Join us for the Sustaining a Creative Career Path Panel, a conversation with Tyler alumni and creative professionals whose careers reflect the many ways an arts education can evolve into meaningful, sustainable work. Bringing together artists, administrators, educators, and entrepreneurs, this panel will highlight a range of professional paths shaped by creativity, adaptability, and long-term engagement with the arts.
Panelists include Jennifer McTague, Christina Lower, Molly Burt-Westvig, Camila Rondon, Nicolo Gentile, and Raúl Romero.
Jennifer McTague, a Tyler alumna (BFA ’04), has built a multifaceted career across arts administration, printmaking, and institutional leadership. After earning her MA in Visual Arts Administration from NYU, she worked at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, co-founded Second State Press, and spent 12 years growing it into a thriving community printmaking studio. She now serves as Director of Operations and Administration at Monument Lab, where she oversees organizational systems including HR, finance, legal compliance, and governance.
Christina Lower, a Tyler alum and founder of Bake Bake Philly, turned a side practice that supported her painting studies into a full-time creative business. Through her one-woman micro bakery and cake studio, she blends visual art, community engagement, and craft, creating work rooted in sustainability, quality, and care. Her path offers insight into entrepreneurship, creative independence, and building a values-driven business.
Molly Burt-Westvig is a visual artist working across moving image, installation, and painting. A 2024 Tyler MFA graduate, she has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received major recognition including the American Austrian Foundation Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts. Her practice, which transforms salvaged materials into immersive sculptural environments, reflects an expansive model of sustaining an artistic life through exhibitions, residencies, and ongoing studio work.
Camila Rondon works at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as Departmental Coordinator of Modern and Contemporary Art and serves as an exhibition assistant on major projects. With a background spanning museum studies, exhibition management, retail design, and curatorial work, she brings a valuable perspective on museum careers and the many forms professional arts labor can take. She is also deeply engaged in Philadelphia’s Latinx arts community and DEI-focused initiatives.
Nicolo Gentile is an artist and educator based in Philadelphia whose practice spans exhibition, public art, and teaching. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler and has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. In addition to maintaining an active studio practice, he teaches at Tyler and has received support through awards including the Association for Public Art’s Art on the Parkway Competition and the Velocity Fund.
Raúl Romero is an artist whose work explores sound, material language, memory, colonial histories, and the environment. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale School of Art and is a member of the Vox Populi artist collective. A Pew Fellow, Romero has exhibited widely at institutions including The Fabric Workshop and Museum, The Kitchen, Locust Projects, and Taller Puertorriqueño, offering insight into sustaining a career through interdisciplinary practice, institutional partnerships, and collective engagement.
Together, the panelists will share candid reflections on building careers in and around the arts, navigating change, balancing creative and professional responsibilities, and defining success on their own terms. Students will gain practical insight into the many ways creative lives can be sustained over time, with space for questions and conversation throughout the event.