OUR TEAM
“Through this project, I am building on my immigrant mother's emotional and physical labor in the Market and the relationships she has cultivated here. Each person that works in the Market has a story of survival and a driving force to provide a better life for their families. My “Our Market” project is a love letter to my community and the place I continue to call home for over forty years.
— Michelle Angela Ortiz- Project Director & Lead Artist
Michelle Angela Ortiz- Project Director & Lead Artist
Michelle Angela Ortiz is an award-winning visual artist, skilled muralist, community arts educator, and filmmaker who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Through community arts practices, painting, documentaries, and public art installations, she creates a safe space for dialogue around some of the most profound issues communities and individuals may face. Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform spaces into a visual affirmation that reveals the strength and spirit of the community.
For 25 years, Ortiz has designed and created over 50 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. Since 2008, Ortiz has led art for social change public art projects in Costa Rica & Ecuador and as a Cultural Envoy through the US Embassy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba. Ortiz is a 2022 Philadelphia250 Leave a Legacy Grantee, a Leeway Foundation Media Resident, a 2021 Art is Essential Grantee, a 2020 Art For Justice Fund Grantee, a Pew Fellow, Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellow, and a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist National Fellow. In 2016, she received the Americans for the Arts' Public Art Year in Review Award which honors outstanding public art projects in the nation.
Erike De Veyra- Project Manager
Erike De Veyra is a practical optimist and effective social designer, engaging and educating people through designed experiences. Coming to Philadelphia in 2004 to study architecture, Erike has used her training to serve on committees, manage community events, and implement projects for built environments and spaces, digital communications, talks and workshops, competitions, and public programming and events. Working with non-profits, higher education institutions, and professionals to design, develop, and implement programs to move their missions forward, Erike focuses on a more inclusive, and accessible process that responds to public needs.
Erike currently works with PHILADELPHIA250 managing the Leave a Legacy program to commemorate 250 years of independence in America through citywide community impact projects. Additionally, she manages and facilitates an online pre-college online course for Jefferson’s award-winning College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture & The Built Environment Summer Academy for high school students to explore the architectural design fields while connecting with faculty, alumni, and industry professionals.
