Lisa Austin

ABOUT

Lisa Austin, an art professor, visual artist, writer and social sculptor, is helping to transform the City of Erie, a community still embracing Robert Moses-inspired planning practices and disinvesting in redlined neighborhoods. For 15 years, Austin has convened stakeholders to co-found organizations addressing shortsighted demolition, car-centric urban design and top-down, closed-door, decision-making.

Through the CIVITAS collaborative that she co-founded in 2004, Austin has attracted national-level thinkers and artists to Erie. These visitors were chosen for their ability to generate dialogues about urban planning, preservation, economic development, transportation and community engagement. Speakers include: CNU Director and Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, Urban Alchemist Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Architect and Just City founder Toni Griffin, Architect Duncan Stroik, Parks Planner Charles McKinney and Artist Fred Wilson.

Austin’s social sculpture work began when she led her neighborhood association to Erie City Hall to challenge systemic flaws regarding the built environment. Based on her advocacy, Austin was appointed to the City of Erie’s Zoning Hearing Board, encouraged to run for Mayor of Erie and, in Fall 2019, was voted to serve on the Erie Planning Commission.

After dozens of local speaking engagements and published essays, the ideas Austin and other members of CIVITAS have championed since 2004 are embedded in Erie County's Emerge 2040 plan, the City' of Erie’s Erie Refocused plan and the west bayfront’s Our West Bayfront neighborhood plan.

Austin’s community work was honored in 2017 by her nomination as a Woman of the Year by the Women’s Roundtable, and by her selection as one of Mercyhurst’s Dynamic Dozen: Women Making History.

Lisa Austin grew up in a military family ever on the move. As a teenager in Alaska, painting and drawing in the class room of her art teacher, Mr. Valentino, Lisa’s art-making path was set through school exhibitions and a ribbon in the State Fair.

Austin earned an AA from Prince George’s Community College, Largo, Maryland, a BS in Art Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, a BFA in Sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, and an MFA in Sculpture at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

At Yale, Austin witnessed the performative art history lectures of Vincent Scully and studied with Vito Acconci, Bernard Chaet, Erwin Hauer, Judy Pfaff, David von Schlegell and Ursula von Rydingsvard.

Austin continued her family’s habit of frequent moves while building temporary, site-specific installations in Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Washington D.C. After accepting a teaching position in northwestern Pennsylvania, Austin moved to Erie. Over time, Austin’s newfound rootedness moved her art practice from the studio/gallery to the wider built environment and local political power structure. Now a full professor of 3D Design, 4D Design, and Sculpture at Edinboro University, Austin is introducing a Socially Engaged Art course to her students.

At the university, Austin initiated the creation of the Visitor and Speaker Committee, complete with an endowment. Austin co-advised the Student Art League for a decade, and guided students in establishing SFEM - the Sculpture, Fiber and Extended Media club in Loveland Hall. Her active student engagement resulted in being named “Advisor of the Year,” a title she strives to live up to every semester.

Austin led the effort to prevent demolition of the university’s historic Boiler House and raised funds for a re-use study by Kidder-Wachter Architects.

Austin has initiated three projects that are now embedded in the Art Department’s academic schedule: the ALOHA welcome event at the beginning of the Fall semester, the Graduate Art Student Presentations (GASP), and a featured community lecture at Edinboro by the Erie Art Museum’s Annual Spring Show juror.

Recognizing the educational potential of regional networking with other sculpture faculty, Austin initiated and co-founded SculptureX in 2010 with art faculty and administrators from Edinboro, the Erie Art Museum, Cleveland’s The Sculpture Center and the Cleveland Institute of Art. SculptureX is a networking platform and annual symposia geared to teaching artists and students within a ten hour drive from Erie and Cleveland. To mark the tenth anniversary of SculptureX, Austin is collaboratively organizing SX2020: ART & AGENCY, to be held in Pittsburgh and Greensburg in September 2020.