AVIVA SILVERMAN




Archivist, educator and oral historian interested in the ethics of preservation, community-led memory work, and the power of creating one's own record.











TRANS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

NYC



NYC TRANS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 
PROJECT COORDINATOR, 2018–PRESENT


The NYC Trans Oral History Project is a trans-led, grassroots community archive collecting, preserving, and sharing trans histories across New York City. Recordings center the insights of vulnerable trans communities, documenting resistance and resilience alongside the intersections of race, poverty, disability, housing, policing, and the AIDS crisis.

As Project Coordinator for eight years, I've personally conducted over 50 interviews with trans New Yorkers of wide-ranging experience — including formerly incarcerated, unhoused, immigrant, and elder narrators from diverse cultural backgrounds — and have been intrinsically involved in facilitating the archive's full collection of 250+ oral histories. I've professionally trained at the Oral History Summer School to conduct interviews ethically, effectively, and efficiently. As a core collective member, I took part in the decision-making that brought the archive into NYPL's permanent special collections, developed bilingual (English/Spanish) accessible materials on oral history methods, built the project's website and podcast distribution across major streaming platforms, organized six public events and a half-day conference at the Park Avenue Armory with leading trans activists and organizers, and led training workshops for new volunteer interviewers.









FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE

NYC


LEAD ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWER, 2026


Franklin Furnace has established a new Oral History Collection, preserved within its archives and shared online for the public.
As the oral historian, I worked with 15 artists from the archive's collection, each interview tracing artist’s lives alongside New York's social, cultural, and political landscape unfolding through the '70s, '80s, '90s, and into the early 2000s.



SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK
NYC



THE POINT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWER, 2026


As Socrates Sculpture Park approaches its 40th anniversary, The Point Oral History Project is building the park's first public historical record, gathering memories and narratives from the individuals who imagined, built, and transformed Socrates from a riverside landfill into a space for art, ecology, and public life.

As Oral History Interviewer, I conducted interviews for the project, contributing to this record alongside The Point Digital Archives Project.





VOICE OF WITNESS
SF



STORYTELLER INITIATIVE FELLOW, 2023
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 



The Storyteller Initiative is a fellowship supporting artists, oral historians, and storytellers from historically marginalized communities in developing a project rooted in oral history methods and ethical storytelling. Fellows receive funding, training, and mentorship, drawing on Voice of Witness's 15+ years of ethics-driven oral history and human rights storytelling work.

As a Fellow, I received institutional support and support in working with the NYC TOHP’s ongoing archive.







Oral History Workshops  
Queer Legacies Project

ARCHIVING WORKSHOP WITH AMERICAN LGBTQ+ MUSEUM
FEATURED ARCHIVIST, OCTOBER 2026

Developed by the American LGBTQ+ Museum in partnership with The Feminist Institute and SAGE, Queer Legacies Project is an in-person workshop series that brings together NYC's LGBTQ+ elders to preserve their personal archives and stories. Through facilitated cataloging and digitization, the series places participants' ephemera and lived histories within the broader story of LGBTQ+ history in the U.S., helping them safeguard their materials for future generations.

As Featured Archivist, I opened the workshop with a presentation drawing on my work from 2018 to present. Participants then moved into hands-on digital archiving sessions and recorded conversations about their collections.


Learn more about the workshop here.



Oral History Workshops  
Ethical Digitization Considerations



WORKSHOP WITH ARCHIVISTS ROUNDTABLE
FACILITATOR, JUNE 2024

Developed in collaboration with ART, METRO, and The Feminist Institute, this workshop explores the ethics of digitizing personal materials and conducting oral histories. The workshop is grounded in feminist ethics of care and examines collaborative, community-centered approaches like reciprocal ethnography and participatory cataloging.

As Facilitator, I co-led the workshop alongside Allison Elliott, drawing on my work with the NYC Trans Oral History Project to guide participants through hands-on exercises on consent, access, and healing-justice-centered interviewing, building an ethical framework for grassroots, trauma-informed archival work.

Learn more about the workshop here.





Local Voices Network Group Discussion
Ethical Digitization Considerations

IN COLLABORATION WITH TOHP AND NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE
FACILITATOR, 2021

In collaboration with NYC TOHP, Cortico's Local Voices Network, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, two virtual discussions created space for community members to listen to eachother  across their lived experiences, building new relationships, and a direct channel for community voices to reach candidates, policymakers, and media.

As a Facilitator, I helped lead both conversations, centering conversations on the health and well-being of community members as a place to draw valuable information missing from mainstream accounts.

Listen here.




Maryland Institute College of Art 
Baltimore



PART-TIME FACULTY & CURRICULUM DESIGNER INTERDISCIPLINARY SCULPTURE, 2025–PRESENT


Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works
Senior Thesis, Student Works


I teach across MICA's Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Ceramics, and Fibers programs, designing and leading coursework for First Year, Junior, and Senior students. In Contemporary Visual Languages, I guide first-year students through interdisciplinary thinking and practices centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, globalization, and justice. As Lead Professor for the Junior Seminar, a required pre-thesis studio course, I guide research-driven practice through writing, critique, and interdisciplinary inquiry. As Area Faculty for Senior Thesis, a year-long independent studio program, I provide individual studio mentorship and lead cohort meetings, culminating each year in interdisciplinary critiques and exhibition production.


Go Project, Swiss Institute 

NY


GO PROJECT AT SWISS INSTITUTE TEACHING ARTIST, 2019
Go Project is an after-school program serving students whose access to art education has been cut by state funding, offering enrichment classes to fill that gap.

As Teaching Artist, I led a class for 10th–12th grade students focused on ritual object-making, in partnership with the Swiss Institute.





Context Clues, Leslie-Lohman Museum

NY


CONTEXT CLUES WORKSHOP
FACILITATOR (WITH ARISTILDE KIRBY), 2024




Presented by Voluminous Arts, Context Clues is a workshop series inviting visitors to think through the relationship between exhibited objects and the cultural communities they belong to. For the series' closing event, Assembly of Latent Perceivers explored the polarities of autonomy and interdependence through sound, somatic exercise, and group discussion.

As Facilitator, I co-led the workshop with poet Aristilde Kirby, drawing on my sculpture and performance practice's engagement with ritual, faith, and the technologies of spiritual and political surveillance.