Tina Villadolid is a second-generation Filipina American New Yorker. She graduated from Amherst College in 1983 with a BA in Fine Arts, then moved to New England where she became a mom, was a small-scale pig farmer and fronted a rock band.
Moving to Santa Barbara, CA, the band had a hard landing. Tina transitioned into being the local art museum’s outreach teacher, bringing the museum into the neighborhoods guerrilla style. Twenty-three years later, she was teaching the children of former students. This generational work with the marginalized population of a wealthy community threw into question her own life's relationships to predominantly white spaces and institutions. Tina returned to school wanting to unlearn ideologies of systemic power hierarchies, knowing that real change must begin with her own practice.
She is a 2023 graduate of the Master of Fine Arts in Social Practice program at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University. Tina received the award for Outstanding MFA Work in Social Practice, and the Nashman Center Prize for her ongoing project, Tracing Manila House. She is in the inaugural cohort of the CARD Fellowship, a partnership of The Phillips Collection, the Nicholson Project, and the DC Public Library. In 2024, Tina will be an artist in residence at MASSMoCA.
