I’m an artist, game designer, and writer dedicated to creating for and with community in public spaces and working towards a world guided by justice. I got my MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2003-5) and was grateful to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to practice art in India in 2006.

Blessings include grants by Rosa Rebellion Rebel Fund, the NYC Department of Transportation, City Artist, Queens Council on the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts, resulting in installations at the Brooklyn Grange LIC Rooftop Farm, Sunnyside’s Bliss Plaza, Brooklyn Museum, Dumbo Arts Festival, American Museum of Natural History, and Propelify Innovation Festival. I was also named an Award Finalist (2nd Place) for SXSW Eco’s 2016 Place By Design Competition and worked with the Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), to gather voices of Asian American artists and NYC residents to inform the City’s first-ever cultural plan. As circlefor, Purvi Shah and I were also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2015 by Nonbinary Review for our short story, “Mirrored Women.”

I’m co-founder of Street Works and Make Justice Normal (MJN). I’m also part-time Senior Advisor at Prime Coalition, a nonprofit that partners with philanthropists and other mission-driven investors to catalyze, deepen, or accelerate solutions that we believe will massively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Before 2021, I was Vice President of Knowledge & Communications at Mission Investors Exchange, Director of Public Engagement/Communications for JUST Capital, ; and Director of Knowledge & Communications for Nonprofit Finance Fund. I was also an Americorps Vista Volunteer at the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance and have worked as a writer for museums and performing arts centers nationwide.

I have a neurological disability that shapes how I see, hear, and labor in the world — and my perspective of system failure and justice here in in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape and Matinecock peoples. I care for JH public spaces as a regular current volunteer / social sculpture artist for the 34th Avenue Open Street Coalition and past volunteer for Diversity Plaza.

WRITING(Highlights)

Visit here for a complete list

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS CHANGE

  • Street Works, Co-founder. 2023-Present. A group of artists and neighbors helping our communities creatively connect, collaborate, and take action on the issues that matter in their lives. We organize street festivals, mutual aid efforts, and cultural research that serve justice and grow into long-term neighborhood projects.
  • Make Justice Normal, Co-founder. 2021-Present. A fiscally sponsored nonprofit 501(c)(3) and LLC collective researching, prototyping, and building organizational systems, relationships, and collective action among people working to make justice normal. 
  • Prime Coalition, Senior Advisor, Impact Accountability. 2021-Present. A nonprofit seeking to support sustainable, effective, and scalable solutions to climate change.
  • Saavan Blue, Co-Founder. 2018-Present. A small business and home for artistic collaboration with Ernest Verrett.
  • Mission Investors Exchange, Vice President, Knowledge & Communications. 2017-2021. A network dedicated to advancing practices of foundations and philanthropy in impact investing.
  • Collaborator, Open Society Foundations, Asian American Arts Alliance, Nonprofit Finance Fund, and others. 2017. Served as a consultant in communications, website design, research writing, survey and workshop development, and more.
  • JUST Capital, Director, Public Engagement/Communications. 2016. A nonprofit that measures how the largest publicly traded companies in the US perform on the things that matter most to the American public.
  • Nonprofit Finance Fund, Director, Knowledge & Communications. 2008-2015. (Promoted: Sr. Associate, to Mgr., to Assoc. Dir., to Dir. A nonprofit community development financial institution and consultant dedicated to improving how money is given and used to achieve social impact.

LEARNING

  • Fulbright Grant, Fine Arts. India, 2005. Created artwork & participated in gallery exhibitions, panels, lectures, and community activities.
  • Rhode Island School of Design, Masters of Fine Arts, Painting. 2003-2005. Teaching Certificate I (Emphasis On Collegiate Teaching), Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University.
  • Amherst College, Bachelor of Arts, Double Major in English & Fine Arts. 1997-2001. Graduated summa cum laude.

PAST WORK

  • LaPlaca Cohen, Copywriter. 2007. An advertising and marketing firm for leading US cultural institutions, including The Met, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and more.
  • Rhode Island School of Design, Instructor of Record and Writing Tutor, with an Emphasis on Graduate Programs (Writing Center); Instructor of Record and Teaching Assistant (Painting Department). 2003-2005.
  • Executive Media Corporation, Journalist/Staff Writer. 2003. Business/Trade Magazines.
  • Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, Americorps Vista Volunteer. 2002. A coalition of housing and shelter organizations addressing systemic challenges and policy at the state level.

ART

  • American Museum of Natural History, Climate Week reception. “Mean. Equity.” 2025.
  • Dept of Transportation, Car-Free Earth Day, Grant and Street Installation. “Rising. Curtains.” 2025
  • Rebel Fund, Grant. 2025.
  • Queens Arts Fund, Grant 2025.
  • circlefor: a social practice collaborative between Anjali Deshmukh and Purvi Shah with the mission to foster space where art emerges through connection, participation, and community-building. Giving Space/Changing Space; Ready to Heal/Ready to Grieve; Missed Fortunes; Weave & Woven; Make Yourself Meek/Make Yourself Vast
  • 2 Minutes to Midnight and Glass Hours, Public Participation Lab and Installation w/ funding from Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant and Sunnyside Business Improvement District. 2019. 
  • I Do Not Walk In A Dream, Propelify Innovation Festival: Public participatory Installation featured on the Hoboken Piers. 2017.
  • LMCC Studio: Make Yourself Meek/Make Yourself Vast. Public participatory installation in collaboration with poet Purvi Shah. 2017.
  • The Future of Arts & Culture in NYC: Survey and creative workshop to inform NYC Cultural Plan, made possible by the Asian American Arts Alliance. 2017.
  • SXSW ECO Place by Design Award Finalist, 2nd Place. 2016
  • Ars Continuum, Group Show, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery (NY). 2016.
  • Bending the Universe, Public Installation, Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm. Queens Council on the Arts Commissioning Grant. 2015.
  • Water, Group Show, Gallery Gitanjali, Goa (India). 2015.
  • Random Generators, Dumbo Arts Festival (NY). 2014.
  • Blank Arcade. Digital Games Research Conference Exhibition (Snowbird, UT). 2014.
  • Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday (NY). SAWCC group show: “Sublime.” 2014.
  • Dumbo Art Festival (NY). SAWCC group show. 2013.
  • Gallery Espace (New Delhi, India). Group show. 2012.
  • Erasing Borders. Queens Museum (NY), Hammond Museum (CT), Flushing Town Hall. 2012.
  • Transcendence of Self to Absolute. Akus Gallery (CT). Curator Neeta Omprakash. 2012.
  • Radiate. Windsor Art Gallery (Windsor, CT), Gallery 400 (Chicago, IL). Curator Kathryn Meyers. 2012.
  • Can You See Me? Engendered Gallery (New Delhi, India). Curator Myna Mukherjee. 2012.
  • Erasing Borders. Queens Museum/ Asian Contemporary Art Week (NY), Charles B. Wang Center, SUNY (NY), Aicon Gallery (NY), Jorgenson Gallery (CT). Curator Vijay Kumar, Indo-American Arts Council. 2011.
  • Art4Barter. Tamarind Art Gallery, Tria Gallery (NY), 12 Gates Gallery (PA). Featured in BBC News, WNYC Radio. 
  • Erasing Borders. Queens Museum of Art (NY), Elizabeth Foundation Project Space (NY); Dowd Fine Art Gallery (NY); Asian Contemporary Art Week/Crossing Art (NY); Gallery at Penn College (PA). Curated by Vijay Kumar, IAAC. 2008.
  • Where You Want to Be. Solo show, Higher Bridges Gallery. Fermanagh, Ireland. 2008.
  • Finite in/finite. 3-person, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery. SUNY Westbury, NY. 2007.
  • Solo exhibiton, Habitat Center. Delhi, India. 2006.
  • Art Internationalism, sponsored by Hindustan Times and Elle (India). Delhi, India. 2006.

ENGAGING

  • Volunteer, 34 Ave Open Street Coalition, Jackson Heights: this is one of New York City’s efforts to create public spaces (2023-)
  • Volunteer, Diversity Plaza, Jackson Heights: this is one of New York City’s efforts to create public spaces (2016-2020)
  • Board, Greater NY Fulbright Alumni Association (2014-2018)
  • Games for Change Festival: Presenter on measuring impact in games
  • By-lines in Chronicle of Philanthropy, Philanthropy NorthWest Blog, JUST Matters; mentions in articles by the Times of India and Asian Age; by art historian Joyce Brodsky: Crossing Boundaries: The Art of Anjali Deshmukh and Rohini Devasher, Joyce Brodsky, University of California Santa Cruz
  • Nonprofit Finance Fund: Webinars on Nonprofit Trends (Annual Survey Findings)
  • Fulbright Sponsored Panel: Quantifying the Impact of the Arts
  • Panel discussions and/or lectures sponsored by organizations including the Asian American Studies Institute, Chennai Museum (India), India Habitat Center (India)

KNOW-HOWS, LEARNED BY DOING

Advanced: Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver); Web Development Project Management (RFP development, budgeting, planning); Tech Doer (HTML, Squarespace design/implementation, WordPress management; Invision); Graphic Design softwares (Pagemaker, CorelDraw, Photopaint, Quark Xpress, GIMP, Adobe PDF Pro); Email Marketing (Pardot, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor); Microsoft Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher).

Proficient: WordPress (including creating and self managing this site using GreenGeeks and opensource WordPress) & Drupal (implementation); social media tools/platforms (e.g., Prezi, Tweetdeck, HootSuite, Sprinklr); Google Analytics; iMovie; Salesforce; Email marketing platforms; Web development (CSS);Tableau Public.

Basics: Javascript; Final Cut Pro; Flash; Atom and SourceTree for web development staging.