Aislinn Pentecost-Farren

Aislinn Pentecost-Farren is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual art, curatorial practice, and public history.  

She helps heritage organizations tell the history of the climate crisis through research, public history writing, and art installations. Her approach combines history, science, and art to develop unique, site-specific narratives and creative interventions. She grounds public interpretation in the objects, collections, and landscapes that make abstract histories tangible and meaningful.

Her current projects are guided by the understanding that the climate crisis gives industrial, colonial, and energy heritage sites new responsibility and new relevance. Historic places can not only provide context for the origins of the crisis, but use previous energy transitions to inspire solutions today. She helped Lowell Mills National Historical Park integrate climate change history into a field trip curriculum, led a climate tour for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and was a 2023 Fellow at Stenton in Philadelphia to research the connections between indigenous and climate histories at that site. Her Penn masters thesis guided new interpretation about coal history and labor at an industrialist’s historic mansion in Newport, RI.

Aislinn’s practice is based on over a decade of experience working with historic sites, museums, and parks as curator and artist. Past partners include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bartram’s Garden, Roebling Museum, Eastern State Penitentiary, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Hidden City Philadelphia, Glen Foerd on the Delaware, Philadelphia Lazaretto, Fairmount Park Conservancy, and the Riverfront North Partnership the Arts Council of Wales, Western Carolina University, and Elsewhere Museum. She has exhibited work at Stamps Gallery at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, Western Carolina University, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Vox Populi, and Practice Gallery.

In Practice is a series sponsored by the Weitzman Department of Historic Preservation to showcase the breadth and depth of built heritage conservation through its professional practices. Speakers will discuss their projects and the trajectory of their careers. It will afford students the opportunity to hear directly from those who have put their knowledge to work as they help define the contemporary discipline and the professional practice of heritage conservation. 

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.