Artists 2026

Sari Nordman is an interdisciplinary artist working across public art, fiber-art installations and socially engaged practices. Many of her projects have been informed by climate change and respond to environmental justice issues. Sari is a 2026 cohort in Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's (LMCC) Arts Center Residency Program. Her works have been exhibited at South Street Seaport and Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Her works have received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). She holds an M.F.A. from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

Marion Spencer is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary dance artist whose work weaves movement, sound, and installation through feminist and embodied research practices. Drawing from her heritage as the child of Mesoamerican archaeologists from Venezuela and Panama, her performances explore extinction, adaptation, and futurity through intuitive, body-centered knowledge. A 2023 New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award nominee for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, Spencer’s work has been presented at leading venues including La MaMa, Danspace Project, and Gibney. She has held numerous residencies, teaches movement practices, and earned an MFA from NYU Tisch.

John Bannon is a sculptor whose work integrates elements of Gestalt psychology, optics, and illusions of depth to create immersive environments that invite aesthetic engagement and quiet contemplation. Through layered visual experiences, his practice encourages viewers to pause, reflect, and perceive the familiar in unexpected ways, sparking moments of wonder and opening new pathways of thought. Working across sculpture and spatial installation, Bannon explores perception, materiality, and the subtle relationships between seeing and understanding. His work creates environments where curiosity, illusion, and reflection converge, inviting audiences into experiences that shift awareness and deepen attention.

Cheri Magid is a playwright, screenwriter, librettist, and multidisciplinary writer whose work spans theater, opera, film, children’s television, podcasts, and experimental performance. Her acclaimed play A Poem and a Mistake has been staged internationally, adapted for film, and featured by the BBC, with an upcoming presentation at the Edinburgh Fringe. Her operas have received support from organizations including Opera America and New Music USA. Magid has written for the Emmy Award-winning series Arthur, held prestigious playwright residencies, and currently serves as Associate Arts Professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch.

Jean Zimmerman’s books have explored the history and culture of the Hudson Valley. Her acclaimed The Women of the House: How a Colonial She Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty (2006, Harcourt) is the primary source about the Philipse family, who settled in Yonkers in the 1600s and went on to found a 57,000-acre estate encompassing present day Westchester County. Her duel biography Love, Fiercely, A Gilded Age Love Story profiles a pair of well-to-do philanthropists, one of whom grew up at lavish “Locust Wood” the estate of billionaire 19th-century merchant Robert Bowne Minturn in Hastings-on-Hudson, Zimmerman’s home town.

Rebecca Hart is a New York City–based writer, performer, and musical theater creator whose work spans theater, opera, songwriting, and solo performance. Her performances include original commissions, national tours, and residencies, while her music has appeared at venues including BAM, Joe’s Pub, and the Public Theater. Hart’s written works include IRON JOHN: an american ghost story, developed through major festivals and residencies, and the opera The Barren(s). A graduate of Brown University and NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, she is also an Associate Artist with The Civilians and released her album The Magician’s Daughter in 2018.

Owen Roberts is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator whose work spans animation, interactive media, art games, websites, and experimental storytelling. Drawing from writing, sound, software, and digital platforms, he creates multimedia projects that explore technology’s unexpected uses—from poetic systems to immersive virtual experiences. Roberts has exhibited and presented work internationally through festivals, conferences, and galleries, with animations screened across the U.S., Europe, and India. He is an Associate Professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he teaches multimedia and interactive media, and continues to develop innovative approaches to digital art and creative education.