Architecture, Planning & Design

Stephen Cassell is a founding partner of ARO, an architecture firm in New York City that does mostly institutional and public projects. Current projects include the renovation of the Avery Architectural and Fine Art Library at Columbia, a master plan for Princeton University, and work in Union Square Park. His firm holds a Design Excellence contract with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Mr. Cassell has also taught extensively and has served on a number of juries for the AIA. His work has received numerous awards and has been published widely. He received an Independent Project award from APD in 1998. He holds a B.A. in Architecture from Princeton and a Master of Architecture from Harvard.

Susannah Churchill Drake is a registered landscape architect and the principal and founder of dLandstudio, a design firm providing planning, landscape architecture and architecture services for both public and private clients. Before starting her own firm in 2006, she worked for a number of architecture and landscape architecture firms in New York City, focusing on institutional and public work. She is currently teaching the history and theory of landscape architecture at City College and serves on advisory boards at Harvard and Dartmouth. In 2006 she received an Independent Project award from APD for her analysis of ways to create public space above the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in Downtown Brooklyn. Ms. Drake received a BA in Art History from Dartmouth College and both a Masters of Landscape Architecture and a Masters of Architecture in 1995 from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Milton Curry is the Director of the Cornell Council for the Arts and an Associate Professor of Architecture at Cornell. In addition to Cornell, he has taught and been a design critic at, among other places, Harvard, California College of the Arts and Arizona State University. He has published and lectured widely, focusing primarily on issues of race and design. His work has been shown in several exhibitions, most notably in the 2004 Harlem World Show at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Mr. Curry also has a small architecture practice and a real estate development company. He recently served on a citizen’s committee organized by the Ithaca Department of City Planning to develop design guidelines for a large piece of developable public land. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University.

Susan Holland is the Executive Director of Historic Albany, a long-time APD General Operating Support recipient. Before that she was the financial Manager and then Associate Director of the Neighborhood Preservation Coalition of NYS. She has extensive nonprofit management experience and has presented workshops on financial management, board development, housing, and economic development and historic preservation. She serves currently as the Vice President of the Board of a small cultural center in Guilderland. Ms. Holland received her BS in Communication Arts from Cornell and has taken graduate level courses in Public History, Historic Preservation and the History of Museums at SUNY Albany.

Craig Jensen is the managing partner of Chaintreuil, Jensen, Stark Architects, a Rochester-based architecture firm. He focuses on the firm’s museum clients, and has done design work for the Strong Museum, the Rochester Museum and Science Center and the Frederick Douglas Museum. He is currently Board Chairman of the City of Rochester’s Preservation Board and is on the Board of the Rochester Regional Community Design Center. He has also been on the board of the Landmark Society of Western NY. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Beyhan Karahan is an architect with a small practice specializing in public work in New York City. She has broad experience in designing and building academic buildings as well as in urban design and interior design projects. Ms. Karahan is a LEED Certified Professional, and the firm is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council. She studied in Turkey before receiving her BS in Mathematics from SUNY Stonybrook and a Master of Architecture from Columbia. Ms. Karahan currently teaches at the New York Institute of Technology.

Deborah Marton is the Executive Director of the Design Trust for Public Space. She is a landscape architect, and before joining the Design Trust worked for the firm Field Operations as Project Manager for the Fresh Kills Landfill End Use Master Plan. She has also been a sole practitioner doing public parks and residential projects and worked for 5 years for the NYC Department of Parks. She received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Ms. Marton is also trained as a lawyer at NYU and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1990. She is currently a visiting professor at Penn’s School of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.

Jonathan Jova Marvel is a partner at Rogers Marvel Architects, a firm focusing primarily on cultural projects. His clients include The Studio Museum in Harlem, Higgins Hall at Pratt Institute, and the South Fork Natural History Museum among others. He has been an “Emerging Voice” of the Architectural League and has won several Progressive Architecture Awards. He has taught architecture at Parsons, Rice, Harvard, Bard and Columbia and is currently on the Board of the AIA New York Chapter. Mr. Marvel holds a BA from Dartmouth and a Masters of Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Deborah Meyer DeWan is currently the Director of Policy and Program Development at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development. Before that she served as the consulting historic preservation planner for Hudson River Heritage and as the Director of the Riverfront Communities Program at Scenic Hudson. She has a long and distinguished career in community and open space planning, environmental policy and historic preservation in the Hudson River Valley, serving on a number of small, nonprofit organizations in the areas of fundraising, strategic planning and board development. Ms. DeWan holds a BA in Political Science from SUNY Stonybrook and a MS in Environmental Studies from Bard College.

Christopher Mount is the Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at Parsons the New School. At the same time, he is overseeing the renovation of both galleries which will present museum-quality exhibitions in the various design fields. Before going to Parsons, he was a curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA for 14 years, and he still works as a consultant to the graphic design collection. He is also the former Editor in Chief of I.D. Magazine. Mr. Mount holds a BA in Art History from Columbia. 

Anne Rieselbach is the Program Director of the Architectural League of New York. In that role she organizes and curates all of the League’s many programs and exhibitions, including lectures, symposia, publications and conferences on architecture and the related arts. She has published widely and received an Award of Merit in 2005 from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Ms. Rieselbach received her BA from Lawrence University and completed graduate coursework in architectural history from Cornell.

Mark Robins, an architect, is currently the dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University. Before coming to Syracuse he was the Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts where he advocated for innovative design in the public realm. He has also been the Curator of Architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts and has taught extensively across the country. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture, a NYFA fellowship, and an Independent Project from APD in 1988.

J. Meejin Yoon is an architect, designer and educator with a small practice here in New York City. Her work is conceptual in nature and explores the intersections between architecture, landscape and media. She is well known for her installations in public spaces and has been published widely. She was selected for the Architectural League’s 2007 Emerging Voices; won a Rome Prize Fellowship in 2005; and was a Fulbright Fellow in 1997. Her work is currently featured in the Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt. Ms. Yoon holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard. She is currently teaching at MIT.

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Arts In Education

Miriam Rosenthal Bernabei is currently the Director of Arts, Music, and Special Programs at Greenburgh Central School District #7 in Westchester, where she coordinates, among other large grants and programs, the Empire State Partnerships Schoolwide Arts grant with the Westchester Arts Council. Before moving to the Greenburgh schools, she was the Arts Coordinator at PS/MS 37 in the Bronx, where she managed the school’s Center for Arts Education/Annenberg Challenge grant. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Education from SUNY New Paltz and a M.S. in Library Science from Pratt Institute, as well as a certificate in Educational Administration – also from SUNY New Paltz. She is fluent in Spanish and is the current co-coordinator of the ESP Regional Leadership Network for NYC high schools.

Courtney J. Boddie received a Masters of Arts in Educational Theatre from New York University in 2003. She currently is the Education Programs Manager for The New Victory Theater, where she manages the School Partnership, In-Classroom and Residency Workshop programs, and Teacher Institutes. These programs bring over 140 different New York City schools to the theater on 42nd Street. She also supervises 37 Teaching Artists who work with those students in the classroom to get them ready to see the vibrant productions on stage. In overseeing these artists, she plans and organizes trainings, professional developments and curriculum development sessions to create lesson plans for the In-Classroom workshop program. In addition, she develops teacher resource guides for select New Vic productions, that meet New York State learning standards and the strands from the NYC Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.

Lauren Brandt Schloss is the Director of Education at the Queens Museum of Art, where she oversees programs that serve more than 25,000 children each year. Before coming to the Museum, she was the Director of Visual Art Education at Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City. Lauren coordinates the ESP Schoolwide partnership between the QMA and PS 144 in Queens, and she is an active member of the ESP Regional Leadership Network for NYC elementary schools. She holds a Bachelor of Art degree in Art History from Princeton University, a Master’s degree is Arts Administration from Columbia University, Teachers College, and is finishing a Ph.D. in 20th-Century Art History at the Graduate Center of CUNY.

Arthur Brown is a long-time teaching artist (for 13 years), teacher trainer, facilitator, and now the President of Teaching & Training by Design, a Rochester-based firm that specializes in helping schools develop arts-based curriculum. He has served as an artist and consultant for several upstate school partnerships, including those involving Young Audiences of Rochester and Geva Theatre Center, and he is a skilled and practiced actor. He holds a Master of Science degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jackie Chang is the Program Director for Groundswell, an arts organization focused on using art as a tool for social change by bringing together professional artists, community organizations, and youth to collaboratively create public art projects in communities across NYC. Before joining Groundswell in 2007, she was the Arts & Special Projects Manager at El Puente, a Brooklyn community-based institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, focusing on developing the organization's Arts Initiatives, including the publication of the Integrated Arts Project Handbook documenting El Puente's nationally recognized approach to arts education at the El Puente Academy for Peace & Justice, a NYC public high school. Jackie is a graduate of University of California, Davis (B.S. Environmental Design, 1986) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA, 1989).

Amanda Dargan directs the largest folk arts in education program in the State. She formerly directed the folk arts program of the Queens Council on the Arts, co-curated an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, and conducted field research and presented artists for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She is an expert in folk narrative, visual folk arts, children’s folklore and folk arts in education.

Lori Diamond currently teaches 6th grade at P.S. 144 in Queens, where she has served since 1995. She has a background in theater and museum education, as well as arts in education, and she holds a Bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Wisconsin and a Master's degree in education from Queens College. P.S. 144 has been a long-time grantee in the ESP School-wide Arts program.

Reneé Flemings is currently the Director of Instruction and Curriculum Development for the Roundabout Theatre’s Education Department, where she helped to create the theatre’s Theatrical Teaching Framework. She has been actively involved in the arts and education fields for over seventeen years, working with organizations like the Creative Arts Team at NYU, Theatre for a New Audience, and EARS. She is a published playwright and an actor whose work has been nominated for several awards, including a New York Innovative Theatre award.

Russell Granet is a free-lance consultant in Arts in Education and was recently Director of Professional Development at the Center for Arts Education in New York City. Before coming to the CAE, he served as Director of Education at the American Place Theatre. He also developed and taught Drama in the Special Education Classroom I, II & III – a graduate level, required course for educational drama majors at NYU. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Emerson College, a Master’s degree in Educational Theatre from NYU, and a one-year certificate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Mike Halverson is the Assistant to the Executive Director at the Center for Arts Education in New York City. He recently served as Director of Programs for Stages of Learning, where his responsibilities included the recruitment, training, professional development and support of teaching artists; scheduling and implementing all program activity, and cultivating new school relationships. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Education from the College of William and Mary; he has also completed a three year doctoral (non-degree) study in Comparative Education at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Mike is also a filmmaker, writer and performing singer and guitarist and has created sound design for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival, the Budapest Academy of Drama and film, Living Room Productions theater company in Berlin, Germany, and Stages of Learning.

Ward Hartenstein is a composer, performer, instrument inventor, and teaching artist – most recently for Project UNIQUE, an arts in education-focused organization in Rochester. He has also worked as a teaching artist for the Intercultural Arts Program of the Rochester City School District and the Music Collaborative Program of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been instrumental in the development of Project UNIQUE’s ESP Schoolwide partnerships with two schools in the Rochester City School District. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts for the Rochester Institute of Technology.

William Kasuli is currently an Arts Supervisor for the New York City Department of Education. Mr. Kasuli has nearly 20 years of experience as a teaching artist, art educator, and arts administrator. He holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Cultural Diversity and School Reform, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Art and Psychology from Lehman College.

Michele Kotler is the Founding Director of Community-Word Project, a New York City-based non-profit organization that partners with schools on yearlong multi-disciplinary and literacy-based projects for elementary and middle school students. She is also an active teaching artist and served as a Teaching Artist Trainer for Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently a Trustee for the Association of Teaching Artists, and she holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan in Creative Writing and Poetry. She is an active member of the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and the ESP community.

Tim Lord co-founded DreamYard in 1994 with Jason Duchin. He is a graduate of Brown University, from which he received a B.A. in Political Science. Tim also received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) in San Francisco, California. He was a member of the acting company at A.C.T. before moving to New York City, where he has acted and directed at such theaters as the Jewish Repertory Theater, the Workhouse Theater, the Circle Rep Lab, Theater for the New City and many others. Since co-founding DreamYard in 1994, Mr. Lord has taught in public schools, in after school programs and in social service organizations. He is the founder of DreamYard's Family Theater Company of Survivors, a collaboration with St. Christopher's, Inc. a social service organization. The Family Theater Company presents theater pieces at conferences, other organizations and at state agencies across the country advocating for family reunification.

Frances Lucerna is the Executive Director of El Puente Academy for peace and Justice. She danced professionally for 13 years and founded the Williamsburg Arts & Cultural Council for Youth. She has helped to develop Brooklyn's most comprehensive Latino Arts and cultural Center, providing pre and professional training in five arts disciplines. She has served on a number of Boards and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Heinz Award for the Human Condition.

Glenn McClure is a composer, performer, and a master teaching artist. He has more than 15 years of experience in the field of arts in education and is currently involved with several school/arts organization partnerships in upstate New York. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY Geneseo, and he is the President of his own firm - McClure Productions. In addition, he serves as the President of the Board of the Association of Teaching Artists - a New York State service organizaziton that represents the teaching artist constituency.

Dr. David C. Meoli is the Principal of the John Philip Sousa Elementary School in Port Washington on Long Island. He has a background in music and holds a Bachelor's degree in music education from Duke University. He also holds a Doctorate in Education from St. John's University. Under his leadership, his school has implemented many sophisticated arts in education partnerships, some of which have received funding from NYSCA.

Stephanie Pereira has worked for arts in education programs such as Empire State Partnerships (ESP) and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE). While at CAPE, Stephanie was integral to developing new strategies for capturing evidence of teacher and student learning in arts integrated partnerships. She has capitalized on her activities as a curator, artist, and cultural producer to extend her commitment to arts education by developing user-centered elements of arts exhibitions and events. Foremost amongst these activities is the founding of the Little Arts Society, an arts adventure club dedicated to exploring new possibilities for user-driven museum programs. Stephanie holds a Master's in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Natacha Popovici has over a decade of experience producing her own art, as well as teaching a wide variety of disciplines in the arts - from visual arts to radio and video production and post-production. In recent years Natacha has been dedicated to combining her passion for the arts, her talents as producer, inspiring educator, leader and facilitator, working at the level of program management and staff development. Popovici has both created curricula and taught visual arts as well as media production to K-12, and digital editing to college undergrads - from after school programs all around NYC to classes at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her country of origin.

Amy Rosenfeld Poux is the Founding Executive Director of High Meadow Arts in Stone Ridge. Previously, she was the Founding Executive Director of Working Playground, a premiere arts in education organization in New York City. She has also directed and produced a number of plays in and around the New York metropolitan area.

Jill Rafferty-Weinisch is an arts in education consultant from Albany and was formerly the Education Director at Capital Repertory Theatre, where she conceived and administered programs that served nearly 20,000 students in the Capital region each year. She has a rich background in the arts and education, with more than ten years of theater administrative and arts in education experience. She administered Capital Repertory Theater’s ESP Schoolwide Arts partnership with the Harriet Gibbons alternative high school in Albany, and she is an active member of the Capital Region Arts in Education Roundtable and the Capital Region ESP Regional Leadership Network. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting from Adelphi University in Garden City.

Janine Scherline is the Coordinator for the Adirondack Arts in Education Partnership (AAIEP), a non-profit organization that offers a Local Capacity Building Arts in Education regrant program and regional Adirondack Arts in Education Roundtable and serves the northern New York counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton and Warren. She is also an active musician and is a member of the Adirondack Wind Ensemble, woodland Winds Woodwind Quintet, Key Winds Trio and serves as an adjunct member of SUNY Plattsburgh's music faculty instructing both applied clarinet lessons and the Clarinet Choir.

Godfrey Simmons is currently a Teaching Artist and a Producing Artist for the Obie Award winning Epic Theatre Ensemble, where he has worked on a Hard Heart with Kathleen Chalfant, Widowers' Houses, Beauty on the Vine, Have U Heard/Much Ado About Nothing, The Oresteia Project, Antigone-in-Progress, An Enemy of the People, Einstein's Gift, Hamlet. His Off Broadway credits include The Old Settler with Leslie Uggams (Primary Stages, Audelco Award), Betty's Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons), Fast Blood (Lark Theatre/Hansberry Project), Free Market (Working Theatre), Ice Island (Melting Pot Theatre). He was a Resident Professional Teaching Associate at Cornell University, 2003-2005 and an Adjunct Professor in Acting at Marymount Manhattan College, 1998-2000.

Susan Stonecash is the Grant Programs Director for Arts Education in Syracuse where she coordinates two of NYSCA's regrant programs and the AIE Technical Assistance fund. She has a background in education, having taught both first grade and English as a Second Language. She has also coordinated after school art enrichment programs in Syracuse.

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Capital Projects

Michael Ambrosino is a founding partner with the engineering firm Ambrosino DePinto and Schmieder. A mechanical engineer, Mr. Ambrosino has more than 30 years of engineering design and research experience in institutional, commercial and residential facilities. He has worked extensively with non-profit arts organizations, and is a frequent lecturer and contributor to various technical magazines and journals.

Kyle Chepulis has been a lighting designer for a number of theaters and museums across the country, including Primary Stages, Signature Theater, SoHo Rep, the American Craft Museum and Ellis Island. He has developed technical specifications for theatrical sound and lighting equipment. Kyle has been a panelist for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Council’s Capital Program.

Paul D'Ambrosio is Vice President of the New York State Historical Association and oversees all aspects of the Association and Museum’s exhibitions, collections management, research and conservation. He was a research fellow at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and has published and lectured extensively on a number of topics. Paul was chairman of the Council’s Museum Program Panel and has had experience overseeing capital projects at the Museum.

Jill Gotthelf is a senior associate with the firm Walter Sedovic Architects. She has degrees in both Architecture and Historic Preservation and has had extensive experience designing and managing preservation projects for both commercial and non-profit clients. Some of her better know projects include Eldridge Street Synagogue, the Grand Army Plaza Entrance to Prospect Park, Old Westbury Gardens, Gracie Mansion, and The American Museum of Natural History.

Lorna Hill is the Artistic Director and Executive Producer of Ujima Theatre Company, a year-round organization dedicated to producing plays from the African-American experience. She has directed plays at Ujima and several other theater companies in the Buffalo area and has taught theater and acting at the State College at Buffalo. She has also overseen a variety of construction projects at Ujima.

Randall Kramer is the founder and artistic director of MusicalFare Theatre, which produces both new musicals and revivals. Mr. Kramer has written the book, and music and lyrics for two works. He has directed a number of productions for his own company as well as theaters in New York City. Randy has initiated several community outreach projects to seniors and economically disadvantaged people. He is on the board of Amherst Symphony and is a former NYSCA Theater Panelist. He has had experience in capital expansion and renovation projects.

Nat Oppenheimer is a LEED Certified Structural Engineer (Principal) with Robert Silman and Associates, a structural engineering firm that has extensive experience working with arts organizations. Mr. Oppenheimer has experience working with historic preservation projects, including renovation of the Old US Custom House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. Other arts clients have included MOMA (The Design Store), The Yale University Art Gallery and The Brooklyn Museum. Nat also teaches at Parsons School of Architecture, Columbia and Princeton.

Gregory Shanck is managing director of Aaron Davis Hall, Harlem’s premier presenting organization,and has served as project manager and owner’s representative on the $26 million restoration of the Gatehouse, a landmark building that was converted into a flexible theater. Prior experience includes the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture in the Bronx and manager of the Manhattan Decentralization Program for the Cultural Council Foundation.

Patricia Snyder has served the East End Arts Council, a multi-arts center in Riverhead, in a variety of capacities (Director of Arts and Education and Visual Arts Coordinator) before taking over as executive director in 2001. As director she has overseen the expansion of the organizations’ programs and managed several capital projects, including the renovation of a carriage house for use as art studios. Ms. Snyder has a Masters Degree in Education and a background in visual arts. She is a frequent “auditor” for the Council’s Presenting Program.

David Taylor is an Associate Principal of Arup, an international design, engineering, and business consulting firm, and leads their Performing Arts Sector for the Americas. In the mid 1980’s he joined Theatre Projects Consultants an international theater design firm and the theater design for many awarding winning buildings, including The New Amsterdam, The Goodman Theatre in Chicago, the Kimmel Theater in Philadelphia and the Geary Theatre renovation for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Trained as a lighting designer, Mr. Taylor has extensive experience in lighting design for theater, music and dance performers and companies. He has also taught lighting design at Yale School of Drama and University of Connecticut.

Martha Van Burek is Executive Director of the West Kortwright Center, a multi-arts center in the western Catskills and is responsible for planning and marketing a performing arts series, which emphasizes contemporary, non-traditional artists, as well as workshops, exhibitions and arts in education activities. Having overseen the Center’s restoration projects, she is familiar with capital project planning, management and fundraising. She is a founding member of the New York State Multi-Arts Centers Consortium, has served as a panelist for the Presenting Organizations Program and has served as a panelist for the Delaware County Decentralization Program. She has been a board member for a number of local non-profit organizations.

Kaitsen Woo, an architect, has extensive experience in the field of preservation architecture. He has won several restoration and preservation awards for his work. Clients include: The Met Museum for the exterior restoration of the Cloisters, Historic Richmondtown, The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Russel Wright Design Center in Garrison The firm also works with private clients whose requirements include restoration and expansion of private homes. He has also served as a panelists for NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

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Dance

Frank Augustyn, fomerly a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, was appointed Director of Long Island's Adelphi University Dance Program in 2000. Subsequent to his 20-year dancing career with the National Ballet of Canada, he was a guest artist with the Berlin Opera Ballet and the Boston Ballet and also served as Artistic Director of the Ottawa Ballet. He has extensive teaching and consultative experience in both the U.S. and Canada. He is the author of two books and co-wrote, co-produced and hosted "Footnotes," a television series on the history and techniques of classical ballet for a general audience, which aired on BRAVO U.S. and BRAVO Canada.

Ronald K. Brown is a Choreographer/Artistic Director and founded his own Brooklyn-based company, Evidence, Inc. in 1985. The troupe has performed at numerous venues in NY (The Joyce Theater, P.S. 122, DTW, Aaron Davis Hall), as well as throughout the U.S. and abroad. The recipient of a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, Mr. Brown has created commissioned pieces for a variety of companies, most notably the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (his much acclaimed "Grace," premiered in 2000; and the 2001 "Serving Nia," for which the Ailey Co. received NYSCA Dance Program Commissioning funds). Mr. Brown has served on the Board of Dance/USA and he continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Blacks in Dance. His own work is rooted in modern dance but has strong African-ethnic influences. His interest in and knowledge of all forms of dance brings a valuable insight to the Panel process.

Gregory Cary, co-founder and Executive Director of the Kaatsbaan Dance Center in Tivoli, NY, is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied ballet, modern, folk dance, composition, dance history, etc. He has, over the years, functioned as a performer, teacher, assistant company manager (ABT), dance writer and respected auditor for NYSCA's Dance Program. In addition, he is an accomplished visual artist, having created over 50 major stained glass and glass sculpture works in private collections. Since 1991, he, along with his partner Bently Roton, has been very committed to the establishment of Kaatsbaan, which is located in an idyllic setting on the Hudson River, as a major dance venue--hosting creative residencies and performances encompassing all dance aesthetics. Mr. Cary's in-depth knowledge of dance, his administrative expertise and his familiarity with the upstate NY dance scene are of particular importance to the Panel process.

Gerald Casel is a graduate of The Juilliard School with a BFA in Dance (1991). Philippine-born, Gerald Casel has contributed to the NYC dance scene as dancer, choreographer, and teacher. As a performer, Mr. Casel danced in the companies of Michael Clark, Stanley Love, Zvi Gotheiner, Lar Lubovitch, The Met Opera, Sungsoo Ahn, and Stephen Petronio, where he was a member from '91-'98 and '01-'05 and served as Assistant Dir. and Dir. of Education. He continues to assist, re-stage, and coach Petronio repertory. As a teacher, Mr. Casel has taught at Movement Research, Dance New Amsterdam, Impuls Tanz Vienna, the School for Modern Dance in Denmark, Sarah Lawrence College, and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he is currently a full time faculty member. Mr. Casel founded his co., GERALDCASELDANCE, in 1998 and has since presented his own choreography throughout the U.S. Mr. Casel also holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was awarded a Bessie for performance in 1997.

Mary DiSanto-Rose has been on the faculty of Skidmore College since 1981 and is currently Chair of the Dance Dept. She is a scholar, teacher, performer, choreographer and restager of classic modern dance works. She has appeared as a guest artist with the Isadora Duncan International Institute and has been a guest lecturer at the National Museum of Dance, The Egg Theater in Albany, etc. Ms. DiSanto-Rose has been a longtime and active "voice" for dance in the Capital Region, serving on the Boards of the Saratoga/Albany Arts Alliance and Partners in Dance and is a recent addition to the N.Y. State DanceForce.

Debra Fernandez has been an Associate Professor of Dance on the faculty of Skidmore College for more than 10 years. She is also a freelance choreographer and has a number of theater and opera productions to her credit. For several summers, she has been in residence at the Williamstown Theater Festival, as both a movement instructor and choreographer. Ms. Fernandez's dance expertise embraces ballet, modern, and jazz. She is an avid observer of all of the dance activities in the Capital Region and also frequently travels to NYC, both to pursue choreographic projects and to attend dance performances.

Christian Holder began his performing career as a child in London, where he attended the Corona Academy Stage School. From 1966 to 1979, he danced as a leading member of the Joffrey Ballet, where he worked with such master choreographers as Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Kurt Jooss, and Leonide Massine. Mr. Holder has also choreographed and designed costumes for the Joffrey Ballet, Washington Ballet, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballet Theatre de Bordeaux, and American Ballet Theatre, as well as for ballerinas Martine van Hamel and Valentina Kozlova, and performers Ann Reinking and Tina Turner. As a pedagogue, he teaches ballet at Steps On Broadway, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and Peridance, in addition to the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Cedar Lake Dance.

Lawrence Rhodes' extensive experience encompasses that of a performer, artistic director, and arts administrator. He performed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and was a principal dancer with The Joffrey Ballet, the Harkness Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Eliot Feld Ballet. Over the course of his career, Mr. Rhodes has variously taken on the roles of Artistic Director of the Harkness Ballet; Co-Director for the Milwaukee Ballet; Chairman of the Dance Department at NYU Tisch; and spent ten years as Artistic Director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, where he was responsible for the commissioning of works by such celebrated artists as Balanchine, Kylián, Forsythe and Morris. In 2002, Mr. Rhodes was appointed Director of the Dance Division at Juilliard. His unique and multi-faceted accomplishments in the worlds of both ballet and modern dance give him a valuable insight much sought-after in Panel deliberations.

Pascal Rioult came to the U.S. on a Dance Fellowship from the French Ministry of Culture. In 1986, Mr. Rioult began dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company, and in 1989, while still a principal with the Graham Company, he presented his own work for the first time. Since 1994, when he founded Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, Mr. Rioult has focused his attention on the development of his ensemble and choreographic style. In addition to his own Company, Mr. Rioult's works have been performed by others in both the United States and Europe, including: Ballet de Geneve, Lithuanian National Ballet, Purchase Dance Corps, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, and Vassar Repertory Dance Theater. He has also received commissions from American Dance Festival, NC, Cal Performances, CA, and Theatre de Saint Quentin en Yvelines, France, among others.

Carlota Santana co-founded Spanish Dance Arts (now renamed Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana) in 1983 and has been tireless in her efforts to revive Spanish dance as a theater art--pushing its boundaries and commissioning new Spanish dance music. While Ms. Santana's special expertise is in the art form she practices, she is also knowledgeable about modern dance and ballet and attends performances of all dance genres. She is a member of the faculty of the Dance Departments of Duke University, New York University and Long Island University and has taught master classes throughout the U.S. Ms. Santana previously served on the Dance Panel (1995-1998), and her perspective always brought a valuable ingredient to the discussion.

Risa Steinberg is a Dancer, Restager, and Master Teacher. She has danced with the Jose Limon Dance Co. for eleven years. Subsequently, she gained renown as a Master Teacher of the Limon Technique and a restager of the Limon works. Since 1986, she has performed her evening of solos, "A Celebration of Dance," encompassing repertory spanning 100 years of dance, from the early modern dance pioneers to contemporary choreographers at venues throughout the world. Ms. Steinberg, who teaches on the faculty of Juilliard and Barnard, brings to the Panel discussions the voice of the individual artist, as well as her many years of dance experience as both a performer and acute observer of the dance scene.

Carol Walker Carol Walker has served as the Dean of the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College since 1984. Under her leadership, Purchase successfully hosted several Dance Program-funded Long-term Residencies. Though her early studies were in the modern idiom, she has an in-depth knowledge of all forms of dance, and her career has encompassed performing, choreographing, teaching and presenting. She has an understanding of both the upstate and New York City dance milieus and is a very frequent dancegoer. Ms. Walker's maturity, experience and discerning insight make her especially qualified to fulfull the role of Panelist.

Lois Welk has a wide range of dance experience as an arts admin/producer; choreographer; educator. From 2005-07, she served as the first salaried Dir. of the NYS DanceForce, having previously been involved as both Exec. Dir. & Art. Dir. of 171 Cedar Arts Ctr in Corning, NY. In addition, from 2003-06, she was Art. Dir. of The Yard, a performing arts colony in Chilmark, MA. Ms. Welk has developed & curated extensive dance series & residencies at 171 Cedar in Corning & at the Clemens Ctr in Elmira & has an in-depth knowledge of diverse dance aesthetics. Recently appointed Director of Dance/Philadelphia, she maintains a home in Corning, where she is Art. Dir. & Board Member of her own organization, American Dance Asylum, the fiscal conduit of the NYS DanceForce. As Dir. of the NYS DanceForce, she has traveled throughout the State, seeing a wealth of dance performances. Her informed observations of both the Upstate & NYC dance scenes offer a valuable perspective to the Panel process.

Cheryl Wilkins-Mitchell has many years of experience as a teacher, choreographer and dancer. She received her BFA in Ballet from the Dance Division at the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music and went on to study at the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey School. She has taught at Oswego State University for fourteen years, and is currently the President and Director of the Onondaga Dance Institute. Ms. Wilkins-Mitchell was recommended as a Panelist by Council Member David Ridings; her breadth of knowledge of the upstate Central NY dance community is a worthwhile addition to the Panel.

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Electronic Media and Film

Mahen Sophia Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival, Inc.(AFF), a non-profit arts organization founded in 1990. AFF showcases works of African filmmakers and develops ways to share the vision and culture of African film with American and international audiences. In her role as film liaison, she contributes to an interdisciplinary mix of panels and programs, including those established by the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ougadougou (FESPACO), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York State Council of the Arts, UNDP, Africa’s US diplomatic offices and the Rolex Arts Initiative Awards. AFF collaborates each year with the Film Society of Lincoln Center and BAMcinématek to produce the annual New York African Film Festival. Additionally, the organization curates a series of other film programs with a host of national and international partners.

Dorothea Braemer is the executive director of Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resources and one of five co-director of the experimental and award-winning media collective Termite TV (www.termite.org). She is a media artist whose work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Anthology Film Archive, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on PBS and festivals in the US and abroad. Originally from Germany, she received her MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia. Dorothea is also an educator who teaches workshops in video production, editing, and the production of zoetropes.

Kathleen Frascatore's eclectic career path includes copywriting, grants writing, news reporting, graphic design, events planning, fund raising, community development, advocacy, market research, and tourism – which are all a part of her current position of Executive Director at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts. During her 2-1/2 year tenure, the organization has experienced a notable turnaround, significantly increasing public and private funding streams; successfully completing its first capital campaign; doubling earned income and exceeding tuition and art sales budget projections by 20% last year; growing staff and benefits; and updating infrastructure and technology. Programming has grown to include city and county-wide collaborations.

Carlos A. Gutiérrez is co-founder and co-director of Cinema Tropical, Since its creation in 2001, Cinema Tropical has become the leading purveyor of Latin American cinema in the U.S. in twelve venues across North America. He has curated numerous film/video series, served as a consultant, juror, producer, panelist and guest lecturer, working with such institutions as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, BAMcinématek, Queens Museum of Art, Eyebeam,Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Museo Rufino Tamayo,and Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Hanson Film Institute and the Loft Cinema, LA, and a contributing editor to BOMB Magazine, writing extensively for the Spanish publication La Odificación, Cinemanía, Rizoma and Criteria. He holds an MA in Cinema Studies, NYU,and a BA in Communications from Universidad Iberoamericana.

Galen Joseph-Hunter is the Executive Director of free103point9, a non-profit arts organization cultivating Transmission Arts, experimental radio art, video, light sculpture, installation and performance utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum. Located Upstate and Brooklyn, free103point9 supports artists exploring transmission frequencies for creative expression. Galen has served as Executive Director since 2002, while working at Electronic Arts Intermixsince 1996. Over the past ten years, she has organized numerous exhibitions and events internationally including Video Jam (2001), FL; Video Windows (2001) at the Stefan Stux Gallery, NY; Interactions (2002), at the NY Center for Media Arts; Memory of Temptations (2002) at Edición Madrid, Spain; The Workshop of the Film Form, 1970-77 (2004), Airborne (2005), the New Museum of Contemporary Art; Spectral Garden (2006) Wave Farm; [silence] (2007), Gigantic ArtSpace NY; and Off The Grid (2008), Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY.

Simon Kilmurry will begin serving as the new Executive Director of American Documentary, Inc. in fall, 2006. He joined AmDoc in 1999 as Managing Director and became Chief Operating Officer in 2000. Before joining AmDoc, Kilmurry worked for ten years with Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W), a nonprofit literary arts organization and publisher, ending as Associate Director. He has served as board member and treasurer of Elders Share the Arts and East Harlem Block Schools. He currently sits on the board of directors of Teachers & Writers Collaborative where he serves as treasurer. He attended the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and Columbia University Business School’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management (Executive Program). Kilmurry has presented at a variety of industry venues including American University’s Center for Social Media, Downtown Community Television (DCTV), United Nations: Stories from the Field Festival, and the New York Film and Video Council.

John Mhiripiri is responsible for the overall administrative, building, and theatrical operations at Anthology Film Archives. As Director of Exhibitions, he is responsible for the programming and overall coordination of the public programs at AFA. For most of the last 10 years Mhiripiri has been an assistant to Robert Beavers, filmmaker and director of the Temenos Archive; served on the Board of Directors of the Film-Makers' Cooperative; and been an assistant to the Harry Smith Archives. Mhiripiri has also served on numerous film and media arts grant panels for government organizations and private foundations; as a jury member for several film festivals, film school showcases and the Student Academy Awards; and has presented public programs at film co-ops and festivals throughout the U.S. Mhiripiri has been with Anthology since 1995, and has worked with Super-8 and video since 1986.

Risa Morimoto is the former Executive Director of Asian CineVision, a NYC-based non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of media works by artists of Asian descent. She was the festival director of the NY Asian American International Film Festival in 2001 and 2002. Risa received an M.A. in film and education from NYU in 1999 while serving as the Associate Director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute. Risa is currently producing Cinema AZN, a cable television program on Asian film. She is the President of Edgewood Pictures, Inc., a motion picture production company. In addition to lecturing across the country, Risa has served on many juries/selection committees including POV, Tribeca All Access, IFP Project Involve, and IFP Gotham Awards.

Michael Neault was educated at Syracuse University’s Newhouse program and earned degrees both in Film and English Textual Studies. There, he founded a film society which is still operating to this day. The film society led to a job in film programming at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, where he is currently employed. As a representative of George Eastman House's Motion Picture Department, he has participated in the Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea; Orphans Film Symposium; A.M.I.A.; the Toronto Film Festival and the Programmer's Conference; and has actively worked with Home Movie Day since 2003. Michael also moonlights as a free-lance writer for the City Newspaper, and acts as the director and founder of Snore & Guzzle Press and Croquet Shows Booking cooperative.

William Phuan joined Asian CineVision (ACV) as Program Manager in 2004. He manages the annual Asian American International Film Festival, National Festival Tour and the Asian Cinevisions film series. William is also responsible for the operations and marketing directives of ACV’s programs. Prior to joining ACV, William worked as a Reference Associate at the New York University Bobst Library and as a journalist in Asia. William holds an MA in Cinema Studies from NYU.

Scott F. Propeack is Collections and Traveling Exhibitions Manager at the Burchfield Penny Art Center– Manage special collections projects, including the transcription of and web-presentation of Charles E. Burchfield’s journals. Curator of exhibitions both from permanent collections and borrowed works. Co-Curator of Signals from the Electronic Cloud, January 25-April 7, 2002, highlighting works from the Alfred Institute of Electronic Arts; incorporating video, print making and installation art produced by Faculty, Staff and visiting artists of the Alfred University. His work at Tele/Data Search included designing Access databases and reports for the tracking and matching of job candidates, corporate clients, and position requirements for a career placement agency. He is currently a board member at the Buffalo Media Resources and is involved at the New Media Consortium as a Buffalo State College Representative.

Jacqueline Shilkoff serves as Assistant Curator for the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, State University of New York. She has curated a five-part new media survey exhibition as well as modernist and contemporary exhibitions.

Kheli R. Willetts is an Assistant Professor of African American Art History and Film in the Department of African American Studies and Academic Director of the Community Folk Art Center, which is a community service based unit of the African American Studies Department. Dr. Willetts worked with a number of arts organizations including the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. As Academic Director of the Community Folk Art Center Professor Willetts, is responsible for developing diverse and dynamic programming including exhibitions, a film series including an annual film festival, guest lecturers and artist workshops. At Syracuse, she teaches survey courses in the areas of African American art history and film. Dr. Willetts is currently completing a new body of mixed media work. She holds an A.A.S in Studio Arts from F.I.T a B.F.A in Studio Arts, M.A. in Museum Studies and Ph.D. in Art Education from Syracuse University.

Christina Yang is Senior Manager of Public Programs at the Guggenheim Museum and works independantly as a curator, writer, art historian, and educator. At The Kitchen, she was Curator of Visual Art and New Media from 1999-2005 and Director of the Summer Institute from 2003-2005.

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Folk Arts

Polly Adema directs folk arts program serving Dutchess County. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Culinary Institute of America and has produced folk arts presentations and artists in the schools programs in Arizona, South Carolina, Wyoming, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. She is an expert in traditional crafts, festival production and school programming.

Manuela Arciniegas is the founding director of the Legacy Circle which trains teaching artists for community residencies, and instructs middle school youth in Afro-Caribbean drumming. She is a Social Justice Fellow at the Wagner School of Public Leadership at New York University. She is a former Assistant Director of Education of the Caribbean Cultural Center, and Outreach Director of Sustainable South Bronx. She is also a Dominican traditional drummer and musician and an expert in Caribbean and Latino traditions.

Jill Breit is executive Director of the major folk arts organization of the North Country, Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNYS). She has organized exhibitions and performing folk arts programs, and conducts field research about North Council folk arts. Prior to working at TAUNY, she coordinated a regatta of traditional canoes in Northern New York and served as field oral historian for Cherokee oral history project. She is an expert in visual folk arts and the folklore of Northern New York.

Susan Quan Chodorow is currently a consultant. She previously directed the folk arts program of the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, which documents and presents the folk arts traditions of Monroe County. She has served as the Northwestern Regional Consultant for the Northwestern Technical Assistance Initiative of NYSCA’s Special Arts Services Program and as Youth Programs Coordinator for the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester. She is the former Director of an artists management company and an expert in Asian traditions.

Eileen M. Condon directs community cultural initiatives for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. She was previously the Grants Manager and Program Coordinator of the New York Folklore Society, managing a statewide technical assistance program, organizing regional forums for the folk arts field, and teaching in a field school. Specialization in folk narrative, religious folk arts traditions and archiving. Prior to her current positions, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Catholic Thought and a Visiting Instructor in English at the University of Toledo.

Rachel Cooper is performing arts director at the Asia Society where she administers and produces traditional as well as contemporary music, dance and theatre performances and touring programs. She was previously the Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance and director of the Festival of Indonesia in Performance program. She founded and directed a Balinese music and dance company, and was co-chair of the Arts Presenters annual conference. Expertise in Asian music and dance.

Karyle Denison Eaglefeathers is an Assistant Professor at Empire State College, director of a project to document Cheyenne languages, and co-founder of the Catskills Folk Connection, an emerging regional folk arts center in her native Delaware County. Previously, she directed museum studies programs at Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis and Texas Tech University, served as Director of the Division of Cultural Resources of the State of Wyoming, and Director of Tribal Head Start of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. She has also developed a high definition video design studio and is an expert in Catskills regional and Native American traditions, museums and visual folk arts.

Reverend John Alexander Forrest, Ph.D. is a Juanita and Joseph Leff Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, former department chair of Anthropology, and Sociology; and formerly Academic Coordinator, MFA Program, Conservatory of Dance, S.U.N.Y. Purchase. He has served as Co-editor of New York Folklore and is an expert in traditional crafts and traditional dance.

Juan Gutierrez is the founder, artistic leader and Executive Director of Los Pleneros de la 21, a preeminent Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena music and dance ensemble. He is a percussionist and composer with a background in music education. He has served as an artist in residence in New York City public schools and is a recipient of the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

James W. Kimball is an expert in upstate regional music traditions and Polish traditional music. Currently a resident musician and musical advisor for Genesee Country Village and Museum, andconsultant for Genesee Valley Arts Council and Roxbury Arts Group, he also teaches at SUNY Geneseo and frequently presents lecture/demonstrations at local cultural and social service organizations about upstate folk music traditions.. He has conducted field research and organized presentations of Polish traditions at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. 

Clifton Matias founded and directs Redhawk Indian Arts Council, which produces festivals and educational programs of Native American culture. He is Cultural Director for Title 9 Native American Education for New York City and is a traditional craftsperson and dancer.

Jennifer Milioto Matsue is a faculty member in music, East Asian studies and anthropology at Union College, formerly visiting faculty member at Dartmouth and Kansai Gaikokugo Univ. in Japan, and the producer for concerts of non-Western music at Union College. She has a broad knowledge of American and non-western traditional music, with particular expertise in Asian music and cultures.

Catherine Ragland is a mentor at Westchester division of Empire State College. An ethnomusicologist, she formerly directed the folk arts program at the Brooklyn Arts Council, directed Mexican community initiative for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and produced traditional arts programs for Texas Folklife Resources and the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle. She was a music journalist for daily newspapers in Austin, San Antonio and Seattle, and is currently a consultant for the annual Mexican Day of the Dead program at Union Settlement House. She is an expert in traditional music and Latino folk arts.

George Ward is a folklorist with expertise in regional folk music and Adirondack traditions. He has produced recordings of traditional fiddling and organized concerts and festivals of North Country folk arts. He has held leadership positions in Black Crow Network and Old Songs, and chaired NYSCA Presenting Organizations Program panel during the 1980s.

Sherre Wesley, Ed.D. is a consultant in public policy and advocacy and Board Chair of the New York Folklore Society. Formerly a dance instructor, she has served as Deputy Director of Cultural Council Foundation and Executive Director of Dutchess County Arts Council. She is an expert in arts administration, dance and arts education.

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Individual Artists

Robert Ackerman (Playwright) grew up in Columbus, Ohio, received a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from Northwestern University, and now works as Prop Master for films, commercials, and Saturday Night Live. His first play, "Origin of the Species", began Off-Off Broadway and became an award-winniing independent film starring Amanda Peet. It was recently released by Monarch Home Video. His second play, "Tabletop", was produced by The Working Theater in New York and transferred to a commercial production at The American Place Theater where it received a 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Performance. His latest play "Disconnect" ran at Classic Stage Company in May and June of 2005 as the centerpiece of The working Theater's 25th Anniversary season. It will soon be published by Dramatists Play Service. A new work, "Airborn", was presented in the 2005 Octoberfest at Ensemble Studio Theater, and the next ones on deck are called "Loons" and "Gut".

Isabel Barton has lived in N.Y.C. since 1974, and in Hudson, NY since 1994. Her work has screen in Toronto, Canada, Amherst College, MA, Nora Haime Gallery, NYC, Woodstock Film Festival, Woodstock, NY, Film Columbia Festial, Chatham, NY, Kingston, NY, Hudson, NY, and Ithaca, NY. She has been published in Arts Alive Magazine, The Independent, THE Artful Mind, The Register, and Variety. She is a founding member of the Angel Conservation and a board member at Esto Photographics and Ezra Stoller's architectural photography agency.

Gregg Bellon is founder & Artistic Director of Production Consolidated, a production company founded on a holistic approach in the development of original work. He is a performer, irector, writer, designer, and stage manager and has worked on a range of off-broadway productions. He holds a Studio Certificate from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy , studied at the University of Florida and has served as a Linguistics Specialist in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Laura Caparrotti has a doctorate in Performing Arts from the University "La Sapienza" in Rome, and studied independently with Dario Fo, Annie Girardot and Elsa Wolliaston. In Italy she performed for over ten years in theater, with Giancarlo Cobelli, Mario Carotenuto, The Teatro Stabile di Torino, and many others. In New York Laura performed at the Kitchen with the Japanese company OM2 and in The Cosmic Legends Series. She directed and performed the following K.I.T. productions: at the Kitchen and at the Fringe Festival 1998 Black Paintings - a multi-media performance; Necklaces at the Abrons Art Center; Cabaret s'IL vous plait! and Una conversazione continuamente interrotta. In addition she was the guest curator in April 1998 at The Kitchen, for the Hybrid No 16th "No Peace Without Justice", the co-curator of "Fellini-Flaiano: a different take" at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' at NYU in February 2000, "Fellini and The Myth of I Vitelloni in Italian Cinema" in the States in the year 2003.

Laurie Chock began her career in radio news and actress, and then moved to television. During the 80’s, she was an award winning producer and host of a national weekly public affairs show on WPIX-TV in New York City and reporter and producer on the daily magazine show, Best Talk in Town. During her tenure “on air,” directed and hosted the primetime doc, Sticks and Stones, about ethnic identity and self-esteem. In the 90’s she focused on documentary production as the American producer for a number of Israel based documentaries, including: Murder in the Name of God about the Rabin assassination. This film won the NY Film Festival Silver Medal Award. Ms. Chock directed the PBS doc, Ironbound Ties to Portugal, which was distributed on the APTV Network to 150-200 stations and was nominated for a mid-Atlantic Emmy. Her most recent documentary is Thread, the story of five Afghan women transforming their lives through their sewing skills. It is screening at film festivals around the country.

Barry Crooks has written a number of plays including Sonora, Horror Vacui in Reverie Time, Closing Tine, The Ride, Armageddon Revue, The Hungry Man, Trakl, Article 58, and Les Enfants Terrible(adapted from Cocteau). His film credits include Night and Day and Unwritten Letter. He has performed with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Richard Elovich, Neolabus, and Eric Overmeyer. He has served as Co-Artistic Director of Theco Theater (1982-1990) and Co-Artistic Director of Orchard Theater (1997-Present). He received his B.A. From Pomona College in Anthropology and Playwriting.

Lizzy Cooper Davis is an Outreach Associate with StoryCorps (January 2006 - Present), Director of Audio Content & Contributing Editor at Collectanea.net, Editor of "Essays for Pleasure", an Actor and Playwriting Teacher at the 52nd Street Project, and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity, American Federation of Television and Radio. She has studied at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU, Duke Center for Documentary Studies, and Brown University. 

Abigail E. Disney is a filmmaker, currently finishing a feature-length documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It tell the inspirational story of the women of Liberia and their efforts to bring peace to their broken nation after decades of destructive civil war. She is also involved in producing a number of other documentaries with social themes, and is developing a four hour project for Wide Angle currently known as The Other Side of War. Abigail is Founder and the president of the Daphne Foundation, a progressive, social change foundation that makes grants to grassroots, community-based organizations working with low-income communities in New York City. She has played a critical role in a number of different social and political organizations, recently retiring as Chair of The New York Women's Foundations, of which she was a board member for over 14 years. Abigail also serves on the boards of the Roy Disney Family Foundation, the White House Project, the Global fund.

Liberty Ellman is London born, raised in NYC and San Francisco. He holds a B.A. in Jazz Studies from Cal State, Sonoma. He has toured with San Francisco Mime Troupe as member of accompanying ensemble for 10 original productions, scored the 30th anniversary production of Sam Sheppard's True West. He released an album of orginal compositions, Orthodoxy, in 1999. He has recorded and toured with Henry Threadgill, Greg Osby, Butch Morris, Oliver Lake and has performed at numerous jazz and new music festivals worldwide.

Ariana Gerstein began making experimental films in the 1990's as a graduate of the Cinema Dept. at Binghamton Univ. She left Binghamton to receive her M.F.A. in Filmmaking from the School of Art Inst. of Chicago on a Trustees Merit Scholarship. She taught in Chicago at Columbia College and the Academy of Art before returning to Binghamton University. Her independent works have included digital video, sculpture, installation and performance. Her films have been screened and awarded prizes at many festivals including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Charlotte International, San Fransicso Cinematheque, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Pacific Film Archives in Berkley, and other locations. She has received grants from the Illinois Arts Cncl. on the Arts, and the N.Y. Foundation of the Arts. Her current project is a feature length documentary. She was recently honored with a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship for this work. She is an Asst. Prof. in the Cinema Dept. at Binghamton U.

Leah Gilliam's current interests include the playful exploration of political movements that began in the 60s and 70s-such as black power and gay liberation-through creative projects such as games, videos and wearable devices. A former Associate Prof. of Film & Electronic Arts at Bard College, Ms. Gilliam is currently pursuing a master's degree in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Ms. Gilliam studied Modern Culture and Media at Brown Univ. (BA, 1989) and Film and Twentieth Century Studies at The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (MFA, 1992). Her 1999 computer-based installation Apeshit v3 was featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art's "Bitstreams" exhibition and her CD-ROM Split has traveled internationally as part of the exhibition "Contact Zones: The Art of the CD-ROM" Ms. Gilliam's video Apeshit was voted one of the "Best of 1999" by Film Comment and her 1995 video Sapphire and the Slave Girl was the winner of the "New Visions Video" Award.

Thomas Allen Harris' credits include "The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela" (Producer/Director/Writer), "In Our Own Image" (Co-Executive Producer), "E Minha Cara/That's My Face" (Producer/Director/Writer), and "Afro (is just a hairstyle)" (Producer/Director/cinematographer). He has been nominated twice for Emmy Awards, and is the recipient of a Guggen Fellowship (2003), Rockefeller Fellowship (2003), Best Documentary Award (OUTFEST, 2002), New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2002), and several NYSCA grants. He is a graduate of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and Harvard College.

Lezlie Harrison is the Assistant to Executive Director and Event Coordinator at The Jazz Gallery (1996-Present). She has worked previously with Karin Bacon Events and Country Road Clothing. She is a graduate of  the Univ. of Massachusetts. 

Cynthia Hedstrom currently works with The Wooster Group as the company's Producer. Hedstrom was the Programming Director of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven from its founding in 1996 to 2004. Prior to the Festival, she worked with the Wooster Group (1986-96) and Mabou Mines (1983-86). She was the Dance Curator for the Kitchen Center (1986-90) and the Director of the Danspace project at St. Mark's Church (1980-83). Hedstrom has been a panelist for the NEA and various state arts agencies, and is a contributor to Dance Magazine.

Cynthia Hopkins is a creator and performer of her own unique form of musical theater. She former the band Gloria Deluxe in the spring of 1999. She recently completed a new album of songs from 'Accident Nostalgia', an operetta about the pros and cons of amnesia, written, composed and performed by Ms. Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins has created and directed numerous music/theater pieces including two previous operettas: 'Bullseye (a lamentation of one sad night)'. She recently completed a composition called 'Song Before Love Songs (a post-apocolyptic requiem for the human race)' which was commissioned by Bang on a Can's ' People's Commissioning Fund'. Ms. Hopkins has composed and performed for many theater and film projects including Big Dance Theater's 'Antigone', 'Another Telepathic Thing' for which she won a 2000 Obie Award for performance and a 2001 Bessie Award for composition. She has worked with Gale Gates et al as both composer and performer on 'Tilly Losch', The Field of Mars.

Immy Humes is an independent documentary filmmaker from NYC with 20 years experience in film and television. Her work has won funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, NYS Council on the Arts, Soros Fund for Human Rights Documentaries, Robeson Fund, ITVS, Women in Film Finishing Fund, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her most recent film "Doc" is a portrait of her late father, Harold "Doc" Humes. The film features Norman Mailer, Timothy Leary and William Styron. It is about mental illness, drugs, and creativity, with a decades-long cultural history, from the Beats to the Reagan years and will air nationally on PBS series Independent Lens. As a work-in-progress, it was selected to open the Margaret Mead Film Festival. Her other films include: "A Little Vicious", "Lizzie Borden Hash & Rehash", "Wade Davis". Immy graduated from Harvard College with honors in Social Studies. She teaches Documentary at the Center for Worker Education at City College.

Vijay Iyer has been described in The Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years." He has released 10 highly acclaimed albums, including "Reimagining" with his quartet, "simulated Progress" with the trio Fieldwork, "Raw Materials" with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, and "Still Life with Commentator" with poet-performer Mike Ladd, which premiered at BAM. He performs worldwide, and has collaborated with artists such as Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Amiri Baraka, Butch Morris, Ethel, and Miya Masaoka. He received the 2003 CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts, the 2006 NYFA Fellowship, and project grants from the MAP Fund, NYSCA, Chamber Music America, Creative Capital, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, Arts International, and The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. He has been a faculty member at NYU, New School University, and the School for Improvisational Music. His writings have been published in "Music Perception".

Paula S Lawrence is currently Vice-President of the Starr Foundation. She is the Former Director of Performing Arts at Japan Society, where she produced and presented touring American debuts of traditional and contemporary Japanese performing arts. These have included, noh, kyogen, kabuki, and butoh. She initiated Theatre Now, the work of contemporary playwrights and directors from Japan and has also promoted collaborative efforts between Japanese, American and Asian performing artists through commissiojns and residencies. She served as Associate Director of Performing Arts at the Asia Society for 16 years, prior to Japan Society.

Jason Livingston is a filmmaker, programmer, and teacher currently living in Ithaca, N.Y. His award-winning films and videos have played in a wide range of venues, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Pacific Film Archive, New York Underground Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Media City and the Anthology Film Archives. His most recent film, Under Foot & Overstory, won the Jury Prize at the 2005 New York Underground Film Festival. It has been picked up for distribution by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. He currently teaches filmmaking at Ithaca College. He holds a M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature and a B.A. in Philosophy from Cornell University.

Shola Lynch is the Director and Producer of the 2006 Peabody Award-winning Chisholm '72. Unbought and Unbossed is Shola Lynch's directorial debut. She is currently developing and fundraising for a feature documentary project about Angela Davis. She has worked with Ken Burns and Florentine Films on the Peabody Award-winning Frank Lloyd Wright and on the Emmy Award winning Do You Believe in Miracles?; The Story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, an HBO Sports documentary. She holds a master's degree in American History from University of California, Riverside where she presented a thesis and an exhibition at the California Museum of Photography titled "How Far Have We Come? Past and Present Images of African Americans."

Rogelio Martinez is a Playwriting Instructor at Lincoln Center's Open Stages Program and has served as  an Associate Professor of Writing at Columbia University. His works have been produced at Area Stage in Miami, South Coast Rep. in California, Arena Stage in D.C., Mark Taper Forum in L.A., and Ensemble Studio Theater in NY. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and has studied at Syracuse University. 

James Matheson is the recipient of a 2000 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and has had music programmed by such organizations as the Chicago, Seattle and Albany Symphony Orchestras, American Composers Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Orchestra 2001 (Philadelphia). In December 2007, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will present the West Coast premiere of Matheson's Songs of Desire, Love and Loss, which was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered in October, 2004 as part of Dawn Upshaw's Perspectives series. Upcoming projects include a piano quintet for the Borromeo String Quartet, a multimedia chamber opera for Sequitur, and works for Antares, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and the Albany Symphony's Capital Heritage Project. He is Executive Director of MATA, which champions the work of young composers making their entry into the world of professional music-making.

Evangeline Morphos has produced 14 plays Off-Broadway, four of which have won Obie Awards. She has also served as Executive Director of Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Cherry Lane Alternative. Since 1989, she has been an Associate Professor of Theatre at Columbia University.

Diedre Murray brings a wealth of knowledge on presenting from the artist and presenter perspectives. She is familiar with jazz, blues, contemporary music and musical theatre. She has served as a curator for Performance Space 122, The YWCA at 53rd Street's Rooftop Concert Series and The Wooster Group's Visiting Artists Series. She has served on numerous funding panels and has received 2 Obie Awards (`99 & 2002) plus grants and awards from Meet the Composer, The Rockefeller Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Charitable Trust and The Jerome Foundation. Diedre has often been cited in the Downbeat Critics's Poll since 1984 and has released 4 recordings as a leader and is featured on over 50 other recordings. Diedre represents a person with knowledge of presenting and commissioning contemporary work.

Akemi Naito is a concert pianist and has been living in the United States since 1991. She is the recipient of awards and grants from numerous organizations including the New York Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and Aaron Copland. As a composer her works have been featured in music festivals around the world and her recordings are critically acclaimed as highly artistic.

Jacki Ochs  is a filmmaker, photographer and editor. She is an Associate Professor at SUNY Purchase's Film Conservatory and has served as a visiting lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University. Her film credits include Jazz Summit and 'Letters Not About Love'. Her photos have appeared in Downbeat Magazine, The Village Voice, Newsweek, and Swing Journal (Japan).

Stephanie Owens is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and curator whose work explores the relationship between materiality and representation. Addressed in video, painting, installation and writing, the notion of system failures is prominent in her work. As a designer and curator, Owens has created innovative projects that use web technologies to explore the legibility of local experience within global networks. Most recently, she curated a year-long series of digital art exhibitions entitled "PLACE - Network Technologies and Transcultural Experience" which opened at MediaNoche, the first digital art space in East Harlem, NYC which she co-founded in 2003. She teaches courses focused on the aesthetics of new media at Parsons in the Dept. of Design and Technology. She has an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited as an artist and designer in the U.S., Europe and Asia, most recently at the First Beijing International New Media Art Exhibition in China.

Augusta Palmer is a Filmmaker, Educator, and Journalist. She has taught film studies at Brooklyn College, Sarah Lawrence College, and at NYU. Her production credits include "The Hand of Fatima", "If You Succeed", "Journeying Home", and "B/Side". Her journalism credits include filmmaker Magazine, indieWIRE.com and TimeOut NY. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Claire Marie Panke is the Director and Producer of  "Liberty Street", a documentary short about a family whose front yard would come to be known as Ground Zero. Her other work includes "Chance to Grow", a documentary following three families in a newborn intensive care unit which aired on the Discovery Channel, and is currently airing internatiionally on National Geographic Television. She is the recipient of CINE Golden Eagle, the Roy W. Dean Film Grant Grand Prize, and a grant from NYSCA.

George Plank has directed, managed, or produced performing arts programs and events in the U.S. and overseas. Working as a Theatre Specialist for the U.S. Government, he has headed performing arts programs for American communities in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Japan. These included educational, multi-cultural, and international productions and events. He helped design new performing arts centers, constructed in Germany and Japan. In Belgium, he created a month-long International Performing Arts Festival that presented events from more than 30 countries. A resident of Tarrytown, NY, Plank commutes to USMA West Point, where he is in his third year as a manager in the Cultural Arts Branch of Cadet Activities, which includes West Point's 4,300-seat Eisenhower Hall Theatre. A member of Actors' Equity Assn (AFL-CIO), he has produced and directed productions on the West Coast and in St. Louis. He holds an M.A. in Theatre from UCLA.

Roberto Quezada is a Film, Video, and Website designer. He has Worked on over 50 theatrically released films as Assistant Editor, Director of Photography, Producer, and Screenwriter Founder and Editor of Indiewire website, a report on independent film production. Contributing Editor to AIVF's Independent Film and Video monthly magazine. He currently works as Director of Digital Media for Planned Parenthood. Resident of Pennsylvania, but works out of NYC and Washington DC. He holds a BFA in Film History and Esthetics from UCLA.

Birgit Rathsmann is a Filmmaker, Educator, and Curator. Her credits include screenings at the Spark Video International Festival (2004), the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival (2003), the Boston Womens' Film Fest (2003), and the Empire State FilmFest (2001). She has taught at New York University, the Pratt Institute, and Columbia College. She is a graduate of Columbia College, St. Andrews (Scotland) and is currently working on her MFA at Hunter College. 

Rob Reddy formed his first ensemble in 1989, a trio featuring legendary bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Pheeroan akLaFF. Rob Reddy has worked almost exclusively as a leader, with the exception of brief stints with Workman's Ensemble and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Soc. in the early 90's. For the rest of that decade, Reddy would helm a prototypical sextet called Rob Reddy's Honor System, documented on his first two recordings, 1996's Post-War Euphoria (Songlines Recordings) and 1999's Songs That You Can Trust (Koch Jazz) In Oct. 2006, he founded the Reddy Music lavel, and released his first recording in 5 years, A Hundred Jumping Devils, featuring a new sextet called Rob Reddy's Gift Horse, featuring Burnham, Richards, French hornist Mark Taylor , guitarist Brandon Ross and percussionist Mino Cinelu. The CD received critical praise and earned Reddy a commission from Chamber Music Amer. to write new music for the band, which he will premiere in late 2007.

Esther Robinson has a film and TV degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her award winning film "A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory" is currently in theatrical release in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada (with other territories pending). The film debuted at The 2007 Berlin Film Festival where it won the prestigious "Teddy" award for best documentary. From 1999 to 2006, Esther was the Director of Film/Video and Performing Arts for the Creative Capital Foundation and one of the principal architects of its innovative grant-making system. In 1998, Esther co-founded Wavelength Releasing, a company formed specifically to address new forms of content production, distribution, and exhibition. Wavelength Releasing partnered with esteemed companies such as CYBERSTAR-(a division of LORAL), Texas Instruments, The Independent film Channel, and others. Esther is the founder of ArtHome, a non-profit business that helps artists and their communities build assets and equity.

Brian Rogers is co-founder and Artistic Director of theater et al AKA The Chocolate Factory Theater, a not-for-profit ensemble theater company with its own 5,000 sq. ft. rehearsal/performance space in LIC, Queens. In addition to his own work as a director and video designer (his most recent project, GUN PLAY, opened in January 2006), Brian curates and produces an ongoing visiting artist program at The Chocolate Factory, providing space, technical assistance, and administrative support to artists working in a variety of disciplines including theater, dance, music, and multimedia.

Fernanda Rossi received her Master of Arts in Film Production from the University of Buenos Aires where she taught classes in Editing I & II, AVID and was an assistant teacher for Screenwriting I. As a story editor, or "documentary doctor", she consulted for Cronkite Productins and fellow independent filmmakers such as Jonathan Skurnik and Kathy Leichter for their ITVS funded documentary "A Day's Work, A Day's Pay". She has also consulted with "War Zone" director Maggie Hadleigh-West and with "Hoop Dreams" co-maker Frederick Marx. She hosts the bimonthly "Documentary Dialogues" at AIVF. Her column "Ask the Doctor" appears monthly at The Independent. Inventing a Girl: An Experience in Homeschooling, her latest documentary, premiered in June 2000 at the Contemporary Issues Film Festival. She has worked as an editor for eight years, from HBO to The Merrow Report on PBS and Nickelodeon's popular series Kablam. She is the Vice President of the Board of Directors of CineWomen New York.

Mark Russell currently curates performance series at the Public Theater. He served as Executive & Artistic Director of Performance Space 122 since 1983, programming over 300 events annually in the organization’s 2 theatres. Under his leadership the organization evolved from a low-tech rental hall into a professionally equipped, full production presenter renown for presenting multi-disciplinary, contemporary, non-traditional work. He created PS 122 Field Trips, a national touring program for non-traditional work. As an individual artist he is a theatre director and writer, with works including poetry, prose, and a one-act play that was produced at HERE in 1999. Mark is familiar with contemporary work in all disciplines and with many contemporary emerging artists.

Carl H. Rux is a Playwright, Performance Poet, and Recording artist. He published Pagan Operetta-- a collection of poetry and prose. His plays have been staged at National Black Theater Festival, mabou Mines, Tribeca Performing Arts Center and he is currently commissioned by Public Theater and the Foundry Theater for plays in development. Has performed at Nuyorican, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aaron Davis Hall, Lincoln Center, and numerous international venues. He is a graduate of Columbia University and a recipient of the 1996 Bessie Schomburg Award for Performance.

Rosalind Schneider is a video and installation artist. Her credits include DIVA (Digital Art & Video) Art Fair, River Fragmentations at Van Brunt Gallery, Wave Transformations Projected Video Installation, Before & After: Imagining Public Art in Westchester, River Meditations Projected Video Installation. She is a graduate of the Syracuse University School of Fine Arts, SUNY, Empire State College, and has studied with Morris Kantor at the Art Students League of New York.  

Dave Soldier (who is also Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Columbia) founded the David Soldier String Quintet in 1985, and has since made over 20 recordings. He has worked with Trisha Brown, Alvin Curran, David Byrne and Pete Seeger, and has orchestrated scores for the films "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "Basquait". Soldier's work has been commissioned by Paul Hillier, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the Walker Art Center.

Harley Spiller presents his international collections of menus, autographs, photographs, neckties, spoons, and more to inspire the lifelong love of learning that necessarily comes to collectors of integrity. He currently serves as both Administrator and Chair of the Board of Directors of Franklin Furnace Archive, advisor to the directors of the Cofeld Museum, Buffalo, and sits on the Board of the institute of Chinese Cuisine, Queens College. He has worked with Annenberg, Project Arts, Project Read, Project Create, Project Liberty. He is producing a new children's TV series with Auracana Media, Show Us Your Stuff.

Robyn Stein has previously worked with Pro-Media Communications, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the New York City Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Enterprises Ltd., and the Franklin Furnace Archive. She holds an MBA from the School of Management at SUNY Binghamton and a BFA from the University of Colorado.

Carolyn Tennant is the Media Arts Director at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. She served previously as the Video Archivist at HCAC. She has also served as Editor of the Video History Project at the Experimental Television Center since 2002. Ms. Tennant has also taught a number of courses at the State Univeristy at Buffalo. She is a graduate of  SUNY Buffalo, Hampshite College, and the Salt Center for Documentary Field Studies. 

Limor Tomer received a Bachelor's and Master's in Piano from Julliard. For 10 years, she performed solo concerts and orchestral engagements in U.S. Israel, and Europe. In 1993, she joined the staff at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, working with Harvey Lichtentstein on a variety of projects including restructuring of customer services and the creation of the BAM Rose Cinemas, and the BAM Cafe. Since 1998, has programmed the BAMcafe with an ecelctic roster of performers, including the recently lauched Sounds of Praise--a gospel brunch series. In addition, she has programmed Opera Goes Public at the Public Theater and a series at Soho's Exit Art. She has served as a panelist for the Mary Flagler Cary Trust and as a consultant for NYC 2012 and is curenntly Performance Curator at the Whitney Museum and Executive  Producer of Music at WNYC.

Jeanette Vuocolo is a former Presenting Program Panelist with a strong curatorial vision and a commitment to non-traditional and contemporary work. Her programming vision was exhibited during her 11 years as the Founding Producer of Performance on 42nd at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris. More recently she was a collaborator in the creation of the Warwick Arts Festival in Orange County, presenting contemporary work with community based residencies for Community 2000. Jeanette is a trained pianist and familiar with music, dance, theatre and presenting issues in both NYC and rural communities. Jeanette is a Senior Program Officer in Public Programs at the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Cecille Wasserman is President of The Cheswatyr Foundation which supports contemporary music, commissions and music education. They've initiated The Cheswatyr New Music Initiative with WNYC, Orpheus Ensemble and American Music Center to commission new works with built-in opportunities for multiple performances, broadcasts and radio promotions. On Feb. 4, 2006, a premiere of Brick, a new work by the composer, Marc Mellits, will be performed by Orpheus and broadcast from Carnegie Hall. In 2007 a new work by Ingram Marshall will have the same opportunity. Another Cheswatyr commission is a new work by Julia Wolfe for accordian and chamber ensemble to be performed on April 22, 2006 at Miller Theatre, Columbia Univ. She has also commissioned the song, How Slow the Wind, by Osvaldo Golijov, performed nationally by Dawn Upshaw. 

Artemis Willis is a Filmmaker, Programmer and Curator with a strong knowledge of history, theory, practice, and culture of independent media. Her programming credits include: "The Terror of the Situation": Hitchcock's Music; "From Russia With Love": An Evening with Marina Goldovksaya; "Leonard Bernstein on Film"; and "The Impulse to Preserve/Meet the Maker With robert Gardner and Phillip Lopate". Her film credits include "Peace and Pleasure"; "DA Feast" ; and "Smoke and Mirrors". She has previously worked for Studio 7 Arts in Cambridge and Checkerboard Film Foundation in NY. 

Lucy Winer is a Filmmaker, Producer, and Director. Her credits include NYSCA supported Kings Park (in production), Golden Threads 1999,  Positive: Live with HIV, Picture It!, Crown Hieghts We Call it Home, and a  museum installation for children by the Crown Heights History Project. She has served as an Adjunct lecturer in Film Studies and Production at Pratt Institute (1994), and Richmond College, CUNY (1982). She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Theater from SUNY at Stony Brook, and has done graduate work at the University of Toronto and Richmond College, CUNY.

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Literature

Esther Allen is the translator of more than a dozen books from French and Spanish, including José Martí: Selected Writings, which she edited, annotated and translated (Penguin Classics, 2002) and The Selected Non-Fiction of Jorge Luis Borges (Viking, 1999), co-translated with Eliot Weinberger (the volume's editor) and Suzanne Jill Levine, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism in 1999. In 2006, she was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2004, she was a co-founder of the PEN Translation Fund, which has since gone on to assist 43 translation projects, many of which have been published to considerable acclaim; she continues to direct the Fund's work. She is an assistant professor at Baruch College, CUNY, and the Executive Director of the Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University.

Harold Augenbraum is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation and former Director of the Mercantile Library of NY where he established the Center for World Literature. He is the recipient of 7 grants from the NEH and a Raven Award from the Mystery Wrtrs of Am. Mr. Augenbraum coordinated the national celebration of the John Steinbeck Centennial and taught U.S. Latino Literature at Amherst College. He has published 6 books on Latino literature of the USA and a translation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition for Penguin Classics. His co-edited edition of the million-word Encyclopedia Latina was published by Grolier/Scholastic, and in May of this year his translation and edition of José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere will be published by Penguin Classics. He is co-editing with Ilan Stavans Lengua Fresca, a new book on contemporary Latino literature, to be published by Houghton Mifflin in August, and editing the Collected Poems of Marcel Proust, to appear from Viking next year with translations by Richard Howard.

Carolyn Butts a former New York Post reporter, founded African Voices magazine in 1992 as an outlet for ethnic writers and artists. Ms. Butts' work has been published in many newspapers including the Amsterdam News and New York Times. Under her editorial direction, African Voices has published works by more than 500 emerging writers and visual artists. The magazine is a leading resource for colleges, high schools, libraries and community groups interested in introducing young people to contemporary literature by writers of color. Ms. Butts is a former Assistant Press Secretary for New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall. A talented arts organizer, Ms. Butts is the co-founder of the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series. She is the recipient of the NAACP Mid-Manhattan Branch's Women Making History Award 2000 and the Network Journal's 40 Under 40 Award (1999). She earned her B.A. in journalism from Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus.

Laurie Dean Torrell has 20 years experience in not for profit organizations including the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Literacy Volunteers and Planned Parenthood (CEO, Niagara Co). Since Fall 2002, Torrell has worked with staff and board to turn around a $135,000 operating loss and restore fiscal health and a balanced $350,000 budget, implement a new mission statement and strategic plan, focus operational direction, and launch new programs. In 2005, under Torrell’s leadership, Just Buffalo launched of a first-of-its-kind administrative collaboration with CEPA and Big Orbit Galleries, including a move to the Market Arcade in downtown Buffalo to share space with CEPA Gallery. Just Buffalo Literary Center, through unified efforts of the staff and board, has doubled membership, and increased earned income from 12% of total budget to 30%. The Board has committed to active participation in fundraising and is receiving training as part of the administrative collaboration. Torrell has a B.A. in English from SUNY Buffalo.

Ram Devineni is the founder and publisher of Rattapallax, the first international poetry magazine and press to include CDs with every issue and book. Poets published in Rattapallax include Breyten Breytenbach, Sharon Olds, Sonia Sanchez, Bob Holman, Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Joy Harjo, Anne Waldman, Kimiko Hahn, David Lehman. He is the creator and publisher of the first ebook magazine, POeP!, and FuseBox online magazine. He is dedicated to international and innovative poetry and culture and has coordinated Dialogue Through Poetry, global literary programs that support the principles of the United Nations. He has also produced the films, Sound Barrier (Amir Naderi) and Alabanza, a Pablo Neruda documentary.

Alvin Eng is a playwright, performer, and memoirist, currently adapting his monologue, The Last Emperor of Flushing, into a “faction” novel with support from NYFA. In 2007, he presented a commentary on NPR’s All Things Considered on NYC's ever changing cultural landscape, inspired by the Mets' penultimate Opening Day at Shea Stadium. He has performanced at La MaMa, Immigrants' Theatre Project, P.S. 122, Bowery Poetry Club, PACT/the A-Train Plays, and throughout the US. Honors include fellowships/grants from NYFA and the Corporation For Public Broadcasting. MFA/Musical Theatre Writing/NYU/Tisch SOA. Alvin is a proud Flushing, Queens native who currently lives in Manhattan. He was named after the Chipmunk cartoon character.

Elliot Figman  has served as Poets & Writers' Executive Director since 1981. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in English from Oberlin College in 1971 and earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Massachusetts in 1972. After teaching at the high school and elementary levels for four years, Elliot began work at Poets & Writers as a volunteer in 1977. He has served on the Board of Directors of Oberlin College and The Corlears School. Mr. Figman is also an accomplished poet; his book of poems "Big Spring" was published by Four Way Books in 2003.

Betsy Folwell has been a freelance writer since 1989 and a frequent essayist on the Adirondacks. She has written for the NY Times Travel Section, National Geographic Traveler and many other consumer magazines. She was a longtime Editor of Adirondack Life Magazine and has served as its Creative Director since Sept 2005, and is also a freelance editor. A current board member of the Adirondack Center for Writing, she was Director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts for eight years, and has taught at Paul Smith's College, St. Lawrence University, SUNY Plattsburg and on an NEA grant at the Ray Brook Federal Correction Institution. She is a winner of International Regional Magazines Association awards and of the Folio award for Editorial Excellence in 2001. She was a finalist for the Hellen Keller award in 2006. She lives in Blue Mt. Lake.

Eric Gansworth is a fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College. His works include Indian Summers (Michigan State Univ. Press), Smoke Dancing (Michigan State Univ. Press), Mending Skins (Univ. Nebraska Press), and Nickel Eclipse:Iroquois Moon (Michigan State Univ. Press). 

Alison Granucci is owner/president of Blue Flower Arts, Millbrook NY, representing critically acclaimed poets, authors, and speakers for readings and appearances. She produces the Spoken Word Series at The Guthrie Center, Great Barrington, Mass (housed in the old Trinity Church of Alice’s Restaurant fame), curating programs with actors and writers such as David Strathairn, Sam Waterston, Debra Winger, John Hockenberry, & Galway Kinnell. Formerly Executive  Program Manager for conferences at the Omega Institute, Ms. Granucci programmed and produced several national conferences, such as Women and Power and Fearless Living, with celebrities such as Alan Arkin, Frank McCourt, Jane Fonda, and the late Christopher Reeve and Spalding Gray. She also co-produced, with playwright Eve Ensler’s organization V-Day, a benefit concert at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem. A dancer for 30 years, Ms. Granucci performs improvisational dance with musicians and poets.

Bob Holman is the founder of the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC and of Bowery Arts and Sciences. He was producer of the PBS documentary series The United State of Poetry, is an internationally recognized performance poet and author of, among other titles, A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, and The Collect Call of the Wild. He was a co-founder of the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe and a central figure in the spoken word/poetry slam movement which has been adopted by young poets around the world. He teaches writing at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Jay Kaplan has been Director of Programs & Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Public Library since 2000 and is responsible for developing, planning and coordinating public programs at the Central Library and 59 branches of the nation's 5th largest public library system including the Books for Breakfast interviews with internationally noted literary figures including Margaret Atwood, Paula Fox and Calvin Trillin. He was Executive Director of the NY Council for the Humanities (1981-2000) and editor of NYCH's Culturefront magazine. He is a Board Member of NY Center for the Book, Brooklyn Borough President's Literary Council and has been a series editor for Syracuse University Press. He has taught at Columbia University, SUNY College at Geneseo, Seton Hall, Fordham, and Queensborough CC. 

Ron Kavanaugh is the Director of the Bronx Writing Center and Publisher of Mosaic Magazine. He was formerly Public Relations Director at the Bronx Museum. He is the founder of Mosaicbooks.com which markets books to African-Americans. He is also the project coordinator for a new online literary magazine, CROSSBRONX, published by the Bronx Council on the Arts, premiering Spring 2008.

Susan Kim Susan Kim is a playwright/ screenwriter/ children's writer and graphic novelist whose adaptation of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club premiered at Long Wharf Theater and has been produced around the world. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Farrar Strauss. She's written more than two dozen children's live action and animated children's TV series, as well as many documentaries and has been nominated for 5 Emmy awards. Her work has won the Writers' Guild award and the Cine Golden Eagle. She's the recipient of numerous commissions, and her play, Open Spaces, was winner of the Drama League of America's Outstanding New Play award. She's the author, with Laurence Klavan of two graphic novels, Germantown and The Fielding Course. She's a member of WGA East, ASCAP, & Dramatists' Guild and works with the Writers' Guild Foundation's DEAL project (Disability in Entertainment and the Arts Link). She teaches creative writing at Goddard College.

Pablo Medina is the author of ten books of poetry and prose. His latest collection of poetry is Points of Balance/Puntos de apoyo (Four Way Books, 2005). His most recent novel is The Cigar Roller (Grove, 2005/paper2006). He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. Medina is on the core writing faculty of Eugene Lang College, the New School for Liberal Arts, in New York City, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. He is workig on his fourth novel and collaborating with Mark Statman on a new English version of Garcia Lorca's Poet in New York, forthcoming from Grove/Atlantic in 2008. Currently, he is Visiting Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He spends summers at home in NYC.

Nancy Mercado is the author of It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot Productions) and the forthcoming Rooms for the Living: New York Poems. She was recently featured in Latino Leaders Magazine. She is a Contributing Editor and Writer for Letras Femeninas: The Journal of the Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica (Arizona State University) and former editor of Longshot Magazine and of If the World Were Mine, a children’s anthology published by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Her work has been anthologized frequently and has appeared in literary magazines such as: Columbia University’s City Magazine, El Boletin del Centro from Hunter College, GARE MARITIME (France), Brownstone Magazine, A Gathering of the Tribes, Drum Voices, The Paterson Literary Review, and Rattapallax 10.She holds a Ph.D. from Binghamton University-SUNY.

Bradford Morrow is the founder (1981) and Editor of Conjunctions Literary Journal, author of 5 novels including Giovanni's Gift, Trinity Fields, and The Almanac Branch. He is the winner of the Pushcart prize for short fiction and was nominated for the O. Henry Prize. He is a recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a Professor of Literature and Bard Center Fellow at Bard College and has taught at Princeton, Brown, Columbia and the Naropa Institute. 

Chad W. Post worked as a bookseller in both Grand Rapids, MI and Raleigh, NC before joining Dalkey Archive Press in 2000. He was named Associate Director in 2004 and oversaw all functions of the Press, including sales, marketing, publicity, and fundraising, in addition to traveling around the world to talk about translation issues. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the Reading the World program—a unique collaboration between independent booksellers and publishers of translations--and is a member of PEN America. Currently he is starting up a new imprint at the University of Rochester Press dedicated to publishing literature in translation, and is assisting in the creation of the University of Rochester’s translation program.

Benjamin Strader s Managing Director of the Blue Mountain Center, a residency program for writers and artists located in Hamilton Country in Adirondack State Park. He administers the annual admissions process for the 350 residency applicants – including processing applications, choosing the admissions committee and overseeing the selection process. In his 17 years living and working at Blue Mountain Center Ben has had the distinct pleasure of living in community with hundreds of writers and artists deeply involved in the creative process. Since 1999 he has been a panelist for the Richard J. Margolis Award -- a $5,000 annual award given to socially concerned authors of non-fiction and essays. He has served on the NYSCA Decentralization Grant Committee for Hamilton County. He hosted the Adirondack Center for Writing’s Adirondack Literary Awards in 2006 and 2007.

Stacy Szymaszek is the Director of The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and an active editor/ publisher. She previously served as Literary Program Manager and Education Coordinator at the Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, WI (2000-2005). Her works have been published in small presses and little magazines nationwide including Litmus Press, Belladonna Books, Eoagh:A Journal of the Arts, Chicago Review, Boston Review, Boog City, Aufgabe, Lungfull!

George Wallace, First Poet Laureate of Suffolk County (2003-2005), maintains an active poetry reading schedule at universities, festivals, and writers' groups worldwide, including the UK, California, Oregon, Oklahaoma and New England as well as in literary communities in Cherry Valley, Hudson and Woodstock NY and throughout Long Island. He co-hosts a poetry radio show at SUNY Stonybrook. he is the winner of the CW Post Poetry Prize, North Sea Poetry Scene Tribute Poet, Next Generation Beat Poet and is the editor of the Long Island Quarterly and PoetryBay online .

Rebecca Wolff was born in New York City in 1967. She attended Bennington College and the University of Glasgow before graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She received an MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa in 1993 and went on to study fiction writing at the University of Houston in 1994; in 1998 she moved back to New York City and founded the literary journal Fence. In 2001 Fence Books was launched and Wolff's own first book of poems, Manderly, was published; Wolff's second book Figment, was published by W.W. Norton in 2004. Wolff lives with her family in the Hudson Valley of New York, where she is a freelance editor and teacher.

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Museum

Heather Brady is the Head of Education at Isamu Noguchi Museum in Queens. An artist and educator, Heather Brady has also worked as Program Manager at Arts Genesis and as an educator at the Queens Borough Public Library, Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Museum of Modern Art. She has gained particular recognition for programs developed for young children, which are routinely cited as models for the field.

David Christman is the former Director and Professor Emeritus at the Hofstra University Art Museum in Long Island. David served as the Director of the Hofstra University Museum for 15 years. He taught on the faculty at the University beginning in 1962, serving as Dean from 1970-2005, with a background in art history and archaeology.

Anna D'Ambrosio is the Assistant Director and Curator of Decorative Arts at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute in Utica. Anna is a specialist in nineteenth-century decorative arts, and her exhibition catalogs have won national awards including the Victorian Society in America's Ruth Emery Award and the Historic New England Book Prize. She has taught in the Cooperstown Graduate Program as well as the Historic Deerfield (MA) Summer Fellowship Program.

Andrea Del Valle is the Director of Education at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Andrea’s experiences in museum education and technology include work at the Minnesota Historical Society as History Day Coordinator as well as Historical Interpreter, and as a Research Assistant at the University of Virginia where she worked on web page design and digital documentation at the Carter G. Woodson Institute. As educator at the African Burial Ground and Assistant Director for the Brooklyn College Educational Talent Search she worked with students and teachers, helping make connections with cultural assets of New York City.

Steven Evans is Dia Art Foundation’s Assistant Director for Beacon. An artist, writer, and curator, Steven has worked at Dia for nearly 20 years, beginning as Gallery Attendant before becoming Visitor Services Manager and then Operations Deputy. He oversaw renovation of Dia: Beacon and developed plans for the opening of that facility. Steven is the Dutchess County Arts Council’s Vice-Chair for Allocations and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ilene J. Frank is the Director of Public Programs and Education at the Schenectady Museum and Suits-Beche Planetarium. Ilene previously worked as Research Assistant at Historic St. Mary’s City in Maryland, and as Director of Public Programs and Community Outreach for the Rensselaer County Historical Society where she worked to increase that organization’s presence and relevance within

Elizabeth B. Jacks is the Executive Director of Cedar Grove, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill. Formerly Director of Marketing at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Betsy has served as a communications and marketing consultant for a number of arts non-profits in New York and Chicago. Cedar Grove is the historic home and studio of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School, and part of the Greene County Historical Society.

Stephen Long is the Executive Director at the Children's Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. Steve’s museum career began as an archives assistant at the Labor-Management Documentation Center in Ithaca and then as a collections technician at the Edison National Historic Site, in West Orange, New Jersey. For many years he worked at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum first as Program Coordinator, then Curator, and most recently as the Vice President of Collections and Education. He also serves on the board of the Lower Hudson Conference, has taught museum management at City College of New York and historic site interpretation at NYU.

Mei Mah is the Deputy Director of Educ