Ed and Bernie Massey Bios
For more than 15 years, the Massey Bros. with their teams have conceived and developed public projects focusing on the human condition and have led social issues-related, public education campaigns dealing with women’s rights, education, pluralism, bigotry and extremism, civic engagement, social responsibility, and volunteerism, among other themes. They are the co-founders of the Portraits of Hope art, education and creative therapy program for children in hospitals and schools. A striking public visual component is a signature of their projects and campaigns.
Both national and international in scope, the projects have been featured in more than a dozen languages in hundreds of articles and broadcasts in news, public interest, health, art, education, business, and entertainment mediums.
Bernie Massey is a social entrepreneur and producer of high-profile issues-related projects. He is the founder of the Center for American Studies and Culture. He leads a team that develops public education and communication campaigns concentrating on important national and international contemporary themes. The work is directed to adults and youth.
He has conceived and developed interdisciplinary, project based learning initiatives and methodologies for public issues education for elementary, middle and high school students and college civic programs. The school-based initiatives educate students about local, national and international issues and are noted for integrating visual, oral and written presentations that enable students to express themselves about contemporary policy. In addition to founding Portraits of Hope, Massey conceived and developed other educational programs including, youTHink and Soaring Dreams. His programs were featured at the 2000 National Democratic Convention.
He also founded and developed the “A History of Hate” program for university campuses focusing on extremist manifestations in America, inclusive of a series of graphic public exhibitions linking commonalities and fanaticism among leftist, rightist and religious extremists.
Massey also produced the national Morality/Mortality anti-sexual assault campaign focusing on domestic violence, assault, and the criminal justice system.
He has successfully initiated, collaborated on and produced numerous unique public education projects focusing on the human condition, including unprecedented multi-city simultaneous exhibitions and projects that have singularly involved more than 30,000 people Current projects in formation focus on the status of women and social stability, incitement against and treatment of the “other,” and political violence and terrorism.
Ed Massey is a sculptor, painter, author and U.S. patent holder whose body of work serves as a barometer of the contemporary world. He develops major social commentary projects for the public realm. His works reflect on the international zeitgeist, and he creates with the idea of reaching the largest population.
He has conceived large-scale installations for broad national and international audiences focusing on race, ethnic and gender issues, social standing, personal and social trauma, child abuse, and health and quality of life issues, among other themes. He has done projects for the public arena in Japan and Mexico in addition to the United States. He created and conceptualized the simultaneous national exhibitions of Morality/Mortality, an installation focused on female assault and the criminal justice system.
He is the creator of the Portraits of Hope creative therapy program, which has benefited thousands of children and adults coping with illness and adversity by their participation in one-of-a-kind artistic collaborations that transform cityscapes and interior settings. Since 1997, his body of artwork has served as the backbone for an interdisciplinary public policy course offered throughout California. He and Bernie delivered the keynote presentation for the Society of Arts and Health international conference at Stanford University. And in honor of his work on the human condition, ESTE, the largest public health system in Mexico paid tribute to him.
He is the author of the Milton children’s story about creativity and imagination, and his second children’s book, Jedlo, soon on the way, deals with imagination and aquatic environmental themes. He has recently created the tableaux for Please Not Tonight, the sculptural symbol for a national and public campaign in development dealing with the horrors of child abuse.
You can view Ed Massey website at: www.edmassey.com