Todd Shalom works in visual media and participatory performance. He is the founder and director of Elastic City, a non-profit organization that produced over 200 participatory walks and events for the public between 2010 and 2016. In that time, he collaborated with over a hundred artists in a variety of disciplines to adapt their sensibilities to the participatory walk format, in addition to developing and leading numerous walks of his own.
In collaboration with performance artist/director Niegel Smith, Todd conceives and stages interactive performances in public and private environments. Together, they are ringleaders of Willing Participant, which whips up urgent poetic responses to crazy shit that happens.
Todd has taught participatory art as a faculty member at Pratt Institute and School of Visual Arts. His work has been presented by organizations such as Abrons Art Center, Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University GSAPP, Des Moines Art Center, The Invisible Dog, ISSUE Project Room, MIT List Visual Arts Center, The Museum of Modern Art, The New Museum, P.S. 122 and Stanford University. Todd has been an artist-in-residence at Akiyoshidai International Art Village (Japan), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and SHIFT (EFA Project Space).
Todd is a graduate of Boston University (B.S. in Business Administration), California College of the Arts (M.F.A. in Writing/Sound), and Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work (M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups). He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a certified Gestalt therapist (The Gestalt Center) and has received advanced training in Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy at The Center for Somatic Studies in New York.
contact: todd (at) toddshalom (dot) com
photo: France Dubois