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Artists
Edited: July 17, 2023
Caroline Woolard
Pronouns
She/her
Date and place of birth
b. 1984, Providence, Rhode Island
Current location
New York, NY
Year(s) of residency and/or fellowship
2012–13, Project Resident; 2017–16, Project Resident

Caroline Woolard is the Chief Cultivation Officer at Open Collective, a technology platform that supports 15,000 groups to raise and spend $35 million a year in full transparency and the Director of Research and Programs at Open Collective Foundation, one of thirty nonprofits started by the Open Collective platform.

Woolard is a founding co-organizer of http://Art.coop, which exists to grow the Solidarity Economy movement by centering systems change work led by artists, and is the co-author of three books: Making and Being (Pioneer Works, 2019), a book for educators about interdisciplinary collaboration, co-authored with Susan Jahoda; Art, Engagement, Economy (onomatopee, 2020) a book about managing socially-engaged and public art projects; and TRADE SCHOOL: 2009-2019, a book about peer learning that Woolard catalyzed in thirty cities internationally over a decade.

Since the financial crisis of 2007-8, Woolard has catalyzed barter communities, minted local currencies, founded an arts-policy think tank, and created sculptural interventions in office spaces. Woolard’s artwork has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS.

Woolard’s work has been commissioned and exhibited in major national and international museums, including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and Creative Time. Woolard’s work has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS. She was the 2018–20 inaugural Walentas Fellow at Moore College of Art and Design and the inaugural 2019–20 Artist in Residence for INDEX at the Rose Museum, and a 2020-2021 Fellow at the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Woolard’s scholarly writing on her work has been published in The Brooklyn Rail (2018); Artforum (2016); Art in America (2016); The New York Times (2016); and South Atlantic Quarterly (2015). Woolard co-founded barter networks OurGoods.org and TradeSchool.coop (2008-2015), the Study Center for Group Work (since 2016), BFAMFAPhD.com (since 2014), and the NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative (since 2016).

Recent commissions include The Meeting, with a rolling premiere at The New School, Brandeis University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA (2019); WOUND, Cooper Union, New York, NY (2016); and Capitoline Wolves, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2016), and Exchange Café, MoMA, New York, NY (2014).

Woolard is the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships, including at Moore College of Art and Design (2019), Pilchuck (2018), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2016), the Queens Museum (2014), Eyebeam (2013), Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund (2010), Watermill (2011), and the MacDowell Colony (2009). She is currently a member of the Guild of Future Architects, and an AmbitioUS Fellow (2021-2022).

Eyebeam NYFA Project (2016 – 2017)

In Collaboration with Or Zubalsky

The Study Center for Group Work is an open-access library of collaborative methods. The Center provides: (studycollaboration.com1) an online resource of lesson plans, readings, and objects, (2) gatherings for artists to share resources, and (3) accessible public trainings in methods of listening, attention, and collaboration. Just as dancers take classes throughout their lives, the Center aims to cultivate a network of visual artists who are committed to group work through daily practice. It started with an exhibition. Watch a video about it, here.

Eyebeam models a new approach to artist-led creation for the public good; we are a non-profit that provides significant professional support and money to exceptional artists for the realization of important ideas that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Nobody else is doing this.

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