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Nick Tobier

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Nick Tobier

Biography

Curriculum Vitae
  • M.F.A., The Milton Avery Graduate Center at Bard College, 1997
  • Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 1997 — 1999
  • B.A. (History and Art), Swarthmore College, 1989

I once saw an elephant walk through midtown Manhattan in the middle of the night.

Standing waiting to cross the street, I looked up at the traffic signal, then down at the exit of the Midtown Tunnel where cars generally came careening out. It was quiet for once. Then the elephant walked out, followed by another elephant, and these followed by a man with a shovel and a bucket on wheels.

Around me, were a number of other faces similarly locked in astonishment. It was honestly hard to tell who was in on it–where the show started and ended really was blurred with the real places of the city. Were the trucks with their headlights on coincidentally illuminating the tunnel or were they part of the procession? A few minutes later, the light went green, cars and pedestrians who had paused continued back into the city streets filled with the memory of this unexpected occurrence. For those moments, the streets I walked routinely had been host to an event that was anything but routine, casting that part of the city and those inhabitants into a collective gathering, offering everyone present a liberation from routine.

This sighting, for me, provoked a quest for seeking out, savoring and idally, fostering public projects with an air of the unexpected and shared delight, and to use art and design to prompt questions of what might be possible.

I studied history and art as an undergrad, and then sculpture (Bard College) and landscape architecture (Harvard) followed by professional practice at Landworks Studio/Boston and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation/ Bronx Division as a designer. My real formative education in art and design was at Storefront for Art and Architecture, writing critical essays, facilitating public projects, exhibitions and and coordinating international competitions focussed on broad-thinking explorations of architecture and urban space beyond expected function. Prior to coming to U of M in 2003, I taught foundations at the School of Art and Design at Alfred.

My interest in the potential of public places (with or without elephants) has manifested itself in built public projects and actions in San Francisco, Detroit and New York, internationally from Toronto to Tokyo, Brussels to Medellin, in exhibitions at MOMA, The Smithsonian, The Queens Museum Kunsthalle Nikolaj/Copenhagen, at The Edinburgh, Minneapolis and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals and, upcoming at the Prague Quadrennial (2019 with Roland Graf). Project sites include bus stops, flea markets, Laundromats and car washes, and include the entrepreneurial design ventures, F.O.O.D. (Field of Our Dreams), Brightmoor Bikes and the Brightmoor Maker Space. Published wiriting includes Utopia Toolbox with Juliane Stiegele (U of M Press, 2016); a traveloge of Detroit’s People Mover, entitled Looping Detroit, (Maize Books, 2017) and The Crazy Pineapple (University of Oregon Papeprs on Power, 2021.) I have been honored to receive support for my work from, among others, The Harpo Foundation (2011), the Graham Foundation (2021) and the NEA/ National Endowment for the Arts (2015, 2017 and 2022)

In my current research and teaching, I focus on collaborative projects in the public realm. These efforts have included partnerships with furniture designers, bakers, farmers; critical and celebratory involvements between artists, designers and broad communities; and a commitment to lasting partnerships working with creative individuals and communities from Detroit to Ishinomaki through the Brightmoor Maker Space, an open to the community hands-on workshop (since 2011.)

News

Image of a rural porch, with laundry hung on a line. The text reads PORCH AN ARCHITECTURE OF GENEROSITY

Brightmoor Maker Space Selected for Venice Architecture Biennale
Red crossing 12 Nick Tobier

Red Crossing: Nick Tobier and Roland Graf at the Split Biennial
Krak

Professor Nick Tobier Appointed US Juror For The 2024 Zvono Award
Wooden covered porch

Brightmoor Maker Space expands in Detroit
Nick Tobier sits in front of a Ger structure with local children.

Nick Tobier: First international artist in residence at Nomadic Red Corner, Mongolia
drawing of stacked dwellings on graph paper

Nick Tobier: Tender Force at JEM, Brooklyn
a team of students pose in the shade of an outdoor pavillion

Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Maker Space Awarded NEA Grant
Red Crossing: a group of people join to lift a large, red rectangle of fabric, while another person runs across it.

Red Crossing by Roland Graf + Nick Tobier in Germany
Image of woodworking projects on a table at the Brightmoor Maker Space

Nick Tobier and Brightmoor Maker Space Profiled by the Eames Institute
Image of Somerset House, a large manor in London

Nick Tobier and Roland Graf: Red Crossing at Somerset House, London
Poster with text A New McCarthyism? Academic Freedom and Palestine headline and text about event details over a black and white aerial photo of the U-M Campus

Professors Modrak and Tobier Design for Davis, Markert, and Nickerson Academic Freedom Lecture
4 men stand with arms around each other's shoulders

Ceremony Honors Survivors
people dressed up in animal mascot costumes

Nick Tobier: A Band to Welcome Spring at Small Scale Solutions Conference
Red crossing Augsburg

A Magic Carpet Offers an Experience of Solidarity
A group of masked students gather under a large wooden pavilion under construction

Support Brightmoor Maker Space on Giving Tuesday: 11/30/2021
A lamppost covered in rainbow stripes of LED lights, with a tetherball attached to the top.

All-Nite Tetherball at DLECTRICITY
Digital rendering of a garden with glowing orbs.

Stamps Shines Bright at DLECTRICITY
Cornerstore

Nick Tobier awarded Graham Foundation Grant
Athomewithivory

Nick Tobier and Davarian Baldwin: March 30 “At Home with Literati” Event
La Pina casual lighter

The Crazy Pineapple: an Essay on Power (and Pineapples) by Nick Tobier

Work

Image shows a red carpet held aloft by dozens of people while a single figure runs across it. Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing Faculty Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing
Image shows a red carpet being lifted by 3 adults and a child Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing Faculty Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing
Image shows a red carpet held aloft by dozens of people while a single figure runs across it. Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing Faculty Roland Graf and Nick Tobier: Red Crossing
Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Faculty Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway
Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Faculty Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway
Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Faculty Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway
Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway Faculty Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Runway
Image of a book, with the words UTOPIA TOOLBOK on the page edges Nick Tobier: Utopia Toolbox (with Juliane Stiegele) Faculty Nick Tobier: Utopia Toolbox (with Juliane Stiegele)
An assembly of people in orange road crew shirts and white helmets and sheltered by safety yellow umbrellas, walk down the center of a street next to a large church Nick Tobier: Detroit Local Faculty Nick Tobier: Detroit Local
Seen from behind, an assembly of people in orange road crew shirts and white helmets and sheltered by safety yellow umbrellas, walk down a busy street Nick Tobier: Detroit Local Faculty Nick Tobier: Detroit Local
Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By Faculty Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By
Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By Faculty Nick Tobier: Marches for Cars and Passers-By
Nick Tobier: Three Wheeling with Chandelier Nick Tobier: Three Wheeling with Chandelier Faculty Nick Tobier: Three Wheeling with Chandelier
Nick Tobier: 22 Fillmore Nick Tobier: 22 Fillmore Faculty Nick Tobier: 22 Fillmore
a custom constructed stand with painted panel of 19th century Mexican cookie names described in the accompanying billingual broadside and selection of photos of the specialties of three neighborhood bakeries. Nick Tobier: A Stand for Action / Cookies Faculty Nick Tobier: A Stand for Action / Cookies
A woman on a ladder puts finishing touches on a mural reading Brightmoor Maker Space Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Maker Space Faculty Nick Tobier: Brightmoor Maker Space
Nick Tobier: Hot Chocolate Nick Tobier: Hot Chocolate Faculty Nick Tobier: Hot Chocolate