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I consider myself a cultural producer whose work facilitates social imagination at the intersection of hand-making, teaching,
and community building. I make things as a way to connect with other humans, learn a lot from brilliant collaborators of all ages and
often use youtube to teach myself how to do things. My projects exist in
city streets, forests, public schools, at home around a table, and/or in the space between two or more people.
For the past fifteen years I have orchestrated learning, doing and making experiences that include facilitating amateur clubs and meet-ups,
prototyping big ideas with cardboard, building and participating in solidarity networks, constructing houses and sewing clothing, nourishing community
with absurdity and joy, and mentoring children and young people to find their freedom through collaborative making.
I’m interested in the way that tools and technology can give us leverage to extend the best and most curious parts of ourselves,
and believe that creative collaboration is essential to reimagining and building a more inclusive, compassionate world.
In 2016 I built Splinters and Logs Studio with Mitchell Dose, a live-work space for myself and five other
creative humans in NYC. Our goal was to co-create artist housing in New York
that works for artists, and an environment in which every residents creative practice and security is mutually supported.
Crumby Spokes and many other projects were born here.
I have mentored and taught with organizations including Arts in Parts, City-As-School, MoMA Studio, OurGoods barter network, Brooklyn Boatworks, Girls Rock!, Beam Camp
and Off The Hook. I have apprenticed with various women and femme carpenters. I currently work at Beam Center, where I support
Project Leaders, a team of teenagers who design and facilitate hands-on projects
for children. I am commited to trusting and advocating for young people. When I’m not working on projects at Splinters and Logs or at Beam Center, I participate in the solidarity economy,
hang out at clay club, and ride my bike.
I am a white, queer resident of New York City on unceded Lenapehoking. I grew up in Minneapolis
Minnesota and moved to Edinburgh Scotland in 2006, where I received a joint MA from the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art.
I studied Intermedia, Art History and Anthropology and graduated with special honors from the Royal Scottish Academy.
I have always been dissatisfied by the way that departments are siloed within higher education. I switched from the Sculpture department to the Drawing
and Painting department to Intermedia arts at the Edinburgh College of Art, and ultimately
ended up doing most of my work offsite in a vacant storefront I acquired access to from the City
Council at no cost. I did most of my learning out of school. I co-organized a series of family style dinners by and for recent
immigrants to Scotland with The Welcoming, created networks for resource sharing, and co-organized a
sustainable textiles festival. I do not believe that education starts or stops with formal schooling.
Please feel free to contact me about commissions, collaborations, project questions or anything else! I would love to share my process with you.
You can email me at: elizabethhurst2 [at] gmail [dot] com.