Vanessa Till Hooper

Creative Director/Founder

Vanessa’s body of work explores the intersection of art, experiential design, engineering and environments. She uses emerging technologies to enhance the visitors experience, creating works that are interactive, animated and often immersive. Her focused interest is in the many ways in which public art can actively empower individuals and communities with agency, voice, and choice.

In early 2018, she founded her own art and design atelier, Studio HHH, and together with her artist team, creates light-based artworks that are integrated within the built environment. Three years ago she moved her atelier to North Adams, Massachusetts, and has become an active member of the North Adams creative community, all while continuing to design activations across the globe with projects currently in development in Los Angeles, Boston, and Mae Sot, Thailand.

Her creative process is informed by over 20 years of experience working in the field. After studying art in San Francisco she pursued a Masters Degree in Architecture from SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. After graduating she began designing architectural interiors in Los Angeles and Mumbai, by the time she moved to Boston in 2014 she was committed to a career in public art and experiential design.

“The habits I developed in my training as an architect, engaging in design thinking and insightful problem solving, quickly influenced my creative practice as an artist, resulting in a process of developing public art that is structured more like a design studio. I love investigating the fertile layers of community context with the rigor architects use to examine a site condition, working through the opportunities of social impact with the same attention to detail I spend on mechanical fasteners or material tolerances.”

Vanessa’s process is driven by three guiding principles: Good design occurs as a result of thorough investigation and solution oriented insights. Innovative design occurs when the process of discovery leaves room for the unexpected to emerge, allowing for a new visual language with a strong and lasting aesthetic. Great design can only occur when the process is human-centered.

“Over the course of my career I have become increasingly fascinated by the many ways in which public art can actively empower individuals and c”ommunities with agency, voice, and choice. I have come to understand that my artistic practice does not yield work that is an expression of the human experience but rather in service of it. I have shifted my perceived value of art from object to experience, the measure of success determined not by the market, but by the individual visitor's inner experience.