The Point:Cato as a Catalyst

Dana Edell

Dana Edell (she/her), PhD, MFA, is an activist-scholar-artist-educator. She has produced and co-directed 80+ original, activist plays written and performed by teenagers addressing social and racial justice issues. She is the former Executive Director of SPARK Movement, a global girls activist organization that used arts-based methods to launch and win successful action campaigns leading to social, corporate and policy change from 2012-2017. She was co-chair of the Girls’ Participation Task Force at the United Nations where she directed annual theater productions written by girls from 20+ countries and is currently the Director of EmersonTHEATRE, an afterschool theater and social justice program for Boston area teenagers. She has published chapters and articles about her feminist, activist, participatory research in more than a dozen academic books and journals, and currently serves as Co-Editor of Youth Theatre Journal. Her first book, Girls, Performance and Activism: Demanding to Be Heard was published by Routledge in 2022. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts where she is an Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre at Emerson College where she teaches courses in performance and activism.

Matthew Wilding

Matthew Wilding is a public historian, museum professional, and writer from Boston, MA. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Interpretation & Future Projects at Revolutionary Spaces, and is tasked with updating and modernizing exhibits and interpretation for Boston’s flagship Freedom Trail sites: Old State House & Old South Meeting House. He has also found playful and innovative ways to talk about history at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and the Boston History Company, as well as in the ongoing 18th-century historical pirate comic, Free Hands from Sequential Decay publishing.

Diane Dwyer

Diane Dwyer (she/her) is a Boston-based installation artist and experience designer dedicated to creating interpretive, inclusive, and imaginative environments. In 2025 she founded the Silence Dogood Project, which uses site-specific large-scale projections to connect Boston’s revolutionary past with today’s struggles for liberty. Her work reflects her passion for reinterpreting history through contemporary lenses, fostering equitable public spaces, and championing representation and inclusivity. Diane’s artistic vision is fueled by a deep belief in the power of imagination to connect people and transform environments.