Mary Jeys, Founder and Artist.

Mary has been dedicated to promoting social change in a variety of non-fiction media and arts settings including, Aubin Pictures, Inc., a non-profit documentary production company; Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts MFA program; The School of Visual Arts, and CUNY Graduate Center. Her creative research includes The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Fledgling Fund’s Reel Food Residency and LMCC’s Swing Space Residency. She has received grants from Art Matters, Macktez, and FEAST in Brooklyn. She has been invited to speak at Parsons The New School for Design’s MFA program in Interdisciplinary Design and The Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jesse Suchmann, Creative Advisor.

Since 2010, Jesse Suchmann has worked with the Brooklyn Torch Project, hand-making our first “Torch Vouchers” with stamps and spray-paint, coordinating our earliest “Torch Swaps,” and designing the final Brooklyn Torch bills that are in circulation today. Jesse is available for creative consulting & design services on the Torch Registry

We owe great gratitude for contributions both large and small over the years to these wonderful organizers and thinkers (in no particular order):

Olaf Bertram Nothnagel, Jeff Hnlicka, Caroline Woolard, Rob Faludi, Stephen Burke, Paul Glover, Susan Witt, Jerome Camier, Jason Santa Maria, Danielle Carro, Mike Caprio, Dailey Crafton, Rob Kimmel, Amanda Goldman, Lisa Bollinger, Melissa Uhl, Taylor Erkkinen, Catherine Gund, Alex Kasavin, Jessie Reilly, Jason Valk, Amanda Dora, Samira Rajan, Karl Erickson, Jay Bachhuber, Karen Harding, Rachel Lehrer, Jamer Hunt, Christine Onorati, Diana Ortiz, Konstantin Grab, Paolo Cirio, David Morgan, Giana Gonzalez, and Sokio Diaz.

Why here in North Brooklyn?

We have a lot of key elements to make a successful local currency here: a strong sense of community and pride, a wealth of talent ranging from artists and designers to food purveyors and health care as well as emerging micro industries. There is also a wealth of local organizations that help support us. We have small and growing pockets of local businesses engaged in sustainability. We aim to support these startups as well as maintain traffic for local merchants that are already here. This is an exciting opportunity to synthesize our wealth in our community!