Bridget Bartolini

Bridget Bartolini is an oral historian, socially engaged artist, educator, writer, and native New Yorker who hails from the beautiful borough of Queens. She feels lucky to have grown up with a stoop where family and friends gathered to shoot the breeze.

Bridget uses place-based story-sharing to strengthen community connections. Inspired by her love for NYC, her belief in the power of storytelling as a tool for social justice, and her frustration with the lack of arts and cultural programming in certain neighborhoods, she launched the Five Boro Story Project in 2013 to produce free community storytelling events that bring New Yorkers together through sharing personal stories and art inspired by our neighborhoods. Her creative process involves working with community members, organizers, activists, and artists to collaboratively create tributes to the people and places that make our homes. 

Bridget holds a M.A. in Oral History from Columbia University and a M.A. in Community Education from Teachers College. She was a 2021-2022 SoF Heyman Center Public Humanities Fellow, 2016 Artist in Residence with More Art’s Engaging Artists Housing Justice Residency, 2015-16 Creative Community Fellow with National Arts Strategies, and 2014 Commissioned Artist and 2013 Create Change Fellow with The Laundromat Project. She received the More Art Prize for Public Art in 2017. She regularly presents on oral history, storytelling and community building.