Robert Ransick is an artist, designer and educator. He draws inspiration from the social and political world we live in, history, and the potential for a future that is better. After the economic collapse of 2008 and Occupy Wall Street, he enrolled as an MBA in Sustainability student to research the systems that fueled the catastrophic events. His interest in social justice, public engagement, local economies, and the generative power of creativity to affect change made this a natural place for him to acquire new knowledge and skills.

His creative work has been exhibited in both national and international venues including Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Exit Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture, The New Museum, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy, and in far-flung places such as the border of the United States and Mexico, old school classrooms and public plazas. He has received funding from Franklin Furnace, the Mellon Foundation, the Boomerang Fund for Artists and the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network. He has been an artist in residence at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology and LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions). He has collaborated with Creative Time, the Center for Artistic Activism, the Aperture Foundation, and Blind Spot.

Alongside his work as an artist, he has held leadership positions in academic and private settings including as director of both the computing and photography departments at The New School for Social Research in New York, founding director of the MFA in Public Action and director of Art and Entrepreneurship programs at Bennington College’s Elizabeth Coleman Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), where he was also a full-time faculty member teaching courses in digital arts, social and civic engaged practices in the arts, and creative enterprise and organization building.

He is currently the Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As a young artist, Ransick worked with the artist Lorraine O’Grady producing the suite of photomontages that make up Body is the Ground of My Experience. Their friendship is ongoing and he continues to support O’Grady and her work in various capacities. While an employee of PPOW Gallery in the early 1990’s, he assisted David Wojnarowicz in the creation of his final works before he succumbed to AIDS. Working with these two extraordinary and seminal artists, strongly influenced and shaped him as a person and an artist.

He holds a BFA in Photography, with honors, from the School of Visual Arts, an MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research and an MBA in Sustainability from Bard College.

He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Eyebeam in New York City and Springboard for the Arts in the Twin Cities.