Harbor Voices Team
Stephanie Benenson
Creative & Artistic Director, Founder
Stephanie Benenson is guided by inquiries into the power of exploring personal history through the medium of community storytelling. The results of which are immersive multilingual installations, augmented reality experiences, and other free, community-led public art experiences. In 2017, Stephanie founded Harbor Voices, an artist-led community storytelling collective that creates public celebrations of the collective voice. Her laser and sound installations feature over 100 global voices of ancestral and recent immigration and migration, with participants ages 6 to 86, in a many languages. Her work celebrates empathy, cultural diversity, and resilience by exploring commonalities in stories across history and connecting history to the present.
Through Stephanie’s work, participants deepen their understanding of the immigrant experience, celebrate cultural identity, experience enhanced empathy and acceptance by discovering shared experience, and gain confidence that their voices can be a vehicle for social change. Each project is a collaborative experience between artist and community voices, with at least one educator partnership in a local public school or postsecondary school.
Colleen Andrews
Designer, Arts Education Advocate
With a background in the visual arts and graphic design, Colleen Andrews executes all of Harbor Voices’ design needs. Additionally, Colleen’s focus is access and equity in arts education—making high-quality arts education a staple for every student. She believes deeply in the power of art and design to impact children’s lives, their educational experiences, and their communities. Colleen has worked at arts organizations on the East and West coasts developing, implementing, and evaluating arts education programming, and has led art-making for K-12 students in both classrooms and communities.
Our Growing Artist Collective
Jeff Barnett-Winsby, Photographer and Social Practice Artist
Jacob Johnson, Sound Artist
Andrew Dranetz, Laser Artist and Technician
Cliff Notez, Writer and Visual Artist
Nina Goodick, Ceramicist
Maury Vincent Burke, Education Advocate
Colin Griffiths, Producer