Founding Executive Director

ELLEN BABCOCK has exhibited sculpture and installations in numerous New Mexico and California venues, including the New Mexico Museum of Art, in Santa Fe and Southern Exposure, and the Exploratorium and the Arts Commission Gallery in San Francisco. Ellen assisted many internationally renowned artists as a materials researcher with the Art Foundry in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1985-1999. She moved to San Francisco in 2000 to pursue an MFA at the California College of the Arts, and while in California, completed artist residencies at Recology and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Ellen was awarded the Cadogan Fellowship, the Dennis Leon faculty award, and the Headlands Center for the Arts studio award. She became Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of New Mexico in 2009, and in the same year, founded Friends of the Orphan Signs. Ellen is delighted to be, once again, living in New Mexico.

Project Director

LINDSEY FROMM is an artist, arts educator, and organizer in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She teaches studio art at Central New Mexico Community College, and was elected by Councilwoman Renee Grout, of District 9, to the Board of Trustees of the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Fromm curated the 2023 FOS Retrospective Exhibition at FUSION. As a member of FOS she is an advisor to the City of Albuquerque Department of Arts and Culture on their current sign renovation projects, 2023-24. Fromm is also an Emerging Fellow for the Academic Advisory Council for Sign Research and Education, 2022-2024.

Artistic Director

SARA RIVERA is a writer, artist, translator, and educator who works at the intersection of text and visuality. She has worked as a teaching and collaborating artist leading community-based interdisciplinary workshops, tertulias, and public art projects with the Urbano Project (Jamaica Plain, MA), GrubStreet (Boston, MA), Working Classroom (Albuquerque, NM), and Friends of the Orphan Signs. She is leading upcoming workshops at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the National YoungArts Foundation. Apart from her non-profit work, she has taught high school Studio Art (The Boston International Newcomers Academy) and adjunct Creative Writing (Boston University).