Michael MacLean

Michael MacLean is a participatory artist and designer whose practice spans public art, installation, sculpture, and community-led design. Based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS), Michael is co-founder of OSO Planning + Design, where he leads projects that blur the boundaries between art, architecture, and engagement. His work is rooted in place-based collaboration and explores how co-creation can foster belonging, storytelling, and transformation.

Influenced by his background in fine arts and design-build, Michael works across a wide range of materials and methods, moving fluidly between analog and digital making. His practice often combines reclaimed materials, modular systems, digital fabrication, and textile-based techniques to create immersive, human-scale installations. He is particularly interested in participatory art-making with youth, artists, and communities, centering shared process as a way to build skills, exchange knowledge, and use making as a form of collective empowerment.

Michael holds a Master of Environmental Design Studies (Design-Build) from Dalhousie University and a BFA in Design from Concordia University. His artistic approach weaves together research, fabrication, and facilitation—building connections between people and place through shared acts of making.