Biography
Aviva is a designer, educator and advocate for equitable revitalization in underserved urban communities.
Her work leverages community access to design in order to create spaces of racial, social and cultural equity. As Executive Director at The Village of Arts and Humanities, Aviva founded seven, arts-based community development initiatives that address socioeconomic challenges facing more than 1500 youth and families in North Central Philadelphia— most notably the SPACES Artist-in-Residence Program and Village Industries Youth Program. She is a frequent panelist and speaker at local and national engagements focused on equitable creative placemaking and arts-based community economic development strategies, and provides coaching for artists, arts organizations, and CDCs who wish to deepen their community-engaged practices.
Under Aviva’s leadership, The Village more than tripled its annual revenue while also receiving prestigious awards including, but not limited to, Councilman David Cohen Award for excellence at the intersection of arts, culture, and economic justice; Philadelphia Associations of Community Development Corporations’ Blue Ribbon Award; two ArtPlace America Grants; and the 2018 Citizens Bank’s Champions in Action Award. Previously, Aviva honed her creative problem-solving skills as an Art Director and Creative Director at top advertising agencies in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and as an adjunct professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Aviva has been with The Village since 2010, and Executive Director from April 2013 to present.
Contact: aviva@villagearts.org
Generocity Coverage (12 posts)
- Village of the Arts seeks to deepen and scale its impact as it reflects on its legacy
- Government and nonprofit leaders explore routes from job to career
- Independence Media Foundation’s Community Voices grant elevates Black and brown voices left behind during COVID-19
- Uprising in Philadelphia: A to-do list for the next six months
- There’s a grant for that: 6 opportunities available from late May to mid-June, and on a rolling basis
- In the midst of crisis, the opportunity for journalism to engage differently
- These six organizations are improving their neighborhoods with help from Community Connectors
- Introduced’s IMPACT room: Social ventures, amplifying civic power and diversifying workplaces
- The Village of Arts and Humanities turned recorded interviews into a civic engagement tool
- The Village of Arts and Humanities just won an ArtPlace grant to build a ‘civic power studio’
- Empowering the living by memorializing the lost in North Philly’s Village
- How Get HYPE Philly! mobilized 10 local orgs around teen health in its first year
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