MARGARET COLEMAN

Founding Co-Director, Board Member

BURLINGTON, VERMONT

Margaret Coleman is a Founding Member of Art Shape Mammoth and was the Executive Director from 2014-2019, offering artists an alternative to a traditional gallery structure.

Coleman finished her BFA from the University of MN in 2005 and her MFA from Pratt Institute in 2009. She is currently doing her PhD in Philosophy and Aesthetics at IDSVA, experimenting with conceptual structure of the Art World as her artistic medium. She collaborates on most projects and doesn't differentiate between curatorial work, artistic practice, and life. She likes doing fun things, like making art in a small fishing village in Skagastrond, Iceland in Winter for three months in 2010 (NES Artist Fellowship) or going on a six week tour like a DIY band in 2011 (Non Solo shows). She has also lived in reclusion in a foreclosed building and hopped a boxcar. The former was art, the latter was just pure fun. One time she loaded forty people onto a bus and took them to secret places all day long, (Flux Factory, “Demonstrations of Aptitude, 2009, solo exhibition) and another summer was spent hanging out with senior citizens doing paper making (St Louis Park Arts and Culture Grant 2009/10, two time recipient). She has cast iron and made paper in the ocean. In 2013, she lived in a tent at Franconia Sculpture Park, where she cast a 500 pound iron sculpture, "Lump," that is still on display there. Following "Lump," came "Slump," made for Pelham Art Center in the Bronx (2014). In 2014 she traveled to Latvia and created a collaborative installation exhibition as part of the International Conference on Cast Iron Art. Every summer she goes to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where ArtShape Mammoth has started a Sustainable Adventure Art Symposium for artists. She has received several grants and awards for her work including from Jerome Foundation, Awesome Without Borders, Pollination Project, and Michigan Department of Economic Development. 

margaret@artshapemammoth.org