Bio

As a longtime student and practitioner of placemaking, pilgrimage is a way of life. I seek out sacred experience through the sublime intersection between site and psyche. These days you can find me bringing consciousness and sacred space creation to the fields of architecture and design, cross disciplinary art initiatives, education, and activism. I call it Make Conscious.

I have written a few books along the way with my husband Stéphane Dreyfus. We wrote the Unspoken Kit: a silent retreat to awaken creativity, and Basic Sanskrit for Yogis. My forthcoming book, Your Phenomenal World, is my first writing project to bring together my life long desire to share my intoxication with place, and my wish to empower you to engage and activate your world. 

Born and raised in NYC, my parents were translators at the United Nations. Constantly traveling, I felt like I was growing up as a citizen of the world. My early exposure to global cultures through the lens of a mother who is an artist and a father who is a writer led to a “sponge” condition. My parents observed that to teach me anything, all they had to do was put me somewhere. By way of their unique “sponge-style” of parenting, I soaked in the globe, enamored with my phenomenal world. 

The result of witnessing our global unity has always been a desire to share the vision. I realized that my worldview had less to do with my frequent flier miles and more to do with a larger perspective of inclusivity and humanity that was not easily communicated or created. As I observed the increasing malaise around me, I felt an ever increasing urgency to find an avenue to provide an effective transmission of our shared humanity. 

Since I learned through the potency of place, I sought to communicate through the creation of places for others. This desire brought me to study architecture at Yale University. My undergraduate thesis joined the art, architecture, and religious studies departments in an examination of how Eastern esoteric traditions expressed themselves in built form through the homology of the body, building and the cosmos. Upon graduation my curiosity had only been piqued through a scholarly experience of sacred phenomena. I sought continued direct experience. 

The journey into the cause of vision inevitably brought me deep into the inner landscape. A decade of intensive study of meditation, yoga, and Buddhism culminated in a 450 day silent meditation retreat. In silence I was able to verify what I often read in scriptural texts - the purity of a quiet mind has a child-like quality. So many times, as I reached meditation milestones, I was transported to moments of my childhood and specific sacred places. 

When I emerged from silence I had a new capacity not just to create space but to hold space. As I had soaked up silence, the expansion of my ability to listen radically changed my teaching practice. I founded Triveni Yoga with Stephane Dreyfus. I no longer felt a loss for words. I could now communicate a direct experience through presence - a field that merged listening with place making. 

Jessica Kung Dreyfus
Curriculum Vitae Highlights

Education
B.A. cum laude, Yale University, Architecture
M.F.A., California College of the Arts, Interdisciplinary
Associate Master, Taoist Environmental Studies, Qi-Mag Institute

Select Museums/Exhibitions
Slash Gallery, SF, The Battery, SF, Chinese Culture Center, SF, DeYoung Museum, SF, Fotile Gallery, Shanghai, Centrale Montemartini, Rome, HRL Contemporary, London

Awards/Fellowships
Celeste Prize Finalist, Seymour Lustman Memorial Prize, Mellon Fund Recipient, Sudler Fund Recipient, National Merit Scholarship Finalist