GROWTESTQUE Speaker Series Part 3
Matthew Menzies, E.J. McAdams, and Beatrice Modisett
Tuesday, September 30th 2025
Doors open 6pm
Discussion from 6:30 –8 pm
132 Bowery (Third Floor)
NY, New York, 10013
A thought provoking conversation bringing together perspectives on the role of visual arts, the art economy, and artistic practice as climate action.
On September 30th we welcome Matthew Menzies, E.J. McAdams, and Beatrice Modisett to our intimate stage to discuss art as a platform for climate activism and introspections on sustainability as an artistic practice, and value creation in a growth minded cultural backdrop. Delving into the Extinction Rebellion call to action “No Art on a Dead Planet” we ask - what does the artist’s imaginary do to preserve life?
Matthew Menzies is a lead organizer with Extinction Rebellion NYC, where he has helped coordinate numerous campaigns and disruptions, including the US Open Coco Gauff semi-final protest (2023), the March to End Fossil Fuels (2023), and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Easter Vigil for Palestine Liberation. Matthew’s Maya heritage and the colonial history of Belize fuel his commitment to combating environmental racism, land theft, and systemic injustice. The rising impacts of climate change in Central America, particularly in his homeland, deepen his urgency in advocating for global climate justice and amplifying the voices of those most affected.
In addition to his activism, Matthew is an accomplished artist-designer, urban farmer, and horticulturalist.
Beatrice Modisett grew up moving back and forth between the imposing and structured architecture of Washington, DC and the powerful, rocky riptides and pummeling Nor'easters of a tiny island in New England. Early and even exposure to both of these disparate places carved the synapsis that lead to her current research and obsessions. She lives and works in Queens but delights in the fact that she feels equally at home in New York City as she does building a campfire and pitching a tent in the deep woods of upstate New York. Modisett earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from Montserrat College of Art and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has had solo and group exhibitions at Maier Museum of Art (Virginia); Eastern Connecticut State University (Willimantic, CT); HallSpace (Dorchester, MA); Queens Museum (Queens, NY); and Assembly Room (New York, NY) among others. She has participated in residency programs including Wave Hill Winter Workspace (Bronx, NY); Palazzo Monti (Brescia, Italy); Hambidge Center (Rabun Gap, GA) among others. In 2020 she was nominated for a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant and was named by Artsy’s Alina Cohen as one of “11 Emerging Artists Redefining Abstract Painting”.
E.J. McAdams is a poet, artist, collaborator, and conservationist exploring language and mark-making in the urban environment using procedures and improvisation with found and natural materials. He recently won the Action, Spectacle Chapbook Contest for SOMEHOW which will be released in November 2025 and he has a collaboration with the artist Julie Harrison coming out from Granary Books in early 2026. He published his first book LAST from BlazeVOX [books] in 2023. He has also published five chapbooks and had a solo exhibition, an installation called Trees Are Alphabets, at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. His poems have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Pamenar Online Magazine, The Paris Review, EOAGH, eccolinguistics, About Place Journal, unarmed journal, and others. A selection of his poems were collected in the anthology Poetics for the More-than-Human World. He curated the Social-Environmental-Aesthetics reading at EXIT ART from 2009-2012. Over his career, he has had multiple roles with leading conservation non-profits and currently serves as the Chief Development Officer for BirdLife International and the Executive Director of Friend of BirdLife International.