Advisory Council

  • Mary McNeal

  • Jasper Sanchez

    Curator and Cultural Organizer

  • Azia Carle

    Visual Artist and Advocate

  • Rachel Strutt

    Cultural Director

Mary Amanda McNeil (she/her/hers) is a Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. Her research and teaching sit at the intersections of Black studies; Native American and Indigenous studies; Afro-Native studies; women, gender, and sexuality studies; social history; and geography. McNeil completed her PhD in American studies at Harvard University. Her dissertation, which examines the spatial imaginaries of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous political actors in Massachusetts, is entitled, "The Responsibility to Remain: Black Power and Red Power Claims to Massachusetts." 

Keenly invested in public humanities, McNeil has previously worked as a research assistant for the African American Trail Project at Tufts University and as a scholar-in-residence at the Framingham History Center. Currently, she sits on the board of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, as an advisory council member to the Mellon "Just Futures"-funded public history initiative, "Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty, and Freedom," and as a thought partner with Tufts University Art Galleries on programming around their newest exhibition, Véxoa: We Know (Nós sabemos). Her individual and collective writing can be found in NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association; Panorama: Journal of Association of Historians of American Art; Boston Art Review; New England Museums Now; and HowlRound Theatre Commons. 

McNeil was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and she is an enrolled citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

Jasper A. Sanchez (he/they; b. 1997, USA) is a curator and cultural organizer based in Boston, MA. A Venezuelan-Colombian raised in Miami, FL, immersion in transnational art since their youth inspired them to focus their studies on topics ranging from queer diaspora to public art. He was the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s inaugural Public Art Intern Ambassador and later helped develop socially engaged art projects within Lesley University’s Office of Community Engagement. In recent years, Sanchez has worked on exhibitions with the Boston LGBTQIA+ Artist Alliance, Boston Center for the Arts, and Tufts University Art Galleries. Their exhibitions have been reviewed in The Boston Globe and WBUR, while their writing has been featured in the Boston Art Review and the Boston Hassle. He is currently Assistant Curator of Now + There (N+T), a non-profit public art curator with the mission to make Boston a more open, equitable, and vibrant city for all through temporary, site-specific initiatives that transform public space with art and community. Within his role at N+T, Sanchez also facilitates the Public Art Accelerator– a juried program that chooses a new cohort of local artists each year and provides a six-month training curriculum to help augment their practice with the curatorial, technical, and financial support they need to develop new temporary artworks across Boston. Outside of his role at N+T, Sanchez is also a member of Mobius Artists’ Collective. Overall, his work lies at the intersection of contemporary curatorial practice with creative justice and the reimagining of public space– striving to uplift artists from diverse backgrounds and help make their art accessible and meaningful for communities both local and global. He holds a BA in Art History & Critical Theory from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

Azia Carle is a visual artist, advocate and life-time resident of Boston. Curious and creative, Azia has experience in a variety of art mediums including painting, sculpture, and documentary film. As a gifted public speaker she uses her passion for art and community to influence her work. Although her interest for art began at a young age, she did not commit time to her practice until her first gallery exhibit in 2021. Through partnerships, grants and collaborative workshops Azia's contributed to the design and construction of a variety of projects and initiatives throughout Dorchester. She looks forward to continuing her work engaging communities through public art and developing her skills as a conscious visual artist.

Rachel Strutt is the cultural director at the Somerville Arts Council, where she works on cultural placemaking projects, curates arts festivals and public art projects, and helps manage the LCC grant program, which funds approximately 70 local artists and cultural organizations annually. She has created, and runs, multicultural programs such as the Intercambio Language and Culture Exchange and Nibble, a nationally recognized program that highlights the culinary talents of Somerville’s immigrant communities and marries cultural programing with economic development; the program includes a restaurant and business incubator called Nibble Kitchen. Strutt is also a journalist, having written dozens of articles about art, culture, and travel for publications like the Boston Globe and Boston Magazine. Before joining the Somerville Arts Council, Strutt was the managing editor at the Improper Bostonian magazine. She holds a BA in Cultures and Languages from the University of Connecticut and an MA in art history from Tufts University, where she studied medieval art.