Marcus Young 楊墨

Email: marcus@dyfit.org

Marcus Young 楊墨 is one of the nation's leading practitioners advancing the integration of artists within public institutions. For more than thirteen years he has pioneered artist-in-government practice across municipal, state, and county government, demonstrating how artists can help transform public organizations by fostering creativity, reflection, belonging, and institutional learning. Marcus currently serves as a U.S. Cultural Policy Fellow at Stanford University, where he studies, advances, and helps implement artist-in-government programs across the United States. As part of that fellowship, he helped establish artist fellowships within San Mateo County's Sustainability, Racial and Social Justice, and Community Affairs offices.

A multidisciplinary artist working across theater, dance, music, visual art, and public practice, Marcus creates work that transforms spaces, shifts systems, and deepens embodied belonging. Embedded for several years as an artist in St. Paul Public Works, Marcus had the opportunity to work with Parks & Recreation, as well as other city departments such as Planning and Economic Development. His pioneering civic art initiatives—including Saint Paul's nationally recognized Sidewalk Poetry Program, the Land Acknowledgement Confluence Room at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the 18-year participatory public movement practice Don't You Feel It Too?—demonstrate how artistic practice can reshape everyday civic life while strengthening relationships among people, place, and government. Marcus believes artistic opportunities exist throughout everyday civic life and that artists possess unique capacities to help communities and institutions imagine new possibilities for the future.

Marcus's experience as an artist and cultural strategist sits at the heart of this proposal. Few nationally have studied, designed, and implemented artist-in-government programs at multiple levels of government. His work demonstrates that artists are not simply cultural contributors but essential partners in organizational innovation, civic participation, and public problem solving. Through this residency he brings both practical experience and national thought leadership to Minnesota's state park system.