Tina Orlandini

Tina Orlandini is a cultural worker, writer, photographer, and website/graphic designer whose work explores the intersections of culture, community, and solidarity. From 2012 to 2016 she worked at El Puente, a community-based youth development, arts and social justice organization in Los Sures (Southside of Williamsburg), Brooklyn. Tina has written for Pelican Bomb Art Review, The New Orleans Worker's Voice Newspaper, and The Huffington Post. Her photography was recently featured in the PhotoNOLA exhibition, "New Orleans Beyond Tomorrow: Community, Culture, Commerce" at Ashé Cultural Center. Tina was a Critical Collaborations Fellow for New York University Global Institute for Advanced Study (2016-2018) along with nearly 30 other artists, activists, and scholars exploring the relationship between creativity and social change. She received her BA in art history and writing from Ithaca College and her MA in Art and Public Policy with a focus on socially engaged curatorial practice. Above all, Tina believes in the transformative capacity of art and expression, both personal and collective, and that at any time and in any place, art is the most effective tool for movements aimed at transforming our world.  She currently lives in New Orleans, LA and organizes with Take 'Em Down NOLA and the New Orleans People's Assembly.

What drew you to the MA Arts Politics program?

The clear and articulated union between my two strongest interests: the arts and social change work.

How did your experience in the program shape your work?

The program allowed me to explore the intersection of arts and social justice in a supported, but also challenging space. I was also connected with a wealth of community groups, activists, organizers and artists through my professors, and found a strong community among my classmates. In the summer of 2012, I was awarded the Arts Politics Fellowship which allowed me to pursue and fund my thesis project: smArtAction: ¡A estudiar y a luchar! - a collaborative exhibition of artwork and creative strategies that emerged during the University of Puerto Rico student movement in response to tuition hikes in 2010-2011.

What are you doing now? 

Since 2013, Tina has been in solidarity with the struggle for Puerto Rican independence and the liberation of the Boricua people from U.S. colonization and imperialism. She is currently the Development Coordinator for AgitArte, a Puerto Rico-based organization of working class artists and cultural producers who work at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality and ideology, and facilitate arts and cultural projects with grassroots communities that contest U.S. cultural hegemony and propose alternatives to existing systems of oppression. Since 2016, Tina has also run her own creative design shop, t.orlandini, llc where she offers affordable/solidarity photo, art and design services to artists, activists, organizations and movement groups.