About

I'm a recovering circus performer turned experience designer who creates moments where people discover connection - to each other, to place, and to ideas they didn't know they needed.

 

As co-founder of Tideland Institute, I design on-water experiences that prototype New York's future as a water-centric city. My work spans cultural institutions, brands, and public space, always asking: how do we create conditions for genuine discovery, delight, and change?

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What I Make

I've designed playgrounds that teach cooperation, multi-sensory poetry archives that prepare you to truly listen, large-scale games and festivals that reveal hidden dimensions of place, floating jazz clubs that reimagine New York Harbor, and shippable date-night experiences in a box. I've created weddings where guests shear the sheep and spin the yarn to then collaboratively weave the chuppa the couple is married under. I've made summer camps for adults that built volunteer pools for local non-profits and community park dinners to address the issue of dining alone as one of the reasons cited for the US' drop in the Happiness Index. 

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Each project creates space for people to be both guided and free - structured enough to feel intentional, open enough to feel like their own discovery. 

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How I Work   

My approach draws from aerial circus training, systems thinking, and facilitation practice rooted in restorative justice and pedagogy. I move fluidly between big-picture vision and granular execution, between solo creative work and collaborative team leadership.

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I specialize in projects that require cross-disciplinary thinking: where technology meets human behavior, where education becomes play, where a community need becomes social infrastructure. My background in performing arts, restorative justice, product design, and nonprofit work means I understand how to build experiences that work on multiple levels - aesthetically, operationally, and emotionally.

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Who I Work With

I work with cultural institutions and organizations seeking meaningful community engagement, brands developing experiential campaigns and immersive environments, and individuals commissioning bespoke celebrations and gifts.

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Whether I'm designing a festival, developing a brand experience, leading a workshop, or creating place-based interventions, I bring the same commitment: make something that responds to a need with creativity, purpose, and playfulness.

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Based in NYC | Available for travel
dfunkadelica@gmail.com