Context Boston Tour Guides

Jessica Dello Russo is an archaeologist and historian who has also worked as a docent for us in Rome. Born and raised in the historic North End of Boston, she followed the Bostonian cursus honorem of studies at Boston Latin School and Harvard before becoming a certified teacher and guide. She has collaborated with several local cultural institutions, including Historic Neighborhoods and the Boston Center for Jewish Heritage, on tours of historic sites. Deeply knowledgeable about the history of Boston, she possesses a teacher's gift for framing and contextualizing information. She loves exploring her native city in the company of her three-year-old son.

Tricia Hastings was born in Boston and raised in Connecticut. She received a BA in French at Tufts University and a MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. Tricia spent ten years in London traveling in Italy, France and Belgium for an international bank. While in London, she began taking art courses offered at Christie's as well as seminars in local museums. After a few years in Greenwich, CT and in Baltimore, MD working for consulting firms, she returned to Boston. In 2006, Tricia joined the Museum of Fine Arts where she conducts tours of the collections in both English and French. Like her favorite expatriate artist, John Singer Sargent, Tricia enjoys playing tennis in her free time.

Alex R. Goldfeld is a public historian and the author of The North End: A Brief History of Boston’s Oldest Neighborhood. He has been creating and leading tours of Boston’s historic neighborhoods since 2000. In addition to guiding tours, Alex also served as Director of Operations at Boston’s Museum of African American History. He spent four years there overseeing the visitor experience, managing the historic sites, and facilitating tours of the Black Heritage Trail. An expert in the social history of Boston, Alex lives with his family in the North End, where he is both President and Historian of the North End Historical Society.

Boston-based independent curator, Judith Hoos Fox, works with Orlando-based Ginger Gregg Duggan under the moniker c2 (curatorsquared), to develop exhibitions of international, cross-media contemporary art and design that explore current issues in culture. Current projects include Passing Time, to open at Wesleyan University CT in early 2012 and LUCY+JORGE ORTA/collaboration for Tufts University Art Gallery. Fox, who holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College and the University of Minnesota, was curator at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College from 1988-2002. She has held visiting curatorial positions at the Harvard Art Museums and the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois.

Judy emerged from a family of social scientists ready to the read the signs of the culture from its art rather than from statistics. This was not, however, immediately apparent to her, explaining her undergraduate degree in sociology. From a two-year apprenticeship at Walker Art Center, she absorbed a standard that has shaped her subsequent thirty plus years of curatorial work in both college and public museums. Judy is based in Boston, where she and architect husband Charlie raised their now west coast based daughter. She is ready to jump on a plane to experience all the art she can to strengthen and create c2 projects.

With over twenty years of experience managing projects and processes that enhance the public realm, Patrice has led strategic initiatives in Boston’s public and non-profit sectors including master planning, park design and green infrastructure development, community outreach, advocacy, policy, and cultural landscape research and restoration. Patrice received a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she focused her studies on the evolution of the American landscape and garden design history. This fall she is teaching a course on Twentieth-Century Urban Open spaces in Boston highlighting many of the projects she contributed to including the Central Artery/Rose Kennedy Greenway, Copley and Post Office Squares, HarborWalk and the Charles River Basin.

David Pistrang grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, and holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Tufts University. In 2010, he completed a Masters degree in the Anthropology of Food at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, where he focused his dissertation on the impact of tourism on local cuisine in China. His research and professional interests include food tourism, Chinese cuisine, education, and cross-cultural experiential learning. David has worked in the gourmet food world, as well as the online food world, and has led educational tours in China and South America. David loves exploring different Boston neighborhoods and trying new foods wherever he goes, and is excited to be able to share his love for Boston's history and culinary treasures.