JAKE BARTON - Principal  Jake Barton is founder and principal of Local Projects. Local Projects is an award-winning hybrid physical/design firm focused on museums and public spaces. Currently, Local Projects is partnered with Thinc Design to design The National September 11th Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. Local Projects is also making a cell-phone tour for the Statue of Liberty, three commissioned films for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and all of the media for the new Museum of Chinese in America. Other clients include Grand Central Terminal, The National Museum of American Jewish History, the Museum of the City of New York, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

     Jake was a finalist for a National Design Award in Communications in 2006 and attended the White House reception hosted by the First Lady and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. His work has also received two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal from the IDSA Industrial Designers Society of America, as well as five awards from ID Magazine, and three from the AIGA. He has a master's degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he currently teaches the master's thesis class. Before founding Local Projects, Jake worked as an exhibition designer for Ralph Appelbaum Associates.

IAN CURRY - Interaction Designer  Ian Curry comes most recently from frog Design where he helped create websites, large-scale interactive displays, product UI, and iTV interfaces for clients including MTV, BBC, Hewlett-Packard, IPC, and Microsoft. Previously, he has worked on interactive projects for Eyebeam R&D, and the United Nations. He has an M.P.S. from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from The Colorado College. His installation artwork, interactive and otherwise, has been shown at the International Center of Photography (ICP), the Lab Gallery, 3rd Ward, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Redhead Gallery.

KATIE LEE - Senior Graphic Designer  Katie Lee is a graphic designer working in print, interactive, and motion design. She began in New York City as a print designer for Shapiro Design Associates, then as a Web designer for Razorfish in the New York and San Francisco offices. In 2004 she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for the Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy & Mather, ReVerb, and Prologue Films. While at Prologue, she designed and art directed motion graphics and titles for television and film. Katie holds a BA in Art from Yale University and an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art.

BURAK ARIKAN - Software Artist/Designer  Burak Arikan is an artist and designer creating networked systems that evolve with the interaction between people and machines. His work has recently been shown at Ars Electronica, the Venice Biennale, and Art Interactive in Cambridge, Mass. Burak completed his master's degree at the MIT Media Laboratory, in the Physical Language Workshop led by John Maeda. While at MIT, Burak's research explored systems that address the transition from connectivity to collectivity in the context of creative expression.

ARIEL EFRON - Designer and Filmmaker  Ariel Efron is a cross-media artist operating between media art and media design. His work combines the use of media in installations, spatial design for dance, music, and theatre performances, and museum and art installation. Ariel has shown his work throughout the world, including the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004, the Rotterdam Biennale 2005, the Tokyo Dance Biennale 2002, and others. Ariel recently completed his master's degree at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University.

TIYA GORDON - Studio Manager  Tiya Gordon manages operations and individual projects for the company. Prior to joining Local Projects, Tiya worked for The American Museum of Natural History where she conceived, developed and produced media installations for permanent halls and international exhibitions. Her work has received awards and recognition from The New York Academy of Sciences, The Cannes Film Festival, RESfest, and CINE among others. She graduated from Parsons School of Design where she currently teaches in the Communication Design and Technology Program.

GEORGINA WHITE - Content Coordinator and Developer   Georgina White is completing her M.A. in Museum Studies at New York University. She is a Fulbright Scholar from Wellington, New Zealand, and has been awarded a fellowship from the American Association of University Women. Georgina is passionate about the inclusion of personal stories and oral histories in social history exhibitions. She curated First Dance for New Zealand’s National Library Gallery (2005) and wrote Light Fantastic: Dance floor courtship in New Zealand (HarperCollins, 2007). While completing these independent projects, she also researched images for the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa..