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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 the Sammamish 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.  June  and 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

Selected Bibliography

Jonathan Zwikel, CityArts Magazine, July 2011.  "A Different Kind of Art Walk." 
Mike Seely, Seattle Weekly, July 29 2011.  "The Long Walk Provides Cannon Fodder for Critics of Public Art Funding."  (note:  please do not hold this article against the many more informed and open minded people of Seattle and its hinterlands...see the comments for many thoughtful rebuttals.)   
Mike Sula, Chicago Weekly,
February 24, 2011.  One Bite:  Mince Pie
Daniel Tucker, AREA Chicago #10, Institutions and Infrastructures, Fall 2010. “Industrial Harvest.” 

Daniel Tucker, H-Art International, October 2010. “Summer Harvest:  Three visiting artist projects about food, community and economy descend on Chicagoland.” 

First Business News, Sept. 13 2010.  “Free Flour.”  TV interview on Industrial Harvest.

BBC World Update, Sept. 11 2010.  Radio interview on Industrial Harvest.

Martha Bayne, Chicago Reader, August 2 2010.  Enriched.”  Feature article on Industrial Harvest.

Joanna Ericson, Gapers Block, August 6 2010.  Industrial Harvest.” 

Daily Candy, August 4 2010. “Give back and earn your daily bread.”

Mapping C-Change,” The Sceptical Futuryst, Friday, February 2, 2008

Regina Hackett, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 2 2007.  In the Galleries column. 

Personally Public,” Sue Peters,  Seattle Weekly, April 26,. 2006

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

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