E.x.P.A.t

Public Assistants (PA) is a creative agency & design studio, a dedicated space for our team of interdisciplinary artists, builders, makers, and organizers. Founded on June 6, 2020, as an organizing base in response to the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and global socio-political uprisings, PA has both led and partnered a number of community initiatives since its recent inception.

Ky'Naisha Severe is an arts and culture professional with experience in gallery operations and studio management. She has worked with institutions such as MoMA ps1, Gladstone Gallery, and the New Museum, bringing a robust background in public engagement, creative collaboration, and arts administration. Currently the programs manager at Public Assistants (PA), Ky'Naisha is passionate about supporting inclusive cultural experiences and community-driven projects.

Danica Pantic is a multidisciplinary artist + filmmaker who is based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is focused on world building and the craft that goes into creating a detailed texture of the worlds she’s built with her collaborators. You can see her film work on Ziwe (2022), Search Party (2020/21), Someone Great (2019), among others. As a member of Public Assistants, a community design studio located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Danica designed DonChristian Jones’ “The Sumptuous Discovery of Gotham a Go-Go”, now on view at MoMA PS1 in Queens. She received her BA from Wesleyan University, and is a member of United Scenic Artists (829). You can see her work at www.danicapantic.com

Sam Liebert is an artist, curator, publisher, and the founding director of Eureka!, a small press, artist residency, and curatorial practice. Eureka! centers QTBIPOC artists, healers, organizers, and culture-bearers in Kingston, NY and nationally who imagine and enact futures of justice, care, and joy. Since 2020, Eureka! has hosted over 160 artists in residence, overseen the production of more than 30 publications, partnered with local organizations to create programs and events, and collaborated with local and national organizations to showcase and support artists.

DonChristian Jones is the inaugural Adobe Creative Resident at MoMA. Jones is a New York–based artist, musician, and producer whose diverse artistic practice spans painting, music, film and video, time-based performance, and public murals, while blending genres of painting and performance installation. They have shown work at venues such as The Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, and The Shed. In the spring of 2020, Jones founded Public Assistants, a community design studio and mutual-aid hub located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Natch Quinn (he/him) is a designer/maker specializing in fabrication, data visualization and architecture. Raised in shops and studios emphasizing materiality and craft, he brings a tactile and detailed lens to his work across scales and mediums. His designs combine both digital and analog processes, bringing handmade details and customization to modern digital fabrication techniques. Centering environmental topics and critical thinking methodologies, he believes in the power of visual artifacts. Whether digital or physical, 2D or 3D, he strives to create ways in which people interact with data and information, creating experiences that educate, encourage discourse, and foster understanding. He's worked with architects, advocacy groups, brands, and designers including David Yurman, American Rivers, UNAVCO, Water for Arizona, OpenTopography, among others. His work has been exhibited in New York, Colorado, California, and Massachusetts. He is currently a visiting faculty member at Colorado College and has lectured at The School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, and Northeastern University.

Alex Mugler is an American born New York Actor, Voguer, Contemporary dancer, and Choreographer. His skills reflects intense, virtuoso and hybrid performances, traveling from high heels to ballet Pointe-shoes, embracing spiritual, sexual and abstract expressions of the body. Alex has collaborated with artists such as Rihanna, Rita Ora, FKA Twigs,and Parris Goebel.

Jake Robbins is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, photographer and musician. He is a founding member and photo-documentarian of Public Assistants, a mutual aid and community design hub established in June of 2020. Jake’s artistic practice centers repurposing archival media through audio sampling, archival video and photography, and printmaking. His ongoing music project, Long Lost Friend, comprises found audio, field recordings, and synthesizers to evoke the fragmentary nature of memory.