Education

MICHAEL EASTBROOK : ON TRANSITIONING FROM CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TO COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERSHIP

April 27, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

I properly met Michael Easterbrook, Executive Director at the Mount Ida Preservation Association at La Perla Restaurant and Country Inn while participating in a ‘speed dating‘ format, professional networking event of Rensselaer County arts and cultural professionals. As you know, I frequently like to feature folks who have made major transitions from traditional corporate gigs to mission oriented endeavors. We really got real and practical discussing values and trade off considerations here. If your considering a move yourself, this is a must read. Also, Mt Ida is just slaying on the programming front…so there’s that as well!

Michael Eastbrook : Executive Director at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY | Photo: Corey Aldrich

Please state your name, organization and title. Can you share about your educational and career background as well?

My name is Michael Easterbrook and I am the Executive Director at Mount Ida Preservation Association. I have a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (Focus in Bio-Engineering) and Minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship from The Pennsylvania State University. I worked for 8 years as a process controls and validation engineer for a bio-pharmaceutical company. I’ve spent last 2 years as Executive Director for Mount Ida.

Overhead View of the Poestenkill Gorge and the Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY (Top Left)
Photo: Provided

What is a typical day in the life look like for you?

My days are very different, but mornings I try to keep relatively consistent. They consist of making pour-over coffee – 2 cups – the 2nd weaker cup is for the next day while I am waiting for today’s water to boil, watering our indoor plants, taking out the compost and watering our outdoor plants, feeding the cats and the less glamorous scooping of litter, a load of laundry goes in the wash, a quick tidy of the kitchen and living room. If I am efficient I try to squeeze in a bit of writing before starting my “work” day. The process takes ~2 hours, and starts somewhere between 6:30 and 8:30 AM.

My working days have a lovely amount of variety. To the extent that my schedule allows I like to take my e-bike downtown to a coffee shop to do computer work: which includes email communications, reconciling the books, applying to grants, generating policy or procedure documents, volunteer coordination, digital set-up and marketing work for the events i.e. (creating ticket links, adjusting graphics, Facebook events, Instagram posts, uploading to our website). This computer work is interspersed with my favorite part of my work – making connections and planning through meetings! I usually have several one on one style meetings each week, where I get to meet someone new over lunch or coffee, or dig deeper into an existing relationship. It’s almost always exciting to learn about the interesting and unique work folks are making happen in the capital region, and coordinating how it might connect to or through Mount Ida.

My computer work day ends around 4 – 6 PM. Many times I am headed to a group meeting, or to set-up for an event. Evenings are either supporting/enjoying an event, or enjoying an evening and meal at home with my wife.

Late evening, I move laundry to the dryer, and prep the next load for the wash. I wind down with a little bit video gaming, reading a graphic novel from Cromulent Comics or poetry I’ve nabbed from Papermoon before bed.

Big Gay Market Event at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY | Photo: Provided

What types of programming and activities are happening at Mt Ida?

We have a diverse variety of activities happening here. Certainly lots of performance including the LUNA Music series, poetry reading, marketplace events and even on occasion…circus performance! Creative health and wellness events are also starting to play a larger part of the regular activity happening in the building including a consistent Estatic Dance event. There is also, theatrical / plays being rehearsed and performed in the space. We have a commercial kitchen we are in the process of bringing online for a rental program to support local entrepreneurial enterprise and finally, we are a food distribution point (Mt Ida Food Pantry) for those in need and hold regular community brunch events on site. I imagine I am forgetting a few things here but you get the idea…lots!

Food Pantry Event at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY | Photo: Corey Aldrich

You left a promising career as a chemist at a well known company. What made you decide to jump ship and take on (actually create!) this project? How have you had to adapt in your daily life to do so? Financially, family-wise?

I didn’t know I was going to pursue the work I am now, when I left my job in bio-pharma, I left for many small reasons. Between 2021 and 2022, my wife moved in with me, we took on a major renovation, and planning our wedding. We were living out of boxes, and neither of us had the energy after work to physically or mentally unpack and organize our new life together. So in part, I left to tackle unpacking and settling us into living together. My job was primarily a desk job, I designed experiments to ensure our commercial manufacturing processes worked as intended, and I then wrote reports summarizing that data. These reports were essential to the regulatory process, but at the end of the day – the best case scenario for these reports is that someone in the FDA reads them and agrees with the conclusions, and never asks about it. So in part, I left that job because my work didn’t feel rewarding. I also felt the shifts in society and politics shaping the backdrop of my world. There were so many other small reasons, but those three ring loudest: take time to work on my home, do something that felt more rewarding, and to develop my personal world view.

It was a scary decision to leave, because I wasn’t going on to the next thing. I was just leaving. I had a plan to take care of some things, but I had no idea what I’d do after that, how I was going to make a living; what doors I was closing.

Circus and Improve Music Performance and Teaching Moments at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY
Photo: Provided

The path has revealed itself in little ways since that decision to leave. Working on our home, revealed the way taking the time to care for your space improves your daily joy. Working on developing a world view, after much reading and research revealed to me how important connected community is to my politics. Working on discovering what felt like rewarding work led me to deepening my role at Mount Ida.

Now Mount Ida is a way for me to pursue these things: improving a space in my neighborhood, creating a connected community as means of expressing my politics – its work that feels meaningful and rewarding in a way that is refreshing. Strangely its just as stressful as the job I left, maybe more so, but the meaning and philosophical alignment make it worth it.

I don’t want to make it sound like a have it figured out though. There is still much of the balance to figure out. Financially I make a tiny fraction of what I was making. I was lucky to have saved a lot money during my career to support us through these past couple years, and I am lucky my wife is able to financially carry most of our expenses, but eventually the money I am to able to be paid through Mount Ida will have to grow for it be something that’s financially sustainable for us.

Event Flyers for Programming at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY | Photo: Provided

My wife has been incredibly supportive through the entire process and encouraged me every step of the way, but we’ve certainly had to have conversations about how we each feel about our respective contributions to the household. I’ve taken on more responsibilities at home, in trade for the extra flexibility I have with my less traditional employment and lower income. We check in with each other more, to make sure we are both still comfortable with the balance we’ve arranged.

At the start, we were very careful, and took a pretty fine comb to our finances. We cancelled subscriptions, and restricted our spending. In the end, strangely, it feels like our lifestyle didn’t change that much, and we’ve loosened up since. Every so often we need to reel in spending again after getting a little too comfortable, but it feels healthy in a way to check-in with ourselves financially and evaluate what what’s really important for us to spend money on.

How would you describe where the organization is currently at and where you would like to see it in the next couple years? What’s that roadmap look like?

Mount Ida is putting itself on the map, learning how to operate through experience, and building financial sustainability. Over the past two years, we’ve worked out the logistic capability and structure for hosting various events at our historic church space. In the process Mount Ida has made a little name for itself with a recent feature in Metroland, a nomination for alternative venue of the year, and a couple of stories in CBS 6 and the Times Union.

To sustain an active roster of art programing, there is the challenge cleanly defining our behind-scenes workflows so that we can bring in new staff and volunteers, and create an easy to follow and exciting experience for them! A big part of those workflows will also be marketing; developing reliable channels to get the word out about what’s happening at Mount Ida. While revenue from events sustains Mount Ida through the Fall and Spring Seasons, We are also preparing to open year-around programs that will generate some regular revenue: namely a rental commercial kitchen and healing arts class program.

Commercial Kitchen at Mt Ida Preservation Association in Troy, NY | Photo: Corey Aldrich

Once we have operational stability down, we’ll be looking to leverage our work to tackle the bigger projects on the property; repairing, restoring, and improving the building. The dream will be to one day create a public access overlook deck to take advantage of our view of Poestenkill Gorge. That project will complete the vision of a community and art center that we can proud to have in the Mount Ida Neighborhood and for the City of Troy!

Anything in the immediate future you have going on you would like to share? Recent wins?

Keep an eye out for our May program, which will be running every weekend. Our Mother’s Day Brunch with Chef Larry Schepici (Previous Restaurant Affiliations include: Jacks Oyster House, the Brown Derby, Saratoga National and Tosca Grill / Illium Cafe) will be a 5-star grand buffet dining experience, and is an important fundraiser for us on Sunday May 10th. The Luna Series will continue through the summer on the Monday closest the full moon (1st Mondays), and our open mic will continue through the summer on 1st Tuesdays of the month.

WEB: mountidatroy.org | IG: @mtidapreservation

SPECIAL FEATURE : Exploring Community Mental Health and Therapeutic Expressive Arts with C.R.E.A.T.E.

April 25, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

The C.R.E.A.T.E Community Studios Team | Photo: Provided

GUEST CONTIBUTORS:
Guest Contributors: Julie Thompson Lewis – Masters of Science, Co-Founder | Heather Hutchison – Transpersonal Counseling Psychology : Concentration in Art Therapy (LCAT, ATR-BC), Executive Director and Co-Founder | C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios

May is Mental Health Awareness month, a perfect opportunity to highlight how art has the unique ability to help all of us in our mental wellness. Every month, more quantitative scientific research confirms what we, as creatives, know intrinsically: Engaging in the creative arts is healing for us personally. AND we believe it can heal communities.

Across the Capital Region, we at C.R.E.A.T.E. (Capital Region Expressive Arts, Transformation & Empowerment) Community Studios have been redefining how communities approach mental health since 2017. We blend creativity with community care to offer welcoming spaces where individuals of all ages and abilities can explore healing through art. At a time when mental health challenges are increasingly visible, we see therapeutic expressive arts as both a preventive and restorative tool for community well-being.

Workshop Event at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios | Photo: Provided

As co-founders, we started C.R.E.A.T.E. because of the lack of resources specifically devoted to mental health and art in the Capital Region. After our clients left treatment programs that offered clinical art therapy, we looked for resources to recommend to them. When we realized nothing else existed in our area, we built it ourselves. Our programs create pathways for people to move out of isolation and into connection. What makes our organization unique is that all our facilitators have backgrounds in special education, somatic work such as yoga and body-based healing, art therapy, or related fields.

Therapeutic expressive arts—a practice rooted in the belief that creativity fosters emotional release, self-awareness, community connection, and personal growth—sits at the core of our programming. Unlike traditional mental health programs, these approaches emphasize process over product, inviting participants to engage in painting, movement, music, and writing without pressure or judgment. We guide participants in connecting with their inner experiences, helping to regulate the nervous system and build resilience through creative exploration.

Open Studio at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios | Photo: Provided

We often hear from community members that their experiences in our workshops are transformative. For some, it’s a first step toward addressing long-held stress or trauma; for others, it becomes a consistent practice that supports ongoing mental wellness and combats social isolation. “I feel safe here,” is a common response from our participants.

Our programs range from open studio sessions to specialized offerings exploring various media such as ceramics, painting, and songwriting. Another emphasis of ours is community connection through public art. Public art has the power to engage community members in making art, and activate the spaces they live in. For example, our upcoming “ALCO Tunnel Tile Mosaic” in Schenectady combines community-made artwork into a functional public art space. In Saratoga, we have been collaborating with artists from Black Dimensions in Art and local filmmaker Careina Yard on Erasing Spaces and Faces: The Legacy of Urban Removal in Saratoga Springs, a multidisciplinary social practice project that explores the devastating effects of the displacement and erasure of Black and Brown communities through “urban removal,” a little-known part of the history of Saratoga Springs. By making these experiences affordable, accessible, and inclusive, we are working towards healing in community, bringing joy to our public spaces, and reducing stigma around mental health care.

Ceramic Studio at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios | Photo: Provided

Our impact extends beyond individual participants. Through partnerships with schools, small businesses, and nonprofits, we bring expressive arts directly into community spaces. During May, Mental Health Awareness Month, we collaborate on community events and public workshops that encourage dialogue, connection, and mental wellness. Our signature event, CREATE-a-Thon, will be held on May 9 from 1 pm to 9 pm at our Schenectady studio location. These efforts not only raise awareness and bring people together, but also help build sustainable, grassroots models for supporting mental health.

As conversations around mental health continue to evolve, we believe deeply in the power of creativity as a collective healing force. By centering expressive art as a pathway to wellness, we are helping to build a more connected, compassionate community—one brushstroke, breath, and shared experience at a time.

Doodling at a Tabling Event with C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios | Photo: Provided

ABOUT C.R.E.A.T.E COMMUNITY STUDIOS

C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios has four studios in three locations in the Capital Region – 70B Beekman Street in Saratoga Springs, 621 River St. in Troy, 140 Erie Boulevard (main studio) in Schenectady, and 140 Erie Blvd #W105 (ceramics studio) in Schenectady. Look for C.R.E.A.T.E. out and about in your community as well – we often show up at your local farmers market, street festivals, and libraries. To learn more or sign up for our monthly newsletter, hit up our website.

WEB: createcommunitystudios.org | IG: @createcommunitystudios

SPECIAL FEATURE : MENTAL HEALTH Tolerating Cognitive Dissonance

March 2, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

Improving Your Resilience and Relationships in an Unstable Paradigm
Guest Contributor: Rebecca (Giel) Santosuosso MHC-LP; BFA, BA, MS is a Mental Health Counselor. Additionally, Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Albany.

Rebecca (Giel) Santosuosso – MHC-LP,MS, BA, BFA | Image: Provided

Today, in order to survive in our without becoming an extremist, falling for propaganda, or falling victim to the impulse to completely isolate oneself; one must gather and implore a very specific set of skills. We talk about critical thinking skills, communication skills, skills for self care and community building, but we don’t often talk about that skill of tolerating cognitive dissonance.

For those unfamiliar with the term, cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort that comes while holding two conflicting thoughts or beliefs simultaneously. Our ability to tolerate such discomfort directly impacts our ability to understand nuance, and to avoid the trap of black and white thinking. Examples could include the simultaneous understanding “I am a good person, who tries to do the right thing” and “I did the wrong thing and hurt someone I care for.” Our instinct is so often to defend ourselves, especially our egos, and deny that both these truths can exist at once. We may instead reason that what we did was not wrong, but instead misunderstood, or that maybe this mistake does indeed mean we are bad, and that there is no point in attempting repair. Both strategies, in the end, find us equally self-defeated.

Another example could be found in the recent public death of a celebrity beloved by many. The two beliefs may be “Their murder is a tragedy” and “Their rhetoric was harmful to a lot of people.” If the former is true then one should only believe they were good, in order to honor their memory. But, if the latter is true, one might feel quite conflicted in their grief. In reality, both can be true. You do feel sadness and horror, and they did say things that hurt many people and proliferated hate. If you are unable to hold these thoughts simultaneously you will either drown in self-loathing for mourning a problematic person, or you will shield your eyes from all evidence contrary to your admiration – putting yourself in danger of living a lie. This lie becomes dangerous as it separates you from a complex reality and distances you from the greater community around you. You may begin to feel you can only relate to people who see things just the way you do.

A third example might have to do with the tense family relations that this aforementioned political climate has created. You might be saddled with the conflicting simultaneous beliefs that you love your family member and feel deeply betrayed and saddened by the positions they’ve chosen to take. Maybe you feel conflicted even in loving them. It’s possible you don’t know how to hold love and anger at the same time. If you hold only the anger you will lose the loved one, and if you only hold the love, you will betray yourself, suppressing your very valid emotions, values and beliefs. Both outcomes are painful. Thankfully, both are avoidable.

The ability to tolerate cognitive dissonance, like so many skills, requires intentional practice in order to master. You must be able to notice when your thoughts or beliefs conflict, choose to closely examine the ways in which they butt against one another, and sit with the emotions such an impact gives rise to in you. Tolerating two truths requires an expansion of the mind, as well as the heart. The ability to do so allows us to be more grounded in reality, more flexible in our tolerance of other perspectives, more stable in our belief systems, and more loving in general. Without this ability we are more susceptible to influence, more prone to extreme emotions like rage and fear, and more likely to find ourselves isolated in an echo chamber of our own creation.

Ways to engage with cognitive dissonance today may be in a journal or with a trusted friend. Find in yourself two beliefs which directly conflict and find a way to allow both to be true. Let them each occupy your mind and your body equally and simultaneously. I promise you will be better for it.

Experimental Creativity as a Form of Inquiry w/ Exec Director Dena Beard

January 26, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

Long known as an organizational asset for resident artists and campus related endeavors, there is a new focus on finding ways to incorporate EMPAC (At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy) into the fabric of the downtown Troy community and beyond. Find out what is in process and in store from a recent conversation with newish Executive Director, Dena Beard.

Dena Beard : Executive Director at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Emma Marie Chiang

Please state your name, organization and position. Can you share a bit about your experiential / academic background?

I’m Dena Beard, Executive Director of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I support artistic projects that challenge habituated forms of perception and invite new modes of engagement—across performance, sound, time-based media, and research-driven art.

Before coming to EMPAC, I served as Director of the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and spent nearly a decade as Executive Director of The Lab in San Francisco, working on projects rooted in experimental music, performance, and cross-disciplinary practice. Earlier in my career, I worked as Assistant Curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Across these roles, my focus has been on creating conditions for artists to work rigorously and experimentally, while also building organizations that are legible, humane, and porous—places where process is visible and audiences feel invited into how work is made, not just asked to consume finished products. I’ve been shaped by how powerfully art can activate space, community, and imagination. That’s why I do this.

EMPAC : Studio 1 at Rensselaer Polytech Institute in Troy NY | Photo : Provided

You have an interesting diversity in institutional leadership between your time on the west coast with THE LAB in San Francisco and in NYC at Brooklyn College’s Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts. What made you decide to take on EMPAC and how is that background informing you in your approach?

EMPAC is unlike any other arts institution in the country. RPI made a once-in-a-generation investment in experimental art, research, and technology—and that ambition is real, not rhetorical. Over the years, EMPAC has supported more than 700 artists whose works now circulate internationally and enter major museum collections. What drew me here was the opportunity to steward a program that operates simultaneously as a performance venue, a research laboratory, and a civic space in Troy.

My prior work taught me that institutional frameworks can either obscure creativity or make space for it. At The Lab, we foregrounded artists’ ways of seeing and making, creating conditions for experimentation rather than containing work within predictable program structures. That included commissioning artists meaningfully, offering $25K to $150K and forms of support still rare in the field: healthcare, legal representation, full access to space. What emerged was an adaptive ecosystem: when artists were trusted, they shared resources and reshaped the organization itself.

At the Tow Center, I worked within a large public academic institution, supporting Brooklyn College’s Conservatory of Music and Department of Theater while bringing local and international artists into deep conversation with students and New York publics. That work taught me how to bridge academic environments and professional artistic practice without flattening either.

Coming to EMPAC was about merging these two approaches, one rooted in generosity and adaptability, the other accountable to a complex academic institution and a broader public. My goal isn’t to change EMPAC’s identity, but to make its extraordinary work more legible, more durable, and more connected to the people who live and work in Troy and across the Capital Region.

EMPAC : TOPOS Remote Peformance at the Gasholder Bldg in Troy NY | Photo : Patrick Dodson

EMPAC has been largely misunderstood by the public historically. I see you have been working on raising awareness not only about what it is but also finding ways to bridge the gap, creating a more inclusive interaction with the regional arts community and general public. Why do you feel that is important for the institution? What challenges are your facing in the implementation of that approach?

EMPAC was founded on the idea that art and research aren’t separate activities—that experimental creativity is a form of inquiry, and that technological innovation often requires imaginative leaps we don’t always recognize as artistic. Nearly two decades in, that premise still holds. The question now is how EMPAC carries this work forward in ways that offer models of imagination and resilience to people living in this region.

EMPAC has sometimes been perceived as opaque or inaccessible—not because the work isn’t compelling, but because the processes behind it haven’t always been visible. I think experimental work benefits from context, from gracious welcome, and from trust.

Hanae Utamura Performs at EMPAC in Troy, NY | Photo: Tara Holmes

For me, accessibility doesn’t mean simplifying the work. It means offering tangible points of entry: clear language, open doors, a public space for informal gathering—for food and drink, for conversation, for being together. Anyone who comes here should feel it’s their public park, a place to meet friends, go on a date, step away from screens for an hour, or even just take a nap between commitment

The challenge is doing this without flattening complexity. The initial capital funding for EMPAC expired more than a decade ago, and today over 80% of staff time and resources currently support campus projects. We’re figuring out how to offer more to the broader public without overextending staff or compromising EMPAC’s standing in the arts. That requires careful pacing, discipline, and a willingness to listen—to students, to artists, and to our neighbors in Troy. It’s slow work, but it’s essential if EMPAC is going to function not just as a laboratory and campus auditorium, but as a cultural anchor for the Capital Region.

Victoria Shen and Mariam Rezaei Performance at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Michael Valiquette

What’s a typical day in the life look like for you?

There’s no such thing as a typical day, which probably explains why I love this work!

A day might include a technical walk-through with engineers and artists, a budget or infrastructure meeting with RPI leadership, a rehearsal, a conversation with faculty, and a late-night performance. In between, I’m thinking about long-term strategy: how EMPAC’s research mission aligns with RPI’s, how we care for a very complex building, and how we support a brilliant staff who are doing deeply specialized and deeply weird work.

A lot of my time is spent translating: between artistic and technical languages, between academic culture and public-facing programming, between ambition and sustainability. It’s demanding, but incredibly generative.

Leslie Cuyjet in Ephemeral Organ Festival at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Michael Valiquette.jpg

SHAMELESS PLUG: Anything on the horizon that you have planned that you would like to share?

Absolutely. EMPAC is entering a really exciting phase.

This year we’re hosting three festivals that invite audiences from Troy and across the region into different ways of experiencing contemporary work: staging grounds (February 20–28), focused on time-based visual art; Corpus (April 23–25), dedicated to dance and movement-based practices; and Topos (September 3–5), centered on music. Each festival premieres new work we’ve produced alongside projects we’re eager for audiences to encounter—sometimes at early, evolving stages.

We’re also developing Interface, a more informal series designed to bring people into EMPAC through conversation, experimentation, and social exchange, hopefully with a drink in hand.

EMPAC is very much a living instrument, and I’m excited to invite more people to play it with us.

Tapping Into Creative Community Design with TAP’s Barb Nelson

October 8, 2025 By Corey Aldrich

If you have spend time in Troy in the arts scene you know her work. Breathing Lights, Uniting Line, Creative Crosswalks, Troy Alley Action…the list goes on. Barb Nelson is more than just a public arts instigator and supporter. Her firm TAP Inc has been at the forefront of the arts and affordable housing for decades. I caught up with her to hear about what she has percolating currently and it’s impressive. A public recreation space in Troys Little Italy neighborhood, an affordable for purchase condominium project, and a month long riff of NYC’s ARCHTOBER…a Troy Edition! with over 25 events in October ranging from lunch and learns, hard hat tours, TAPpy hours and a killer art exhibition. And this is just a small sampling of the projects currently in process, all done enthusiastically and with an on eye on community building.

Barb Nelson : Executive Director at TAP Inc in Troy, New York | Image: Corey Aldrich

Please state your name, company, title. Can you give us a bit of your back story as well? Education, the path to how you got here? Interesting tidbits welcome!

I’m Barb Nelson. I became the Executive Director here at TAP Inc. exactly 10 years ago. I first worked at TAP as an intern right out of school RPI from 1980 to 1986. I managed my own practice from ’86 to ‘91 then returned to RPI to work in Campus Planning. I spent 24 years with RPI as an architect, planner and adjunct professor. But I had never wandered far from TAP’s community development mission and as such, I jumped at the chance when they needed a director in 2015. Along the way I’ve married, raised 2 daughters, renovated 2 homes, painted a dozen public murals, produced some circus shows, and served on a dozen boards, task forces and commissions. I like how easy civic engagement is in Troy.

TAP Inc Office Building in Troy, New York | Image: Provided

What does a typical day look like for you?

What’s a typical day? Some days are quiet, focused on the work of running a business. Some days are anxious grant deadlines collecting and formatting data for applications. We are a storefront so someday’s are busy with unscheduled walk-ins. I spend a lot less time on project sites measuring or monitoring construction work these days. we have a strong focus on place-making through participatory public art so on any given day we could be painting bridge abutments! Whether I’m designing a stair detail or connecting a client with grant funding, every day involves creative problem solving. TAP is like that, there’s always something different to take care of.

Barb Nelson Review Plans with Stakeholders | Image: Courtesy of Breathing Lights

How many staff do you have and what disciplines do they represent?

We have an amazing team of eleven ‘Totally Awesome Professionals!‘ 3 architects, 1 construction admin specialist, 4 license track designers, 1 sustainability director, an operations wizard, and a director of finance. Among us we have dancers, musicians, runners, builders, makers, artists, cooks and performers!

The Arts Center of the Capital Region Facade Project | Image: Provided

Habitat for Humanity Housing Plan Rendering | Image: Provided

What is the mission at TAP and as a NFP architectural firm, how do you fit in compared to other architectural and design professionals, the overall ecosystem?

TAP has been restoring, rebuilding, and revitalizing historic structures and urban neighborhoods since 1969. Many architects develop specialties, like schools, hospitals, homes, or retail. TAP’s niche is bringing vacant, damp, burned, and deteriorated structures back to life. When you do that, you bring life back to a neighborhood. We are partly funded by NYS so we can reduce our fees for qualified clients. We also can help neighborhoods envision change through community design. We can assist other non-profits in accessing grant money for their facilities. We’ve helped Habitat for Humanity build about 90 homes in the region. We’re big on collaboration with other organizations. We believe that ‘Together Anything’s Possible.’ TAP is one of 8 regional non-profit partners that make up the Capital Region Clean Energy HUB, managing energy saving upgrades for low income homeowners, and promoting clean energy job training.

Left to Right: Mayor McCarthy (Schenectady), Mayor Sheehan (Albany), Barb Nelson, Mayor Madden (Troy) and Adam Freland | Image: Courtesy Breathing Lights

Breathing Lights Installation in Schenectady, New York | Image: Courtesy Breathing Lights

Uniting Line Project | Hoosick Street Bridge in Troy, New York | Image: Provided

Any projects you are especially excited about right now?

We have so many! We are working with Affordable Housing Partnership in Albany to disseminate hundreds of home improvement grants for Low to Moderate Income Homeowners. In Schenectady, we have vacant homes being renovated by Better Community Neighborhoods Inc.

Closer to home, construction will start soon at Troy’s Little Italy Market Park, where TAP helped obtain grant money to transform the asphalt lot into a pocket park. We always have accessibility projects, making homes more livable for people with disabilities. We also just completed the restoration of 140 historic window sash at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy.

Adler Place Site Plan : Future Affordable Condominium Project | Image: Provided

Finally, our biggest effort these days is the development of Adler Place, 32 affordable courtyard condominium units in Troy. Our plate is full for sure but there’s always room for more. Our project list proves out our mantra, ‘Trusted Affordable Proactive.’

Shamless Plug: Anything we should know about that you have percolating?

Yes, we just kicked off a new initiative called ARCHTOBER: Troy Edition! A month-long festival celebrating architecture, architects and all the creatives responsible for our built environment. Did you know we have over a dozen architecture firms in Troy? Most are within a few blocks of each other downtown.

To find out more about this exciting series go to the TAP website and see the robust calendar line up of TAPpy Hours, films, trivia, hard hat tours, webinars, book talks, lectures, and a great closing party that will see us form a collaborative event with fellow arts organization Collar Works and their annual Mad Collar Party. Collaboration is a big part of this series and we have partnered up with several for profit architectural firms, and arts and cultural organizations including the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Tech Valley COG, the Hart Cluett Museum, 518 Film Network, Picture Lock One, WMHT, Architecture +, Mosaic Associates, ME Studio, Lightexture, the North Eastern New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and more!

If you know a young person who’s curious about the profession please bring them to ARCHTOBER one of our events.