BIO I am an artist and
urban planner with a
wide variety of creative, academic, and
political pursuits and experiences. A born & bred Midwesterner, I
was raised in back-to-the-land style in rural
Ohio in the 70s and am now based in Seattle
after stints in the mountains of Virginia &
Pennsylvania, Washington DC, the Czech
countryside, and Brooklyn (hello,
Gowanus!). I have a masters' degree in
urban planning from the University of Washington
and work part time for a small firm that does
research on walkable communities, urban design
and health. This professional career tends
to, more often than not, influence my art
practice as I frequently adapt methods of
inquiry common to social science and urban
planning. I'm also
fascinated and inspired by massive, seemingly
inpenetrable systems and their unique
subcultures, language and symbology (sewer
systems, subways, bureaucracy, commerce).
Selected Exhibitions and
Installations
2011
Last Chance Travel, Seattle WA.A
temporary, mock travel agency about the
impacts of climate change (collaboration with
Nicole Kistler) Natural.Ephemeral
braided grass sculpture for King County’s
Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant
opening, Woodinville WA Woven Grass Village (with Adria Garcia).Ephemeral
woven grass sculpture at Lo-Fi art &
performance festival, Smoke Farm, Arlington
WA.
Passage. Ephemeral
braided grass sculpture at McCormick Park,
Duvall, WA as part of The Long Walk 2011, a
four day, 45 mile trek though the King County
Trails system.
Forecast:Communicating
Weather and Climate.Group
exhibition,
Seattle Convention Center (for Watermark).
2010
Hey!We’re
all Beginners Here.Group exhibition,
Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center,
Chicago IL (for Industrial
Harvest). Women in Grains. Group
exhibition, Woolen Mill Gallery, Reedsburg WI
(for Industrial
Harvest).
Grass Braid Redux.Ephemeral grass
sculpture along theSammamish
River Trail, 4Culture Site Specific program /
City of Redmond.
Industrial Harvest, Chicago IL.A
large-scale artistic gesture of Herculean
proportions about nourishment, food systems, and
the City of Chicago, where I toy with the
commodities markets and give away 1000 bushels
of commodity wheat.
2009 Lo-Fi. Participant in annual art /
performance festival, Smoke Farm, Arlington WA.
Curated by Jed Dunkerly (grass braid). Headwaters of Industry. With Erin
Morrison. Vermillion Gallery, Seattle
(paintings).
2008 Environmental Performance Actions (EPA). Group
show at Exit Art, NYC; now traveling (Watermark
project). Borderlands. Group show at South Seattle
Community College (paintings). Envisioning A Future. Group show at South
Seattle Community College (the Living Barge).
2007 Motel #1. Group show at the Bridge
Motel, Seattle (ghost stumps). Groundtruthing. Group Show at SOIL,
Seattle (Watermark project).
2006
Personally Public. Group show at Crawl Space
(R.I.P.), Seattle (Polling).
The Living Barge Project (collaboration with
Nicole Kistler). Duwamish River, Seattle Part
community builder, part environmental
restoration, and part art installation, the
Living Barge Project was a large-scale temporary
public art project on Seattle's Duwamish River.
We planted a barge with the native plants of the
Duwamish, creating a temporary, floating island
to comment on the Duwamish's past, present and
future (www.livingbarge.com). We raised $20,000
in grant funding and over $40,000 in donated
goods, services and volunteer time, including
the barge itself, for the project.
2005
Recycled Art Show. Group show at the ReStore,
Seattle
Participant in Dead Girls, a performance
installation by Nicole Grant and Ragan Peck,
Priceless Works Gallery, Seattle (R.I.P.).
2004
New Work. Solo show at Zeitgeist, Seattle
(paintings)
Urban Dwellers. Group show at Priceless Works,
Seattle (R.I.P.). Displayed documentation of
Confidential (Information Overlord), Seattle.
New Paintings. With Drew Demeter and Libby Pace.
Priceless Works Gallery, Seattle
2003
Works on Paper - Variations & Themes. Group
show at PACE University Gallery, New York
(drawings).
Lo-Fi. With Seth Thomas and Jason Hasenbank.
Zeitgeist, Seattle (paintings)
Weapons of Mass Distraction. Group show at The
Segway, Seattle (portrait of Britney)
2002
Off the Page. Group show at SOIL, Seattle (cloud
poems)
2001
Blind Date. Group show at Oculus Gallery,
Seattle (paintings)
1996
Mixed Media Work. Solo show at Fairleigh
Dickinson University Gallery, Hackensack, NJ
1995
Work on Plywood. Solo show at AFA Gallery,
Scranton, PA
Related Experience, Lectures,
Awards & Grants
2011 Storefronts
Seattle
program (for Last
Chance Travel) 4Culture (King
County Arts Commission) Group Artist Project
grant award (for Last
Chance Travel) “Fixing a
broken food system.”Panel
speaker, Town Hall Seattle (for Industrial
Harvest).
2010
Artist in Residence, Mess Hall, Chicago IL (for
Industrial Harvest research & events
programming)
Guest classroom lecturer, School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
Invited lecturer, Jane Addams Hull House
Museum ReThinking Soup lecture series.Juneand
October 2010 (for Industrial
Harvest)
King County Site Specific program artist
2009
Residency at InCUBATE, Chicago, IL A geography of Illinois Wheat. Info-graphic
contribution to Area Chicago (issue #9,
Peripheral Vision).
"Just for Awhile." Presentation on temporary
public art at the Americans for the Arts
Conference, June 18-20 2009, Seattle WA.
Residency at radical ecologist Nance Klehm's
Urban Homestead, Chicago, IL
Panelist, selection panel for City of Seattle
Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs
2008
4 Culture (King County Arts Commission) Group Artist Project
grant award (for the Living
Barge project)
Virtual resident and guest editor for Democracy
Guest List, the blog of artist & cultural
critic Anne E. Moore
2007
Coastal America 2007 Partnership Award for the
Living Barge Project, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Curator, the Alibi Room,
Seattle
2006
Sabbatical in Jakub / Prague, Czech Republic
Finalist, Damen Station Public Art
Installation, Chicago Transit Authority
$15,000 City of Seattle Neighborhood Matching
Fund Grant for the Living Barge Project
$5,000 Neighbor 2 Neighbor Fund grant for the
Living Barge Project
2003
Guest Editor, THIS Magazine (a project of Anne
E. Moore)
2002
Contributing Writer, Illustrator and Arts
Columnist, Matte Magazine 1-3
$3,500 City of Seattle CarSmart Grant for
Car-Free Seattle
2001
$5,000 City of Seattle CarSmart Grant for
Car-Free Fremont
1998
Afterschool art program instructor, NY
Settlement School, New York City.
Responsible for developing curriculum
and teaching an afterschool art program for an
alternative, community-based school on the
Lower East Side.
1995 - 1998
Assistant to visual artists Jane Dickson and
Susan Leopold, New York City
1994 - 1995
Art Programs Coordinator, McGlynn Learning
Center, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Dan Gonsiorowski, Seattlest, April 27
2006. "Living Barge Tours Eliott Bay Today."
Laura Cassidy, Seattle Weekly, April 19-25 2006.
The Living Barge Project featured in Arts &
Culture This Week column.
Adam Hyla, Real Change News, April 19-25 2006.
The Living Barge Project featured in Change
Agent column.
Meryl Schenker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Friday April 28 2006. "Uprooting the Artful
Planting."
Dan Gonsiorowski, Seattlest, April 7 2006. "The
Barge Is Living And The River Is Dead."
Thomas James Hurst, The Seattle Times, Tuesday
March 28 2006. "A Boatload of Native Plants."
Selected Publications
Frank LD, Kavage, S (2008). Urban Planning and
Public Health: A Story of Separation and
Reconnection. Journal of Public Health
Management and Practice .
Frank LD, Kavage S, Appleyard B (2007). The
Urban Form and Climate Change Gamble. Planning,
Aug/Sept.
Frank LD, Bradley M, Kavage S, Chapman J, Lawton
TK (2007). Urban form, travel time, and cost
relationships with tour complexity and mode
choice. Transportation.
Kavage S, Myers T (2007). Unhappy Birthday: 50
Infamous Years of American Roadbuilding.
Carbusters #29.
Kavage S (2004). Yes, it is About the Artists:
The Tacoma Story. The Next American City 7.
Kavage S (2004). Today's Company Town: Seattle's
Boeing Fixation. The Next American City 4.
Kavage S (2003). Reclaiming the Grid: Portland's
City Repair. The Next American City 3.
Kavage S (2003). Leavenworth, Washington and the
Marketing of Place. The Next American City 2.
Kavage S (2002). Freighted With Meaning or
Memory: Jane Dickson Paints the Domestic
Uncanny. Matte Magazine 2
Kavage S, Moore AE (2002). Quit Your Job: An
Interview with Greg Lundgren of Artists For A
Work Free America. Matte Mag. 1.
Kavage S (2001). Renee French's Awkward
Adolescence. The Comics Journal no. 234.
Urban Planning & Public Service
2005-present: Special Projects Manager,
Urban Design 4 Health, Inc. Manage applied
research projects for a small consulting firm
that does research on the relationships between
community design and physical activity, travel
behavior, air quality and climate change.
Develop reports, journal articles, popular and
issue papers to summarize research findings for
policymakers and academic audiences.
2003-2006 Member, Board of Directors, Bike
Works, Seattle (board president 05-06)
2003-2005 Member, City of Seattle Pedestrian
Advisory Board
1999-2005 Transportation Planner, Washington
State Department of Transportation
2001-2002: Co-Organizer, Car-Free Days, Seattle
(co-organizer Robert Zverina). Received 2 grants
from the City of Seattle to reclaim the streets
for people, not cars, and inspire people to go
car-free. Public art andperformance was an
integral part of both events. The 2001 Car-Free
Day was the first car-free day in North America.
2000: Ecological, Incremental Wastewater
Treatment in Cantarrana, Havana, Cuba,
University of Washington, Seattle. Examined
small-scale, environmentally friendly
alternatives to conventional wastewater
treatment for an industrial neighborhood as part
of a group field study in Havana, Cuba.
Developed illustrations and concept drawings for
the final report, which received an Excellence
in Planning Honor Award from the American
Planning Association Washington Chapter.
1999-2000: A Heritage Plan for Ketchikan,
Alaska, University of Washington, Seattle. Group
field study in Alaska to develop a holistic
historic preservation strategy. Served as
principal layout designer for the plan. The plan
won the Urban Design & Planning Department's
Historic Preservation Award.
1996-1997: Founder, South Brooklyn
Recycle-A-Bicycle, Brooklyn, NY. Established an
afterschool bicycle recycling program at I.S.
142, including funding, staffing and teaching
the program.
Degrees
Master of Urban Planning, University of
Washington, August 2000
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Ohio Wesleyan University,
May 1994