PUBLIC HISTORY EXPERIENCE

Chair and Project Manager, Ad-Hoc Memorial Preservation Committee, June 2014-Present:

  • Created May 23, 2014, University of California, Santa Barbara and Isla Vista Memorial Archive housed in the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. Contains thousands of artifacts, digital images and documents.

  • Co-Curated online exhibition using Omeka web publishing platform, that recreates the physical one-year memorial anniversary exhibition from 2015. 

  • Recipient of UCLA/Mellon Community Archives Internship Program Grant, UCLA MLIS student performing 12 hours of paid work per week on our project during 2018-2019 school year and received grant for project expenses

Curator, Project Manager, and Practicum Supervisor for Exhibit, Fall 2014-Summer 2015:

  • We Remember Them: Acts of Love and Compassion in Isla Vista. An exhibit created for the one-year memorial anniversary of the Isla Vista Rampage of May 23, 2014.

  • A healing and educational space that focused on community responses.

  • A 6,000 square foot exhibit spanning eight display rooms that was visited by more than 1,800 patrons. This makes it the largest exhibit in the University’s history in terms of both size and visitation.

  • Collection project and exhibit are student-run endeavors with the majority of the labor provided through undergraduate internships for course units and volunteers. Registered UCSB student organization, the Ad-hoc Memorial Preservation Group, raised $54,000 and an additional $40,000 worth of in-kind donations for the exhibit.

  • Project received Leadership in History Award from American Association for State and Local History, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

Advisor to documentary film project “Not One More,” September 2019-March 2020:

  •  UCSB student project sponsored by the UCSB Film Studies Department. An article on the project can be found here.

Committee Member, Winter 2015-Present:

  • Isla Vista Love & Remembrance Garden, a self-guided botanical garden that features six metal and wood benches, each carrying distinct designs created by UCSB Art students in memory of the six UCSB students who were killed. The designs were approved by the families of the victims, and each bench honors a particular student. To read more about the Garden please click here.

Adviser, Digital Hackathon Project for NCPH Conference, July 2018-Present:

Consultant, April 2018-Present:

Consultant, City of Orlando Office of the Mayor, November 2016-July 2017:

  • One Orlando Collection Initiative and one-year remembrance exhibition by the Orange County Regional History Center and also helped advise the City of Orlando Office of the Mayor regarding the Pulse Nightclub Permanent Memorial Project.

Coordinator, 805 Conservation Collective, Montecito Disaster, January 2018-March 2018:

  • Joint effort between UCSB and Westmont College to help salvage over 3,000 family photographs, art pieces, and personal materials damaged in Montecito Mudslide. Assisted over 150 families and Sheriff’s Office. Also salvaged historical materials belonging to La Casa de Maria an inter-faith retreat center. Secured $20,000 in Funding from Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade, a local non-profit organization formed in the wake of the disaster.

Coordinator, Origami Crane installation, April 2017-May 2017:

  • Origami Crane Installation, one thousand cranes folded by student organization and hung in Student Resource Building for permanent display along with interpretive signage

Research Assistant, July 2017-January 2018:

  • UCSB Campus Architecture and Social Change, exhibition UCSB Art Museum

Facilitator and Installation Manager, January 2017-May 2017:

  • Mapping Dissent, Collaborative Public Art Project, Department of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Photography exhibit of Mapping Dissent at “LGBTQIA+ Representation in the Media Conference at California State University Channel Islands, April 13, 2017.

Curator, August 2015-Present:

  • Tribute Wall for the Victims of the May 23, 2014 Isla Vista Rampage, Permanent Exhibit, Alcohol & Drug Program Isla Vista Office, UCSB.

Co-Curator, May 2015:

  • Isla Vista Remembrance Tribute Exhibit: A Special Exhibit Representing the Compassion of Gauchos and Community Coming Together, All Gaucho Reunion, Thursday April 23-Sunday April 26, 2015, Mosher Alumni House, UCSB.

Research Assistant, Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, assisted with documentation and donation of original legislative record books to UCSB Library, Department of Special Collections, and served as consultant for exhibit, Fall 2014-Summer 2015:

  • Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Ledger Project and Exhibit For the People By the People: Government at Work in Santa Barbara County, 1850-1950

  • Exhibit was on display in Santa Barbara at the Channing Peake Gallery downtown at the County Administration Building from June 29, 2015 to September 18, 2015.

  • Exhibit was on display in Santa Maria at the Joseph Betteravia Government Administration Building from Jan. 25, 2016 to May 6, 2016.

Images from We Remember Them: Acts of Love and Compassion in Isla Vista. An exhibit I curated for the one-year memorial anniversary of the Isla Vista Rampage of May 23, 2014. Photographs by Tony Mastres, UCSB photographer.

 Origami cranes made by UCSB students in 2014, immediately after the Tragedy. We hung them in the one-year memorial exhibit in a way that formed a semi-circle so visitors could feel embraced while standing inside. Each origami crane was nestled in a web of strings so that the artifacts would not be damaged. Local artist Ethan Turpin created the design.