Meet The Team
Joshua Knoblick
Josh is a sculptor, entrepreneur, and big thinker. He is a founder, the architect and current Executive Director of Gardenship. He has built numerous installations, sculptures and spaces around the world. His love of all things creative and community drive him to create ecosystems for artists, creatives and makers to grow, thrive, share and prosper.
Jacob Mandel
Jacob Mandel was born in December 1990. Mandel graduated with honors from NYU's Master's in Visual Arts Administration program in 2020 and from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2012 receiving a BFA in Photography and a minor degree in Art History. In 2012 upon completing his BFA, he planted himself in the Newark arts community and worked as Gallery Manager at Gallery Aferro in Downtown Newark. Jacob has partnered with local non-profits like Collaborate Audio Lab and Oculus Art Collaborative to write grants, curate exhibitions, and produce events. As a curator, Jacob has done projects with Layqa Nuna Yawar, Newark Open Doors, major group and solo exhibitions in Gallery Aferro’s main gallery, Index Art Center, and exhibitions outside of Newark including at the Arts Guild of New Jersey in Rahway, NJ. His work in a growing art community like Newark’s has shown him that collaboration and idea sharing are crucial to creative success.
Donna Kessinger
D. Kessinger, Artistic Director of Gardenship Art, is a contemporary artist, curator, and award-winning film director based in the New York Metropolitan area. Her work explores the genre of feminism through rich textures and the use of traditional and water-based oil paints, Liquitex spray paint, stencils, and wax mediums on linen and canvas board. Kessinger’s innovative curatorial practice is driven by collaboration and partnership with artists, institutions, and art-industry leaders, all through the lens of inclusion. Known for her video art and oral herstories of turn of the century feminist including Mary Beth Edelson, Nancy Spero, Janet Henry, Carolee Schneemann and Kate Millett, Kessinger leads the charge to archive and preserve feminist history. She has worked with numerous highly regarded artists, curators, and institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art PS1. Kessinger has a BFA in sculpture from Kent State University and an MA in arts administration from the University of Kentucky.
Charly Santagado
Charly stumbled upon Gardenship through the Pandemic Projections film series in 2021 and has been stuck with us ever since. In addition to being a filmmaker, Charly is a dancer, choreographer, writer, and arts administrator dedicated to forging connections across creative disciplines. She is the Artistic Director of mignolo, a Metuchen-based 501-c3 nonprofit arts organization with diverse interdisciplinary arts offerings including Pinky Thinker Press and the acclaimed professional contemporary dance company, mignolo dance. In December of 2021, mignolo presented “Visitor Parking,” an immersive, site-specific performance about mental health at Gardenship with Charly at the helm as director and co-choreographer. Find her online at www.charlysantagado.com and on Instagram @charlysantagado.
Miguel Romero-Trejos
Miguel Romero-Trejos is a Colombian-American technical director, videographer, visual artist, broadcast technician, photographer, and multi-instrumentalist based out of New Jersey. His creations often draw from the symbolism and aesthetics employed in classic two-dimensional analog practices such as painting, collage, and film photography and combine them with digital video, sound experimentation, and projections. One of these amalgamations takes the form of a hybrid electric/acoustic drum performance which features sound reactant video projections. Some of the themes explored in his work are the transformation of negative into positive, creation through distortion, and sociopolitical and environmental commentary. He is a fan of 70's salsa music, hiking, and dancing.
Brian Curry
An explorer of all things interdisciplinary, Brian is always seeking to identify and capture the connective and conceptual tissues between mediums, passions, and pursuits. As a founding member of NJ alt/folk trio Cold Weather Company, he has toured 18 states and the UK performing original music. With mignolo dance, Brian has filmed eight screendances and contributed over an hour of original music to accompany movement, performing live on-stage for “Self Help” and running sound and live operations for “Visitor Parking,” an immersive piece set at Gardenship. Working with the Historical Society of Plainfield, he has been documenting events, collections and activities at the Nathaniel Drake House since 2021. In 2022, he founded Haven & Hazard, a cross-disciplinary multimedia pursuit offering photography, videography, editing, original music, and conceptual services to clients across diverse industries. Since joining the Gardenship Media Team in 2022, Brian has been filming, photographing, and editing social media clips and narrative archival videos of Gardenship’s activities to share with the world.