Americans for the Arts today announced that Boston-based arts administrator Allentza Michel has been awarded the Jorge and Darlene Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design, a first-of-its-kind national program established by the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation. The award will include a cash stipend of $30,000, as well as additional support for Michel to participate in learning opportunities and discussion about her work with national leaders in the arts and other allied fields.

Michel is a social practice artist, urban planner, policy advocate, and researcher, with a background in community organizing and human service. She has 19 years of diverse experience across community and economic development, education, food security, public health, and transportation in local, national, and international settings. Her experiences, both professional and societal, inform her current work in civic design, creative placekeeping community and organizational development, and social equity advocacy.    

Growing up and working in underserved communities in Boston led Michel to coalition-building and community planning, with a particular focus on mobility and neighborhood revitalization. She is the founder and creative director of Powerful Pathways, a social practice and consultancy that works in urban planning, policy, and placekeeping using arts, media technology, and design thinking methods with a social lens and approach. Leveraging cross-sector and intercultural expertise, Powerful Pathways collaborates with nonprofits, government agencies, and social enterprises to drive innovative and inclusive economic, community, and environmental change through consulting, programming, and training. Powerful Pathways intentionally prioritizes distressed and underserved communities locally, nationally, and abroad. The team also organizes community initiatives, workshops, and civic hacks—programming and events that highlight innovative interventions to disrupt urban and civic challenges.

In addition to her work with Powerful Pathways, Michel currently serves as Program Officer for Arts and Culture with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she is working with a national arts commission supporting research to promote quality arts education for all students and workforce development policy for creative workers. Michel has held several volunteer community leadership roles, including founding and co-founding nonprofit organizations and civic initiatives. She has served on many boards, civic groups, and coalitions, including the Network of Arts Administrators of Color Boston and BAMS Fest, Boston’s premier music, arts, and soul festival.

Michel received a Master’s in Public Policy from Tufts University’s Department of Urban & Environmental Planning and Policy and studied Civic Media and Art Practice at Emerson College. She has Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Social and Political Systems from Pine Manor College and holds a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

Michel commented, “I am humbled and elated to receive the Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design. I salute my colleagues who also applied. On behalf of the people who live on the margins, I promise to leverage this platform to continue to pursue equity in community development and the arts, and to go farther in this work designing just spaces beyond aesthetics. Civic Design is a young field of work, a hybrid of many before it, and evolving—more rapidly now than ever. In this time where justice and injustice are of equal probability, we need the creative minds, the social architects, the civic designers to help us shape an inclusive and just future. A future where culture, art, and the built environment are brought together with human-centered application, for all.”

“Allentza Michel has made a significant positive impact using the arts to help underserved communities spark social change, and has inspired, informed, engaged, and celebrated these communities through the arts. I congratulate her for this well-deserved recognition and look forward to seeing her work throughout this year and well into the future,” said Nolen V. Bivens, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts.

“Positive change flourishes in environments that allow for inclusive opportunities to showcase ones’ creative passions without the limitations public art stakeholders often experience,” said Jorge Pérez, CEO, Founder and Chairman of development firm Related Group and long-time patron of the arts. “Alongside our partners at Americans for the Arts, Darlene and I hope to empower Allentza Michel to reach her fullest artistic potential and continue supporting others in the arts and culture ecosystem.”

The generous gift of $250,000 from The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation established the Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design program, which bears the names of internationally recognized philanthropists, Jorge M. Pérez and his wife, Darlene Boytell-Pérez. The program was designed to empower all stakeholders in the public art process and to create a platform to develop greater national visibility and appreciation of the unique role that the arts play in shaping our experience of the built environment. It also seeks to celebrate and highlight the work and contributions of artists, public art administrators, and representatives from the civic design field who support, develop, and manage the incorporation of art into the design of places and spaces across the United States.

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Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 60 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation fulfills the philanthropic vision of Jorge M. Pérez, chairman and CEO of The Related Group, and his family to develop South Florida as an exemplary world-class urban center. The family foundation promotes sustainable, inclusive and just communities by supporting programs and organizations focused on arts and culture, health and well-being, education, environment and economic development – with a particular preference for programs and organizations that could serve as models for other urban centers. For more information, please visit www.jmperezfamilyfoundation.org.