I'm delighted to share that I have been invited to join the Temporal School of Experimental Geography, an international itinerant network of artists sharing ideas and responses to landscape through fieldwork. The TSOEG explores the geographic potential of artist-led fieldwork, and the experience and meaning of these practices to contribute to our collective understanding of place. The TSOEG brings together artists working across a range of disciplines and geographic environments, to discuss fieldwork as methodology, parallel activity, art form, and research. I enjoyed writing a small post about my own artistic field work to begin, here.

SOIL CULTURE, a contemporary art project that promotes soil remediation, awarded a Collective Futures Fund New Works Grant.

SOIL CULTURE is a collaborative project in development with artist-philosopher Maria Patricia Tinajero. A public walk and a map of scientific and creative research in Beverly, MA, SOIL CULTURE facilitates participant discovery of the hidden narratives of soil, addressing the growing problem of waste and pollution on and within urban soils.

The Collective Futures Fund is an initiative directly supporting visual artists and artist-run activity in the Greater Boston area through grants that help incubate artists’ visions for their own independent platforms to support the futures of our vibrant local artist communities.

A Wanderer's Mind

Many thanks to the wonderful folks at Lights Out for producing this video profile of my practice.

ICI Curatorial Forum, EXPO Chicago

I'm honored to participate in the 2023 ICI Curatorial Forum at EXPO Chicago, bringing together more than 40 curators from across the United States. The Forum will feature a keynote lecture by Victoria Noorthoorn (Director, Museo Moderno, Buenos Aires), and closed-doors sessions focused on the notion of care in the museum and curatorial fields, as it relates to accessibility, community engagement, labor conditions, and new ways of working with artists.

Apr 13 – 16, 2023

Critical Reading Group
Center for Maine Contemporary Art

Join Julie Poitras Santos for a critical reading + discussion group exploring lines of desire. Considering the agency of the wild and our entanglement within it, Matthew Tiessen, Andreas Weber, and Cole Swensen offer us new ways to consider “nature”; reflecting our being in the world as one primarily of participation, reciprocity, interpenetration, and desire. For this discussion, we will focus on Tiessen’s essay, “Accepting Invitations”, the second chapter of Weber’s book, Matter & Desire, and a few selections from Swensen’s Art In Time.

Participants will be provided with, and asked to read in advance, three texts considering the agency of the wild world and our engagement within it.

Monday, April 10, 2023 | 6-7pm
Zoom| $10 to participate
Pre-registration required; limited to 12 participants

The More the Merrier
Grant Wahlquist Gallery, Portland, ME

Group exhibition for refugee relief. Works on view by Tad Beck, Leon Benn, Katherine Bradford, Sascha Braunig, Henri Paul Broyard, Tom Butler, Diana Cherbuliez, Kenny Cole, James Chute, Chris Clark, Grace DeGennaro, Carol Eisenberg, Meg Hahn, Alison Hildreth, Smith Galtney, Kate Greene, Tessa Greene O’Brien, Joe Mama-Nitzberg, Kyle Patnaude, Julie Poitras Santos, Jill Poyourow, Kate Russo, Gail Spaien, Will Sears, Jay Stern, Sara Stites, Jimmy Viera, Marguerite White

December 2 - 17, 2022
Reception: December 3, 2022

Artist Talk: Center for Maine Contemporary Art

Join us for a virtual panel discussion with Into Action artists Jennifer Calivas, Ray Ewing, Julie Poitras Santos, and Shoshannah White. The artists will discuss their individual practices before moving into a moderated discussion about their relationships to nature, the role of (inter)action in their practices, and other intersections found in the exhibition.

Thursday, January 6 | 6:00-7:00pm | Zoom
Free Registration on the CMCA website

Objectivity
Exhibition of New England-based artists whose work engages and subverts the still life genre. Selected by Josephine Halvorson.

November 4 - December 4, 2021
Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA

Into Action
An exhibition of works in photography that capture actions as they occurred, were staged for the camera, or created in post-production.

Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
October 1, 2021 - January 9, 2022

New catalogue available! PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS 2020: ecologies of the local

Untitled, 2020: Art from Maine in a ______time is open! Check out videos, information, and a 3D tour of the galleries on the Portland Museum of Art website, or see it in person. Referencing Platform Projects/Walks 2020, three of my prompts for walking are on exhibit in the galleries.


OPEN VIRTUALLY: FEBRUARY 12, 2021
IN-PERSON VIEWING: MARCH 25 - MAY 31, 2021

I was asked by the Museum of Walking in London, UK to give my vision for walking in 2040 as part of their Talking Walking podcast series.

Listen to the podcast here, where I talk about climate change, migration, and my recent work with Platform Projects/Walks.

Walking Portland: A Reflection on “ecologies of the local”, a beautiful piece by Elyse Grams in The Chart reflecting on PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS: ecologies of the local.

JUST ANNOUNCED! I'm honored to join this group of inspiring artists in this exhibition reflecting on how artists working in Maine are coping with, and responding to, this pivotal moment in our history.

Untitled, 2020: Art From Maine In A _______ Time

Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
February 12 – May 31, 2021

PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS: ecologies of the local
Speedwell Projects August 20 – October 10, 2020
Opening Reception: August 20, 2020

I'm thrilled to announce PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS: ecologies of the local, which invites community for free, artist led walks this fall regarding local ecology and climate-related changes. A partner exhibition at Speedwell projects focuses on walking art and ecology.

Join us on August 20th for food, celebration and presentations of walks to come. The event will take place outside, behind SPEEDWELL. Viewers will be invited to enter the gallery a few at a time. Please wear a mask!

ARTISTS: Kim Beck, Susan Bickford with Rachel Alexandrou, Tracey Cockrell, Viviane Le Courtois, Elaine K. Ng, IN KINSHIP FELLOWSHIP, MiHKu Paul, Jan Piribeck, Julie Poitras Santos with Beverly Johnson, Asata Radcliffe, Todd Shalom, Brian Smith, Addy Smith-Reiman, John Sundling

All events & information listed on the Calendar.

PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS: ecologies of the local selected for the Special Projects section of the AREACODE Art Fair!

I'm delighted to be a part of AREADCODE. The Special Projects section introduces experimental, innovative forms of engagement with art and responds critically and urgently to the current political, medical, and racial climate. Existing online and offline, these projects encourage creativity in lockdown, bring art into unexpected places in public life, elevate youth voices and intergenerational dialogue, and highlight the visions of artists who are participant-witnesses to racial and social justice.

Special Projects selected by co-curators Ellen Tani and Marla McLeod

August 1-31, 2020

Check out upcoming and recent news in my spring newsletter, here. Be well!

Join us for a Sunday Salon with artists Nathan Kroms Davis, Grace DeGennaro, Danica Phelps, and Julie Poitras Santos included in the exhibition Temporality | The Process of Time and hear how they use time as material in their work.

Sunday, January 26 | 3-5 pm
Center for Maine Contemporary Art

TEMPORALITY: THE PROCESS OF TIME

Exploring ideas of repetition, duration, and process, Temporality looks at how contemporary artists are using time as a means of making.

Center for Maine Contemporary Art
November 2, 2019 - February 23, 2020


Artists include: Gideon Bok, Astrid Bowlby, Caleb Charland, Amy Stacey Curtis, Nathan Kroms Davis, Grace DeGennaro, Clint Fulkerson, Carly Glovinski, Robin Mandel, Julie Poitras Santos, Jesse Potts, Deborah Wing-Sproul

I'm delighted to be part of this exhibition and fundraiser for Speedwell Projects in Portland, Maine, 10,000+ Hours and their aim to correct the canon and create greater visibility for women, LGBTQ+ and artists of color who are master practitioners of their discipline.

November 19 - December 7, 2019
Closing reception, December 7, 6-8pm

Artists: Elise Ansel, Greta Bank, Barbara Bosworth, Sarah Bouchard, Lucy Breslin, Crystal Cawley, Sara Crisp, Paul D'Amato, Grace DeGennaro, Michel Droge, Eileen Gillespie, Emmet Gowin, Tonee Harbert, Anne Harris, Anna Hepler, Adriane Herman, Charlie Hewitt, Alison Hildreth, Juliet Karelsen, Deborah Klotz, Jocelyn Lee, Winky Lewis, Honour Mack, Amanda Marchand, George Mason, Jan Piribeck, Kari Radasch, Julie Poitras Santos, Abby Shahn, Wendy Small, Kiki Smith, Patti Smith, Gail Spaien, Aaron T. Stephan, Cheryle St. Onge, Barbara Sullivan, Andrea Sulzer, Katarina Weslien, Shoshannah White, Diana Weymar, Henry Wolyniec, Francesca Woodman

Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art Extended

I'll be back in Sweden this fall, making work with the Kulturföreningen Tornet in Alingsås as part of GIBCA Extended. Weaving together site-specific research and local story exploring bryophyte ecologies, Walking the Forest Imaginary will take the form of an audio walk, and a public walk September 20.

Walking Backwards (Birger's Walk), will be on view during the Maine International Film Festival, MIFFONEDGE in Waterville, Maine July 12-21.

I’m delighted to be participating in this exciting walking conference in Prespes, Greece this summer. July 1-7, 2019

The Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the University of Western Macedonia in Greece is hosting the International Encounters/Conference “WALKING PRACTICES/WALKING ART/WALKING BODIES” in the Prespes area of Greece, in collaboration with MADE OF WALKING (V) and the Milena Principle.

Key note speakers::
Phoebe Giannisi
STALKER/Osservatorio Nomade

Presentation of Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways at the College Art Association annual conference on a panel convened by Ruth Erickson and Ellen Tani of the ICA Boston.
2-3:30p February 15, 2019

"When Home Won't Let You Stay": Art and Migration in the 21st Century

* Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, Barnard College, Discussant
* Carrie Robbins and Laurel Vera McLaughlin, Learning from Tania El Khoury's ear-whispered at Bryn Mawr College
* James Thomas, The Migrant Sound: Albanian Iso-Polyphony, Contemporary Auditory Culture, and the Mediation of Transit
* Sarah C. Bassnett, Richard Mosse’s Thermal Imaging and the Precarious Spectator of Migration
* Julie A Poitras Santos, Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways

January 8- February 2, 2019
Opening reception Friday January 11, 6-8pm
Cambridge Art Association, MA

What is wrought when one is cleaved apart from nature? Modern culture’s insistence that we are outside of nature has led to an estrangement from our wildness.

Curated by Patricia Miranda, the artists in MATERIAL LAMENTATIONS: Art, Grief and the Land respond to this rupture through an intimate exchange with the rhizomatic world. The objects in this exhibition mourn, lament, rage, rejoice, hope, and react to our changing ecosystem. A sense of sorrow and momento mori, pairs with hopeful activism and a sense of solophilia, or love and responsibility for the material world. These artists reflect on the inextricable network of life, and share an anguish alongside material outcries for change.

Artists: Christine Aaron, Beth Dary, Michelle Lougee, Heidi Neilson, Melissa Potter and Maggie Puckett, Julie Poitras Santos, Deanna Witman

CMCA 2018 BIENNIAL
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
November 2018 – February 2019
Opening: November 3


Jurors:
Kate Green, Guest Director of Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, Texas,
Robin K. Williams, Ford Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan.

S.T.E.P. Saunter, Trek, Escort, Parade
Queens Museum, NY
October 28 - November 25, 2018
Opening: October 28, 2-5pm


S.T.E.P. seeks to be an overlapping convergence and entanglement of walking, walk-based works and programing, mobilizing throughout New York. This exhibition follows its partner exhibition at Flux Factory.

Please join me for a walk from the galleries at 5pm, COM/PASSUS

ANTHROPOCENIC: Art About the Natural World in the Human Era explores the relationship and impact between humans and nature within the 21st century.

Bates College Museum of Art
October 27, 2018 - March 23, 2019
Opening: October 27


Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Sammy Baloji, Timothy Berry, Ursula Biemann, Michel Droge, Deb Hall, Adriane Herman, Laurie Hogin, Isabella Kirkland, Eve Andree Laramee, Michael Light, Nathalie Miebach, Lori Nix/Kathleen Gerber, Jan Piribeck, Julie Poitras Santos, Superflex, Maika’I Tubbs

Walking Backwards (Birger's Walk)
Karlskrona Konsthall in Karlskrona, Sweden
October 24 - November 4, 2018

Opening reception, October 24

In collaboration with Konst i Blekinge and A.i.R. Blekinge

Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways

October 5 – December 14, 2018
Opening: Friday, October 5, 5:00–8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art

ARTISTS: Ahmed Alsoudani, Caroline Bergvall, Edwige Charlot, Jason De León + Michael Wells + Lucy Cahill, Eric Gottesman, Mohamad Hafez, Romuald Hazoumè, Ranu Mukherjee, Daniel Quintanilla + United YES, María Patricia Tinajero, and Yu-Wen Wu.

Co-curated by Catherine Besteman and Julie Poitras Santos for the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. The exhibition was made possible in part thanks to the support of private donors, Colby College, the Lunder Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Inter Arts Center, Malmö, Sweden
29 September, 2018
6pm through midnight.

Sited in a 17c ropewalk in Karlskrona, Sweden, Walking Backwards (Birger's Walk) takes the form of a video that braids together imagery from performers in the ropewalk and the surrounding landscape of southern Sweden. The text weaves together historical descriptions collected from rope makers, ropemaking manuals, and fragments from Xavier de Maistre’s 1794 “Voyage Around my Room” amplified and enlarged by a piece of original fiction woven within the fragments to create an account of a ropewalker whose lover is lost at sea.

Created in collaboration with:
Konst i Blekinge, AiR Blekinge, Sweden
Kulturcentrum Ronneby Konsthall, Ronneby, Sweden
Repslagarbanan, Karlskrona, Sweden
Inter Arts Center, Malmö, Sweden

I'm excited to be working at the Inter Arts Center (IAC) in Malmö this Spring.

I'm delighted to be spending this May, 2018 at the AiR Blekinge in Ronneby, Sweden. A short train ride from the ropewalk in Karlskrona, I'll be working on a video while in residence.

THIS DESIRE: poetics & longing presents work from nineteen contemporary artists and poets who explore the nature of desire and longing through the intersection of writing and art-making. Curated by Jenna Crowder.

Opening: Friday, March 23 at 5pm
Able Baker Contemporary
29 Forest Avenue, Portland Maine.


Myron Beasley, Cairo Bats, Jon Calame, Jenna Crowder, DéLana R.A. Dameron & Jessica Lynne, Erin Johnson, Devin N. Morris, Bridget Frances Quinn, Julie Poitras Santos, D.A. Powell, Jimmy Riordan, Maia Snow, meg willing

This past summer, I was interviewed about my practice by Andrew Stuck of the Museum of Walking UK for "Talking Walking," have a listen here.

A walking weekend in the Hudson River Valley investigating and contesting the aesthetic and social concerns present in the confluence of historical trails and widely romanticized narratives in New York's Hudson Valley. November 17-19, 2017 CHRCH Project Space.

I'll be joining the Milena principle along with other artists and experts in diverse fields this August for "Made of Walking, La Romieu," an international forum focusing on dialogues between performance, arts, literature and new media related to walking practices. La Romieu, France

August 27 - September 1, 2017

A nice write up about my recent work in Maine College of Art news, "Walking as Aesthetic Practice" (Spring 2017)

Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library
Portland, Maine

Exhibition: June 2nd – July 22, 2017

I was interviewed on a Swedish radio blog! I talk about recent walking projects and the work I'm developing in the ropewalk - the repslagarbanan - in Karlskrona. (Spring 2017)

I'm delighted to be making work for the 2017 Site-Responsive Art Residency & Biennial at I-Park in East Haddam, CT this spring. I'll be in residence from May 15 - June 5, 2017.

Public Exhibition - Sunday June 4, 2017

I'm proud to be a part of HOPE THROUGH ART a series of gallery events and protests in response to the inauguration. Portland, ME January 20-21

Join me on January 21st for a VISUAL POETRY workshop at Zero Station before the march. Exhibition and events at Speedwell Projects open at noon. WE ARE AMERICAN BEAUTY.

Two exhibitions at Redline in Denver, Colorado celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the Artnauts collective.

"Artnauts 20 years, Archival Exhibition"
"Rally Round the Flag" exhibition curated by Linda Weintraub.

November 11, 2016 – Jan 8, 2017

Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art
Reception: Friday, September 2, 5-8PM

Exhibition open August 24-September 29, 2016

August 1-15, 2016 in Portland, ME
Exploring walking as provocation, practice and product
Public walks, talks, screenings, dialogues and more
http://www.platformprojectswalks.com/

Marking 17 years of dialogue, Distill collective gathers at Hewnoaks to collaborate and dialogue regarding present and future projects. June 25 - July 2, 2016

Distill members: Ann Chuchvara Cole, Tsehai Johnson, Julie Poitras Santos, Hrafnhildur Sigurdardottir, Patricia Tinajero

Opening reception: June 10, 2016 7pm
An evening of walking, story telling, and a commmunity dinner
Brunåkra, Simrishamn, Sweden

An upcoming project, PLATFORM PROJECTS/WALKS, has been awarded a Kindling Fund Grant, through Space Gallery, Portland, ME and the Warhol Regional Regranting Program.

Project info to follow soon

Spring 2016

I'm delighted to be staying at Brunakra Residency in southern Sweden while I research an historic rope walk in Karlskrona and develop new work.

Exhibition updates to follow

A solo exhibition at the Reed Gallery, University of Maine, Presque Isle

March 4 - April 18, 2016
Opening reception March 4

All events at the Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive, Denver

Public Artist Talk: October 21, 2015 5pm
Gallery Performance: October 23, 2015

Spring 2015

Proposed project in an historic ropewalk, plait, ply, snake and double, receives note on Creative Capital website.

A series of 28 related text drawings
Maine Women Writers Collection
UNE Abplanalp Library, Portland, ME
April 13 - October, 2015

Reception: May 18, 5:30-7:30pm
with performance & reading of poetry by:
Deborah Crimmins, Justine Denny, David Kuchta,
Mary McCann and Annie Finch

a series of ritual walks reactivating historical spaces
of rope making in Portland, Maine
September 20, 2014; 11am & 1pm
citydrift/Portland

visual practice as woven text
February 24, 2014, 7pm
Cleaveland Hall, Bowdoin College
Brunswick, ME

co-curated by Anne Zill, Gael McKibben, and Andres Verzosa
University of New England Art Gallery
Oct. 12 - Dec. 16, 2012
opening reception October 12, 5-7pm

curated by Julie Poitras Santos
Coleman Burke Gallery, Brunswick, Maine
March 30 - May 19, 2012
Opening Reception March 30, 5-7:30
performances at opening, and April 28, 1:00-2:30

Lauren Fensterstock
Julie Poitras Santos
Carrie Scanga
Ling-Wen Tsai
Deborah Wing-Sproul

March 15-16, 2011
Public Lecture, March 15, 7pm

Core Faculty Intro Lecture, 2010
June 21, 6:30pm
Osher Hall

Portland, Maine
Wednesday February 17, 2010
12:00 in Osher Hall