Common Good Award Recipients

Award Recipient: Distinguished Alumni Award

Kris Moran (BFA ‘89 Painting) is an acclaimed artist, designer, and set decorator whose career spans film, art, and immersive design. Aside from her notable prop work in The Cider House Rules and Good Will Hunting, Moran is known as the creative mind bringing the “Wes Anderson” look to life in films like The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, The Darjeeling Limited, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Trained as a painter, Moran’s drawings, prints, and videos are magical in their play with medium and sophisticated in their simplicity. Her studio work serves as inspiration for art direction and event design. She lives in New York.

Award Recipient: Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching

Sarah Richards (BFA ‘96 Art Education and Photography) is Director of Art K–12 for Brockton Public Schools, supporting more than 15,000 students and 29 educators across 22 schools. With 28 years in education, she champions arts integration and community partnerships, especially with Fuller Craft Museum. Richards holds degrees from MassArt, Lesley University, and Fitchburg State University, and currently serves as Chair of the Board at Fuller Craft Museum. She lives in West Roxbury.

Award Recipient: Common Good Award

Tracy Silva Barbosa (BFA ‘99 Glass) is a multimedia artist, designer, and founder of Duende Studio, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Drawing on her background in glass and architectural design, she creates layered works and large-scale public art that explore the connections between nature, memory, and urban life. Barbosa has contributed to major architectural glass projects worldwide and continues to shape New England’s public art landscape through community-based installations and civic design. She lives in New Bedford, and is the Executive Director of Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition.

Award Recipient: Common Good Award

Kate Gilbert is Founder and Executive Director of the Boston Public Art Triennial, formerly Now + There. An artist and cultural leader, she has spent two decades transforming public spaces through bold contemporary art. Under her leadership, Triennial 2025: The Exchange brought 21 large-scale works and more than 100 interdisciplinary public programs to eight Boston neighborhoods, drawing more than 200,000 visitors from across the globe between May and October 2025. Gilbert holds an MFA from School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and is a recognized leader in public art and civic engagement. She lives in Boston’s Leather District.

Award Recipients: Common Good Award

Lisa Simmons and Alison Simmons are the Artistic & Executive Director and Co-Director, respectively, of the Roxbury International Film Festival, New England’s largest festival celebrating people of color. Together, Lisa and Alison have expanded the festival’s reach, cultivating community, dialogue, and representation through film. In addition to her work with RoxFilm, Lisa serves as a Program Manager at Mass Cultural Council, where she leads the Communities Initiative, advancing creativity and equity through community-driven grantmaking. A filmmaker and cultural advocate, Simmons has produced theater and researched Boston’s WPA Negro Theater Project, highlighting untold stories in Black cultural history. Lisa lives in Boston and Alison lives in Roslindale.

Award Recipient: Common Good Award

Marquis Victor is the founder and executive director of Elevated Thought, a creative youth development organization rooted in art and social justice. A multidisciplinary artist and educator, Victor created ET’s foundational curriculum focused on critical consciousness, collaboration, and creativity. He holds a Doctor of Education from Northeastern University and is committed to expanding access and opportunity for young artists of color. He lives in the Merrimack Valley.

Award Recipient: Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching

Chau, Visual Arts Supervisor for Somerville Public Schools, is honored for her commitment to cultivating a collaborative arts education environment. Her teaching encourages creativity, critical thinking, and lifelong learning in one of the state’s most diverse school systems, continuing MassArt’s legacy of training transformative arts educators.

Edgerton’s work with the Rites of Passage and Empowerment Program (R.O.P.E.) uplifts young women of color by promoting self-sufficiency and global citizenship. Her dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion has earned her widespread recognition, including honorary degrees.

Award Recipient: Distinguished Alumni Award

Elka, founder of Future Chefs, has made a profound impact on youth development through culinary arts in Boston. Her nonprofit provides life skills, mentorship, and professional development opportunities to prepare young people for success. Elka’s leadership has been nationally recognized for empowering youth and fostering social change.

Guzman is celebrated for her leadership in curating the Punto Urban Art Museum (PUAM) in Salem, MA. Her efforts in transforming underserved communities through public art reflect her commitment to inclusivity, creative placemaking, and cultural preservation.

Miles, founder of the Black Joy Initiative, is recognized for his efforts to promote equity through art and culture. His initiatives, including Black Joy Day and youth-authored publications, highlight his commitment to uplifting marginalized communities and fostering joy and resilience.

Wiseman, an acclaimed filmmaker with 44 documentaries to his name, captures the human experience through the lens of social institutions. His work has received four Emmys and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, along with an Academy Honorary Award in 2016.

Award Recipient: Distinguished Alumni Award

Dominican-American artist and alumna Silvia López Chavez (BFA ‘00 Graphic Design and Illustration) will be honored with the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award for her community-centered murals that form connections across disciplines and cultural boundaries. She uses joy as an act of resistance and celebration through her vibrant murals. Her work, which can be seen all over the Commonwealth and beyond, transforms urban spaces by honoring the identity of a place and its people.

Real estate developer Karl Frey and his wife Patty Cullen were honored along with the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston for their partnership, with support from tenant artists, to permanently preserve Western Avenue in Lowell, MA. One of the largest artist communities in the country, Western Avenue is comprised of 250 artist work studios, 50 artist live/work lofts, artist gallery, and a 250 person live music performance venue. Western Avenue is home to at least 23 MassArt alumni.

The founders of The Secret Society of Black Creatives (SSBC), Evelyn Brito, Malik Williams, MassArt alumni Vladimir Minuty and MassArt faculty member Nerissa Williams Scott, all creative professionals, have dedicated themselves to creating a pipeline for Black creators into film, music, advertising, and other areas of production. From The Drop, their work in schools and with youth groups to expose young people to the industry, to The Konnect, their networking events for young people interested in these kinds of careers to The Dojo, their mentoring program, SSBC is giving back so youth can see themselves in lucrative production careers.

American rock band Wilco were honored for Solid Sound, the festival they founded in 2010 in partnership with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in North Adams. MassArt will honor them for their incredible work with Mass MoCA, for their commitment to the Berkshires, and their adventurous curatorial vision. They set out to create the kind of festival they, as music fans, would like to attend, and in the process, cultivated a longstanding civic institution that brings thousands of people, economic activity, an unmistakable sense of community, and international visibility to one of the most beautiful corners of the Commonwealth.

Pediatrician, musician,and author, Dr. Lisa Wong is an assistant professor of pediatrics and associate co-director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School. With a deep interest in the intersection between the arts and health, she is heavily involved in interdisciplinary programming as well as scholarship on the local, national, and international levels. Lisa has been a pediatrician at Milton Pediatric Associates since 1986, and served as president of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for 21 years. There, she was the lead designer of the orchestra’s “Healing Art of Music Program” documented in her book, Scales to Scalpels: Doctors who practice the healing arts of Music and Medicine. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lisa  helped create Boston Hope Music to provide music and music education virtually to patients, staff and caregivers.  She currently teaches a course on music, health and education at Harvard University and serves on the boards of Conservatory Lab Charter School, A Far Cry ensemble, and BPS Arts Expansion initiative. Most recently she has been working with the Massachusetts Cultural Council on Culture Rx, an innovative model of cultural social prescription for health.

Award Recipient: Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching

Recently retired Boston Public Schools art teacher Jozeph Zaremba (‘81 BFA Illustration) was honored with the inaugural Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching. Mr. Zaremba, known as “Mr. Z,” taught at the Henderson Inclusion and Harbor Schools in Dorchester and is an alumnus of MassArt. The award is named for Frances Euphemia Thompson, a groundbreaking artist and lifelong educator who graduated from MassArt (then called the Massachusetts Normal Art School) in 1936. A graduate of Lesley College (now Lesley University), a two time Fund For Teachers fellowship recipient, art director at Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester, and a founding teacher of the Harbor School, Mr. Zaremba, like Ms. Thompson, inspired a generation of young students.