Image in header courtesy of Mia Cross
Here at the Cambridge Art Association, we have an incredible staff that works hard to ensure the success of our Art Rental Program, education and professional programs, exhibition opportunities, fundraisers and SO much more. We want to take a moment to celebrate and re-introduce these individuals. Keep reading to learn more!
Olivia Feal, Program Coordinator | Olivia Feal holds an Art History and Museum Concentration degree from Smith College and could have never gotten there without the support of her professors at CUNY LaGuardia Community College, where she transferred from. Born and raised in New York City, she owes her passion in museum and arts education to a high-school internship at the Rubin Museum. She has had the pleasure to work in the education departments at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum and the Dallas Museum of Art. In addition to her position at the Cambridge Art Association, she is also a Teaching Artist for WallTalk, a teen program at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston. When she isn’t teaching or making art you can find her playing with her 15-year-old dog, Toffee, roaming used bookstores and obsessing over public transportation maps.
If you are interested in contacting Olivia you can email her at olivia@cambridgeart.org.
Q & A
Where are you from? Born and raised in New York City! With parts assembled from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Italy, and Poland.
What inspires you? I love that feeling when you are on the beach, laying on the sand, with your eyes closed and all you see is the reddish black of your eyelids and the sun just completely engulfs your body into this giant hug. At that moment your body doesn’t matter, how you appear to others doesn’t matter it’s just being centered and present. I have a lot of anxiety so coming back to that memory and feeling is how I get centered and ultimately inspired. Inspired because it makes me strive to live a life where I stay in that moment as much as possible.
Do you make art? I do, but not for a career. When I do it’s a mixture of filling out my black book with random scribbles and taking film photography.
Is there another form of making/creating that you love? Favorite hobbies? I have a lot of hobbies: knitting, taking care of my plants, cooking (but not baking), trying out new diners and checking out art galleries and museums. I am trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese and study that too in my spare time. I also have a weird obsession with diners, so I am always trying to find a new diner. My favorite one in Boston (which is actually in Somerville) is Kellys.
How did you first get involved in the arts? My family is creative, my dad plays the congas and so I was exposed to music especially salsa from an early age and my mom did film photography. In high school, I was told to get into a college I needed some extracurriculars and the only subject I really liked was art, so my counselor told me to apply to a teen internship program at the Rubin Museum and the rest was history.
What is your favorite thing about working in the arts/with artists? So this is a two-fold answer for me. In my work as an educator I work mostly with art, but rarely with the artists. I love getting to teach with artworks in museums because I love hearing what people connect with and how they connect to works. At the CAA, I work mostly with artists by scheduling them through programs. My favorite parts of the programs are getting to watch an artist teach their craft and seeing the camaraderie between participants and the artist.
What would you like to see more of in the Boston Arts scene? Honestly, it’s hard to know what is going on in Boston. As someone that moved here and didn’t go to school here outside of a few places that are always good with their Insta, there isn’t one place I can go to to learn about events happening. I think because of this people tend to stay in the same groups here. So, sometimes the art scene in Boston can feel very cliquey to me, as an outsider coming in without any Boston- school connections.
Do you own any art? The first art piece I ever bought is my most favorite. It’s a print from the 2009 series, “Delicate Line (Corpse she was holding): Her head in the flames?” by artist Chitra Ganesh. I had met her while I worked at the Rubin Museum and it felt really important to have my first artwork purchase be someone I got to meet in person and a New York-based artist. Years later, I found out that MoMA collected the same piece! It felt especially good to see her having such a glow up.
What is your favorite public art piece in Boston? Oh WOW. I am a HUGE public art fanatic (maybe this is from growing up in NYC and having family in Bronx and Harlem so I would just see it all the time), so this is a hard question. I have to say that Provecho! By Justin Favela in the Prudential Center is a must-see. The first piece that comes to mind is the mural on Perkins St. off Centre St. in Jamaica Plain. This piece is called “Taino Indians” by Rafael Rivera Garcia from 1984, but it had to be restored in 2003 by the Mayor’s Mural Crew.
What is your favorite restaurant in Boston? Izzy’s in Cambridge for some of my favorite affordable, old school, Borinquen cuisine. For a fancy, quintessential Boston sea-food dinner go to Salty Girl.
What’s the coolest art-related happening that you’ve seen in Boston recently? Coming up? I am so excited for the Raul de Nieves show at ICA from July 22, 2020 – Jan 2, 2021