H I L L E L O L E A R Y
SUMMARY
I am a multidisciplinary designer, project manager, fabricator, and artist with over 15 years of leadership creating exhibitions, installations, and community through the arts. I specialize in complex interdisciplinary collaboration across multiple sites, stakeholders, and deliverables, building sites of meaningful and immersive exploration for people of all backgrounds and abilities, prioritizing play, curiosity, and accessibility.. My work is founded on conceptual and practical research in audience advocacy, informal learning, and intergenerational play.
EDUCATION
2025 Haystack Mountain School of Craft | Deer Isle, ME
2017 The Pennsylvania State University | MFA (Sculpture) | University Park, PA
2011 Rhode Island School of Design | BFA (with honors) | Providence, RI
2008 SUNY Suffolk Honors College | AA Liberal Arts | Selden, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2020-2025 Rhode Island School of Design | Assistant Professor/Critic | Industrial Design
2018-2019 University of Maine | Visiting Assistant Professor | Sculpture
sELECTED SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 UNMANNED VESSEL | Boston Sculptors Gallery | Boston, MA
2018 International Sculpture Center On-Track Exhibition Two-Person show with Elizabeth Kronfield | Steamtown National Historic Site | Scranton, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Tin There, Done That | Ely Center for Contemporary Art | New Haven, CT
2024 No Place Like Home | OVERLAP | Newport, RI
Confluence | Boston Sculptors Gallery | Boston, MA
2023 DesignxRI: A Decade of Design in Rhode Island | Machines with Magnets | Providence, RI
Stirring + Layering | Boston Sculptor’s Gallery | Boston, MA
2022 Collective Worlds | Hera Gallery | Juror: Meghan Clare Considine | Wakefield, RI
Newport Biennial | Newport Art Museum | Juror: Dr. Kimberli Gant | Newport, RI
Innovation Exhibition | United Nations Innovation Cell | Curator: Altimeter | NY, NY
2021 Little Things Matter | University of Southern Mississippi | Juror: George Beasley | Hattiesburg MS
National Juried Exhibition | Providence Art Club | Juror: Dr. Jamie Gabbarelli | Providence, RI
2020 Valdosta National 2020 | Valdosta State University | Juror: Claire Dempster | Valdosta, GA
Being In America | Manifest Gallery | Cincinnati, OH
Masc.| Coastal Contemporary Gallery | Curators: Shari Weschler, Michael White | Newport, RI
Selected EXHIBITIONS AS DESIGNER
2025 Holding Space | Collaboration with Adrien Broome/ Jodi Debruyne | Mark Twain House & Museum | Hartford, CT |
It Happened In Hartford | Mark Twain House & Museum | Hartford, CT
RISD Masters of Industrial Design (MID) Biennial | Sol Koffler Gallery | Providence, RI
2023 Art Car Derby | collaboration with the Outsider Collective | Funded by a grant from the John E. Fogarty Foundation | the MET | Pawtucket, RI
Food for Thought | Pop-up interactive exhibit for sustainable consumption | in collaboration with Epic Renewal | MIT Museum | Boston, MA
Presence and Absence (forthcoming)| Site-responsive installation series | In collaboration with the Amesbury Carriage Museum and Amesbury Cultural Council (Funded by the Essex County Community Fund)| Amesbury, MA
2020 Feeling Real or Really Feeling | collaboration with Brooke Goldstein and Steven Lubecki Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
Creative Artifacts II | Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
2019 Extravagant Properties | in collaboration with Nick Carter | Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
Creative Artifacts I | Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
Air is There | in collaboration with Pneuhaus | Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
2018 Acton Discovery Museum | Collaboration with Margaret Middleton and Truro Designs | Supplemental designer, Senior Fabricator | Acton, MA
2014 Taylor Giant | Taylor Box co. How Design Conference| Hynes Convention Center | Boston, MA
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Creative Director/ Exhibition Designer | The Mark Twain House and Museum | Hartford, CT | 2023-2025
Served as the Creative Director and Exhibition Designer for a multi-modal exhibition that engaged with the complicated legacy of Mark Twain, exploring themes of the invention of the creative economy, hustle culture, and celebrity culture.
Guest Curator and Exhibition Designer for a collaboration with Artist Adrien Broom and six historic sites in the Northeast, to exhibit interpretive photographs of historic homes of creatives along with the history and objects from those homes. Exhibit focused on the search for creative inspiration, the navigation of loss, and the creation of alter-egos as artistic tools
Provided content development and project management, exhibition design, contractor management, fabrication, and installation services, resulting in beginning-to-end seamless project outcomes for the client.
Principal/Designer/Strategist | Hillel O’Leary Design Consulting | Providence, RI | 2011-Present
Consultancy focused on all phases of exhibition design/development/fabrication, including support for loans and registrarial work, art handling, mount-making, and strategy.
Key Projects:
Industrial HIstory Center/Amesbury Carriage Museum | 2021-2022
Led the development of a series of site-responsive installations focused on personal histories of the precarity of a small deindustrialized town in northern Massachusetts. Provided content development, project management, and led collaborations with artists as well as internal and external community stakeholders.
Art Car Derby |Creative Director | collaboration with the Outsider Collective and the John E. Fogarty Foundation | 2023
Developed comprehensive strategy, curriculum, and community partnerships to realize a first-of-its-kind grant-funded Art Car Derby, providing access to design education, and serving working artists with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Managed all aspects of the project including budget, timeline, deliverables, and classroom experience. Brief video production: https://vimeo.com/914507835
Downcity Design | ReDesign Consultant | 2021
Helped lead the design and development of a new community arts facility for urban teens, including site planning, accessibility, and interior/exterior architecture concept design.
Brown/RISD Master of Art and Design Engineering (MADE) Program | Development Consultant | 2021
Served as a development consultant and collaborated with program directors to form working community partnerships between the Brown Engineering Design Workshop, and local non-profit organizations.
Georgia Marsh | 2018
Led the archiving, art handling, accession, registration, shipment, and storage of over 3000 works on paper for the estate of artist Georgia Marsh. Managed all aspects of the project from timeline to final deliverables.
Artifactintact 2018-2020
Worked under Master Mount-maker Jon Litwin in the creation of archival mounts, object handling, and exhibition design for museum clients including the RISD Museum, Anthony Quinn foundation, Harvard University, and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Design Manager/Exhibition Designer/ Creative Director | Providence Children’s Museum | Providence, RI
Served as the creative leader of the Creativity Initiative, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar project aimed at connecting kids to local artists and designers to explore the roots of creativity and creative economy building. Provided comprehensive project management and design leadership for the initiative. Collaborated with the Exhibit Developer in grant-writing, research, development, budgeting, prototyping, and installation. Led teams of work-study students, interns, volunteers, and museum staff. Managed 4 direct reports of exhibition technicians and maintenance staff.
The Wurks | Artist Collective Founding Member | Providence, RI | 2011-2024
Led many large-scale initiatives, including an ongoing strategic plan, forthcoming incorporation as a non-profit, site planning and building, artist recruiting and retention, leading working teams, curation, community partnerships. Overseeing, planning, and implementing organizational leadership restructuring.
Yellow House Brawlers | Artist Collective Co-founder | NY Metro area | 2007-2008
Led the vision, mission, and logistics of this collaboratively managed artist collective, including recruiting artist talent, securing venues, and installing artwork
PUBLICATION AND PRESENTATION
2023 TEDxRISD | Speaker | Providence, RI
2022 What You Bring with You, and What You Take Away: Strategies for Supporting Creativity and Making Meaning in Immersive Exhibitions |
Co-written w/ Dr. Jessica Neuwirth | Exhibition Magazine | National Association for Museum Exhibition
Effective Exhibitions Should… | American Association of Museums Conference | Panelist | Denver, CO | 2022
SSELECTED RESIDENCIES | FELLOWSHIPS
2026 Wendell Castle Workshop (forthcoming) | Residency | Scottsville, NY
2022 Digital Stone Project | Conference and Residency | Gramolazzo, IT
2017 Joya: Art + Ecologia | Residency | Los Gazquez, Spain
2016 Digital Stone Project | Conference and Residency | Gramolazzo, IT
2014 Vermont Studio Center | Residency | Johnson, VT
SELECTED GRANTS | AWARDS
2023 John E. Fogarty Foundation Grant | collaboration with Outsider Collective | Pawtucket, RI
2022 Essex County Community Fund Creative Community Grant | Co-writer: Jessica Neuwirth | Amesbury, MA
2021 Award of Distinction | Little Things Matter Exhibition | Juror: George Beasley | Hattiesburg MS
2014 Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant | Vermont Studio Center
ARTWORK IN INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS
United Nations | Innovation Cell teaching collection | New York, NY
Recessart | Teaching Collection | Brooklyn, NY
Boston Children’s Museum | Boston, MA
Heritage Museums and Gardens | Sandwich, MA
SELECTED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Social Enterprise Greenhouse| Prototyping Mentor | Providence, RI | 2025
DesignxRI | Catalyst Program Mentor | Providence, RI | 2023, 2025
Vermont Studio Center | Residency | Johnson, VT | 2014
A Better World by Design | Community Fellow | Providence, RI | 2011-2013
MEMBERSHIPS|AFFILIATIONS
Boston Sculptor’s Gallery | Member, DEI co-chair | Boston, MA
New England Sculptor’s Association | Member | New England