Long Branch
Exploring Sites in Transition
Meet Our Collaborators
Rafael de Balanzo, Researcher
Rafael de Balanzo has a Master of Arts in Design & Communication from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He has been visiting professor in several Universities in Spain, France and Belgium and is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Sustainability of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona Tech, in the field of Urban Resilience. Professionally trained as both an architect and a landscaper, he works as a consultant for the council of Barcelona to promote Urban regeneration and resilience in differents neighbourhoods in the city and advocate citizens and local communities' participation in urban design projects. As an Urban activist, Rafael de Balanzo provides and participates in innovative action learning instruction and placemaking through engagements of local communities. He is the President of an environmental & educational community-based non-profit organization in Barcelona, Amics del Bosc Turull in the Gracia District.
Krista Caballero, Artist
Krista Caballero is an interdisciplinary artist whose work unpacks cultural myths relating to the “American” West, technology, gendered land use, and ideas of the sublime. Her work strives for an integrated approach where questions of mental, social and environmental ecology might activate imaginations, shift perceptions and reveal the connections between our vision of the environment and our understanding of society and self. She received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and in 2009 attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Caballero is currently the Associate Director of the Digital Cultures and Creativity Program at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Elena Lombardo, Researcher
Elena Lombardo is an Italian Ph.D. candidate in Economics, Management and communication for creativity at IULM University (Milan, Italy), where she achieved an MA in Arts, Markets and Cultural Heritage. Her current areas of research include cultural economics, creative studies, urban policy. In particular, her PhD research is focused on the themes of culture as an engine of local development processes, cultural districts and creative cities.During the past three years she has worked for several Italian cultural institutions in Milan such as The Triennale foundation, the Viafarini DOCVA (Organization and Documentation Centre for the visual arts). She has also collaborated with MiArt (the annual contemporary and modern international art fair) and Connecting Cultures, a research agency for art and territory, both based in Milan.