collective Xenoduo, opens Saturday, September 14th from 1-3pm at Sunset Park.
A Mobile Home
By Xenoduo
(2024) A mobile installation resembling an emergency shelter tent, serving as both a public sculpture and an immersive performance stage.
Rituals of Social Transformation
By Multiple Artists - Rituals of Social Transformation
(2024) More Art's 2023 Engaging Artist Fellows share their practices, cultivated research findings, and transformative routines.
Beyond Memorial
By Immanuel Oni
(2023) An art, design and healing justice response to the invisible scars left in community spaces after gun violence and loss.
Networks of Collective Care
By Multiple Artists - Networks of Collective Care
(2023) A showcase of the work of More Art’s 2022 Engaging Artists Fellows.
The Red String
By Lily & Honglei
(2022) An Augmented Reality (AR) art installation designed for multiple public parks in Asian American neighborhoods.
Futures, Narratives, and Networks
By Multiple Artists - Futures Narratives, and Networks
(2022) More Art's recent Fellows shared their work as socially engaged artists through a series of workshops, performances, and conversations.
Beam Ensemble
By Sean Desiree
(2021) An outdoor orchestra intended to give orchestral music back to the people by providing a resource for composition.
Trans Boxing
By Nolan Hanson
An ongoing co-authored art project in the form of a boxing club that centers the participation of trans and gender variant people.
Waiting for the session to begin
By Bryan Rodriguez Cambana
A public sculpture and sound installation by Bryan Rodriguez Cambana at Coney Island Boardwalk.
Building Stories
By Multiple Artists - Building Stories
Building Stories is an exhibition of works by More Art’s 2016 Engaging Artists Fellowship focused on housing justice.
Hello, it’s me
By Hidemi Takagi
Collaborative multimedia project highlighting the stories of senior residents of the city.
Almost Home / Casi Llegando a Casa
By Bridget Bartolini & Priscila Stadler
A series highlighting the struggles and victories of community organizing against gentrification and displacement.
Funeral Portrait Service (Young Jeong Sajin)
By Soi Park
Soi Park addresses the South Korean cultural practice of preparing memorial portraits of the elderly while the individual is still alive.
Engaging Artists at the Queens Museum
By Multiple Artists - Engaging Artists at Queens Museum
An exhibition featuring the work of first generation and foreign born artists who participated in the Engaging Artists program.
REMAP
By Anna Adler, Corinne Cappelletti, & Julia Rooney
A collaborative project involving meditation, recipe sharing, and map-making with current & formerly unhoused community groups.

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