TACA Perforum | A Conversation to Advance Arts & Culture
2021 TACA Perforum
REIMAGINE: The Future of the Arts
Monday, November 15, 2021
4:30 to 8:00 p.m. CT (Livestream begins at 5:00 p.m. CT)
On The Levee in the Dallas Design District
1108 Quaker Street, Dallas, Texas 75207
Topic Description
The arts and culture community is generally struggling with the dynamics of the pandemic, the Nation’s racial justice reckoning and the sheer weight of uncertainty and change.
Who’s thriving in this new emerging world? How are traditional arts institutions – museums, symphonies, regional theaters, presenters, and producers adapting and disrupting? What is the role of the artist within this new landscape? How does innovation look at this moment and into the future?
Panelists & Moderator
Ilknur Ozgur
Founder & Director, Artstillery (Dallas, TX)
Ilknur Ozgur (she/her) is the Founder & Director of Artstillery, a non-profit immersive performance art company based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2016, Artstillery aligns with community partners to produce and present creative narratives based on artists’ lived experiences that explore issues of racial, cultural, and social injustice.
Originally from Chicago, Ozgur started her artistic journey in partnership with artists wanting to create solo original works. She collaborated with powerful writer/performer, Nancy Moricette, on “Jaspora: Imitation Haitian,” a production that toured the New York International Fringe Festival. She also workshopped original pieces by writer Suzan-Lori Parks within Puerto Rican communities in Chicago with Urban Theatre Co. Working alongside Miguel Pinero at Nuyorican Poets Cafe (New York City), she produced his works as immersive experiences inside small, street-facing urban spaces. As a university instructor of Performance Art and Communications, she has shared her varied experiences with students developing interpretive pieces for national performance competitions.
Ozgur has proudly served as a Cultural Commissioner for the City of Dallas, representing District 6, and is a current resident on the TACDC Creative Place Making Task Force under the NEA. She is also an artistic liaison to Dallas City Homes, leading the creative place-making initiatives at 723, a warehouse in West Dallas.
Ozgur’s work is grounded in rhythms from Hip Hop, Rap, Street Poetry, and Community Narratives. She believes in shattering hierarchical structures found in traditional spaces and is committed to developing diverse, self-sustaining artistic ecosystems for people from all backgrounds, skill sets, and passions.
Lauren Ruffin
Co-Founder, CRUX (Albuquerque, NM)
Lauren Ruffin (she/her) is co-founder of CRUX, an immersive storytelling cooperative that collaborates with Black artists as they create content in virtual reality and augmented reality (XR). Founded in 2017, CRUX is the only company focusing solely on bringing XR artistic content from Black creators to mainstream users and audiences. As co-founder, Lauren focuses on creating an organization with core principles that are rooted in liberation movements, as well as anti-racism and anti-oppression, and works closely with partners as they create original content and immersive experiences to delight audiences and expand their digital footprint. Partners include the International Documentary Association, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, New York Live Arts, Urban Bush Women, and Black Public Media.
Over the course of her career, she has become a “Jane-of-all-trades” for small and mid-sized enterprises in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. The hallmark of her work is a willingness to take calculated risks, an interest in scaling businesses using innovative organizational mechanisms, and her ability to secure capital for projects from non-traditional sources.
Lauren is currently the interim Chief Marketing Officer of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), where she focuses on amplifying the stories and activism of the YBCA community. Prior to joining YBCA, Lauren was co-CEO of Fractured Atlas, the largest association of independent artists in the United States. She frequently speaks on a diverse range of topics including ethics in technology, the digital divide, organizational development and culture, racial bias, and economic justice.
Lauren graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Political Science and obtained a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. She is on faculty at New York University, teaching an Arts and Entrepreneurship course, and has served on the governing board of Black Girls Code as well as the advisory boards of ArtUp and Black Girl Ventures.
Robert van Leer
Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington D.C.)
Robert van Leer (he/him) began his arts administration career in the programming office at Lincoln Center mentored by two icons of the arts administrative field: Bill Lockwood and Jane S. Moss. From 1996-2011, as Head of Music and Arts Projects at the Barbican Centre in London he oversaw concert hall’s transformation into a leading creative center, commissioned celebrated artists across genres, and presented performances of these commissions in the concert hall as well as at partner venues across the UK.
Between 2011 and 2013, as Managing Director of Nederlandse Dans Theatre, he re-envisioned the mission of the company as a leading creative ensemble whose primacy is investing in the work of visionary choreographers. He delivered the NDT’s first-ever strategic fundraising plan, increased revenue three-fold, and produced a series of live global cinema broadcasts.
After a professional break to earn a Masters in Garden Design, van Leer focused on strategic cultural consulting as the managing Director for Wonderbird UK in London.
In 2015 he was tapped by President Deborah Rutter to join the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the newly-created position of Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning, where he coordinates the programming of the Center and its resident companies, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, to establish a unified artistic vision for the nation’s busiest performing arts center and living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Since the 2019 opening of the Kennedy Center’s first-ever expansion, the REACH, van Leer has also led the artistic programming for this transformative addition, with flexible indoor and outdoor performance space designed to nurture new art, community, and informal encounters between the artist and the public.
van Leer holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University, and certifications from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, and the Inchbald School of Design.
Clyde Valentín
Director, SMU Ignite/Arts Dallas: A Center for People, Purpose + Place (Dallas, TX)
Clyde Valentín (he/him) is a producer, creative entrepreneur and cultural strategist with over twenty years of executive experience managing start-up organizational environments and multidisciplinary projects and live events. Born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He is the Co-founder and former Executive Director of Hi-ARTS (formerly known as the Hip-Hop Theater Festival). He is the inaugural Director of Ignite/Arts Dallas: People, Purpose + Place the community engagement initiative at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. The mission of Ignite/Arts Dallas is to challenge the imaginations of students and citizens to envision more just and vibrant communities through art and culture experiences.
In 1995 he co-founded Stress Magazine, a pioneering Hip-Hop arts & culture publication, first as its Senior Editor and then as its Director of Operations. Clyde was a 2015 Community + Culture Fellow of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program. Valentín is an advisory committee member of the Latinx Theater Commons and has served as a consultant or panelist for numerous national arts organizations including Howlround, Creative Capital, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), YouthSpeaks/Brave New Voices, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Theater Communications Group (TCG), the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), the Knight Foundation, the National Performance Network (NPN) and AlternateROOTS. He most recently joined the Local Advisory Board for Year-Up DFW and he serves on the Boards of Texans for the Arts, the only statewide advocacy organization for public funding in the Arts in Texas and the Trinity Park Conservancy, which is building the 200-acre Harold Simmons Park in the heart Dallas, Texas, on the Trinity/Arkikosa River.
Featured Artists
Vicki Meek
Vicki Meek (she/her), born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a nationally recognized artist who has exhibited widely. Meek is in the permanent collections of the African American Museum in Dallas, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana, Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Serie Art Project in Austin and Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was awarded three public arts commissions with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Art Program and was co-artist on the largest public art project in Dallas, the Dallas Convention Center Public Art Project.
Vicki Meek currently spends time as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of USEKRA: Center for Creative Investigation, a non-profit retreat for creatives in Costa Rica founded by internationally acclaimed performance artist Elia Arce. She is also Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s at-large appointment to the Arts and Culture Commission and the Public Art Committee. Meek is represented by Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas, Texas.
RonAmber Deloney (aka DJ Skinpolitik)
RonAmber Deloney (she/her) is a DJ, poet, and educator from Dallas, TX. A Fulbright alumnus to Germany, she works in project management and digital skills training and is completing a doctorate in Global Training and Development with NorthCentral University. In her free time, she enjoys exercising, traveling, and planning spoken word projects with her Berlin based band The New Night Babies.
Jonathan Norton
Jonathan Norton’s (he/him) work has been produced or developed by Actors Theatre of Louisville (44th Humana Festival) Dallas Theater Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pyramid Theatre Company, PlayPenn, Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Kitchen Dog Theater, Soul Rep Theater Company, African American Repertory Theater, Undermain Theatre, Theatre Three, and South Dallas Cultural Center, National Performance Network, and National New Play Network. Jonathan’s play Mississippi Goddamn commissioned and produced by the South Dallas Cultural Center was a Finalist for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and won the 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award given by the American Theatre Critics Association. Other awards include: Artistic Innovations Grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, South Dallas Cultural Center Diaspora Performing Arts Commission, the TACA Donna Wilhelm Family New Works Fund, TACA Bowdon Family Foundation Artist Residency Fund, and the Jubilee Theatre’s 2019 Eastman Visionary Award. He serves as Playwright in Residence at the Dallas Theater Center.
Michael Lagocki
Michael Lagocki (he/him) is an artist and facilitator with over two decades of experience helping organizations visualize important strategic conversations. His clients include some of the largest companies and best known speakers in the world. People talk about smart things and he draws engaging pictures to capture the experience. You can find out more about Michael and his work at MichaelLagocki.com.
COVID-19 Safety Information: To make Perforum as safe as possible, we are requiring guests to show a valid ID paired with either proof of COVID-19 vaccination (physical card or photo of card acceptable) or proof of a negative test result within 48 hours of the event. Masks will be required while indoors except while eating or drinking. If you are unable to abide by these conditions, we encourage you to tune into Perforum virtually through our livestream. Thank you for understanding.
About TACA Perforum
TACA Perforum is an annual, community-wide arts symposium designed to advance a collective vision for what a thriving arts and cultural community can look like for Dallas and North Texas. Through a conversation facilitated by expert panelists, we seek an infusion of ideas to consider debate, explore, and possibly adapt and develop for implementation locally.
Since 2009, TACA Perforum has served as a forum to both identify and address needs in the North Texas arts community. The New Works Fund (2012), the North Texas Cultural Co-op (2013), the Artist Residency Fund (2015) and the TACA Perforum: Amplifier Workshops (2015) are programs that have been launched by TACA to meet needs identified through Perforum.
2021 TACA Perforum Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor
Artist Sponsor
Program Sponsor
James & Gayle
Halperin Foundation
Donna Wilhelm
Family Fund
Kate & Keith Newman
Jim & Joleen Chambers
Media Partner
With Additional Support From
Host
2021 TACA Perforum Committee
Clyde Valentín, Chair & Creative Director
Director, Ignite/Arts Dallas at SMU Meadows School of the Arts
Sara Cardona
Visual Artist
Executive Artistic Director, Teatro Dallas
Teresa Coleman Wash
Founding Artistic Director, Bishop Arts Theatre Center
Zenetta Drew
Executive Director, Dallas Black Dance Theatre
Erica Felicella
Artist and Producer
Executive Producer, AURORA
Anne Marie Gan
Interim Business Operations Manager, City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture
Megan Heber
Executive Director, Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas
Nitashia Johnson
Multimedia Artist and Educator
Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Juanita J. Craft House
Tara Lewis
Board Chair, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Terry D. Loftis
Donna Wilhlem Family President & Executive Director, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Deborah McMurray
Board Member, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Founder, CEO & Strategy Architect, Content Pilot
Greg Oertel
Senior Programs Manager, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Ilknur Ozgur
Founding Member, Artstillery
Darryl Ratcliff
Artist, Poet, and Cultural Organizer
Co-Founder, Gossypion Investments
Co-Founder, Ash Studios
Maura Sheffler
Director of Programs, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Jeremy Strick
Director, Nasher Sculpture Center
Elizabeth Wattley
Executive Director, Forest Forward
Donna Wilhelm
Board Member, TACA – The Arts Community Alliance
Explore Past TACA Perforum Conversations
Relevance, Relationships & Reimagining
Presented on Monday, October 26, 2020 | 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. CST
Moderated by Dr. Zannie Voss, Director of SMU DataArts
There may not be a more critical year in modern history than 2020. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on America’s arts sector with revenue losses to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations at an estimated $10.2 billion as of August 3, 2020. Additionally, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color has ignited a powerful push for racial justice and equity in all sectors, including arts and culture. 2020 is also a Census year and an election year!
What does relevance look like in the arts and culture sector given the landscape we are living in? How do we take advantage of the moment to deepen and leverage relationships with individuals and communities? How can we reimagine what our work looks like in order to best serve our community? With the help of three change-making leaders across the country, this year’s virtual TACA Perforum symposium will explore these questions and the role arts and culture can play to increase relevance, deepen relationships, and reimagine our future.
2020 TACA Perforum Panelists & Moderator
DeAnna Cummings
Arts Program Director, McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, MN
DeAnna Cummings joined the McKnight Foundation in June 2020 as Arts program director. Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, McKnight invests in the arts and other sectors to support the state’s working artists and advocate for the value of their work.
Cummings is a co-founder and served as the CEO of Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA), a social enterprise business in north Minneapolis that trains and employs historically underestimated youth as a springboard to higher education and careers in art and design. Established in 1995 as an after-school program in the North Side’s Sumner-Glenwood neighborhood, JXTA has become one of the most important cultural institutions in the Twin Cities.
Prior to cofounding JXTA, Cummings served as a program officer for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and as a senior administrator for the Council on Black Minnesotans, since renamed the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage.
Cummings has served on the Bush Foundation’s board of trustees since 2013. She is a 2016 Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Women in Business awardee and a Minnesota Public Radio 2013 Arts Hero. From 2016 to 2018, she was a DeVos Institute Fellow in the selective fellowship program in arts management at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a master’s in public administration from Harvard University and studied sociology and psychology at the University of Minnesota.
Maria López De León
President, CEO and Board Member, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), San Antonio, TX
María López De León is the President and CEO of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC). In 2013, President Obama appointed Ms. De León to serve on the National Council on the Arts. In 2012 and 2013, she was named among the nation’s Fifty Most Powerful and Influential People in the Nonprofit Arts.
Under her leadership, NALAC developed and launched three grant programs: NALAC Fund for the Arts (NFA), that supports Latino artists and organizations; Transnational Cultural Remittances (TCR), that supports artists and organizations in the U.S., Mexico and Central America; and NALAC Diverse Arts Spaces, that supports organizations to expand their Latino programming to diverse audiences and outreach to diverse communities. She has directed 16 editions of the renowned annual Leadership Institute and six convenings of the Latino Arts Advocacy Institute in Washington, DC; directed the convening of six NALAC National Conferences and dozens of Regional Arts Training Workshops across the country. Under Ms. De León’s leadership, NALAC completed production of Visiones, a six-part documentary series on Latino art and culture for PBS and development of accompanying education curriculum distributed to over 35,000 schools.
Ms. De León serves on the board of the First People’s Fund, the Performing Arts Alliance, and the Hispanic Leadership Agenda and is an advisory council member Women of Color in the Arts and the National Latino Media Council. She studied Journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Kathy White
Chief Financial Officer, The Atlanta Opera, Atlanta, GA
Director of Finance of The Atlanta Opera since 2018, Kathy White is an executive financial manager who has built high performing teams in all areas of accounting and finance for governmental agencies, non-profits, higher education institutions, and for-profit entities. She appreciates the positive impact of the arts on the broader community. Most recently, Kathy served as Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Andrew J. Young Foundation, Kathy managed all aspects of the Foundation as well as the finances. She applied her leadership skills to a variety of projects ranging from providing funding opportunities and training for farmers who played essential roles in the Civil Rights Movement to coordinating the development of a Strategic Plan for the Foundation.
Kathy also served as the Assistant Director for the Center for Urban Education at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. The Center brought equity-mindedness to institutions of higher education through socially conscious research, tools, and learning institutes. It helped faculty, administrators, and staff better understand the harmful effects of invisible forms of racism on their campuses.
Dr. Zannie Voss
Director, SMU DataArts, Dallas, TX
Dr. Zannie Voss is Director of SMU DataArts as well as Professor of Arts Management in the Meadows School of the Arts and the Cox School of Business at SMU. Previously she was a Professor at Duke University and Producing Director of Theater Previews at Duke, a professional theater company dedicated to the co-production of new works. She served as managing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, associate manager of the Alley Theatre, and worked in audience development for Center Theatre Group. Research consulting clients include the League of American Orchestras, the Irvine Foundation, Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Communications Group, where she has co-authored Theatre Facts since 1998. Her published research on the strategic factors that influence organizational performance appears in over a dozen academic and practitioner journals.
Voss serves on the boards of the International Association of Arts and Cultural Management, TRG Arts, and TACA. She is co-author of the book Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Commission on the Arts.
Featured Musical Guest
The Grays
The GRAYS, three remarkable siblings from Dallas, Texas with several years of versatile experience in creative & performing arts. Kierra, KJ, and Kwinton Gray were all separately nominated for the 2019 Dallas Observer Music Awards. This family continues to build rapport of excellence together and apart, both locally and abroad. The Grays are also frequent musicians at the Dallas Theater Center.
Art Matters! The Arts Relevance in Contemporary Culture
Monday, October 28, 2019
Nasher Sculpture Center & Crow Museum of Asian Art
Moderated by Zannie Giraud Voss, Southern Methodist University
Arts and cultural organizations across the country are striving to increase their footprint of relevance, appeal and representation in an often-indifferent world. How can we be more proactive and nimble as we seek to matter more to more people? With the help of three change-makers leading innovation in our field, this year’s TACA Perforum will explore the arts’ relevance in contemporary culture and examine the value of learning, journalism, and inclusion in the arts.
2019 TACA Perforum Panelists & Moderator
Eduardo Díaz
Director, Smithsonian Latino Center, Washington D.C.
Eduardo Díaz is the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and a 30-year veteran of arts administration. Díaz is responsible for the management and delivery of exhibitions, public and educational programs and the Latino Center’s Latino Virtual Museum.
Previously, Díaz was the executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M. Before joining the NHCC, Díaz managed a private consulting firm that served arts institutions and agencies, statewide advocacy groups and community-based organizations. From 1981 to 1999, Díaz served as the director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Antonio.
Díaz earned a law degree in 1976 from the University of California at Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in 1972 in Latin American Studies at San Diego State University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
Elizabeth Méndez Berry
Director, Voice, Creativity and Culture, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY
Elizabeth Méndez Berry directs the Nathan Cummings Foundation’s Voice, Creativity and Culture portfolio, focusing on the foundation’s investments in the arts, pop culture and media. Prior to joining Nathan Cummings, she worked at the Ford Foundation, on its journalism portfolio, and then at the Surdna Foundation, where she led the Artists Engaging in Social Change portfolio.
Before working in philanthropy, Elizabeth was an award-winning journalist and cultural critic whose work appeared in Vibe, the Village Voice and the Washington Post. In Jay-Z’s book Decoded, he cites one of her essays as inspiring a line on the song “P.S.A.” from The Black Album. Her work has been included on syllabi at colleges around the country, and she has lectured at Princeton, Texas A&M, Harvard and Jackson State.
She has been an adjunct professor of music journalism at New York University and is a recipient of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellowship in Cultural Journalism from the New Journalism Foundation in Cartagena. Elizabeth holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.
Mike O’Bryan
Director, Youth and Young Adult Initiatives, The Village for Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia, PA
Mike O’Bryan is widely recognized as an expert practitioner and thought leader in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and trauma-informed practices. Since 2015, O’Bryan has served as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Initiatives at the Village of Arts and Humanities, a nonprofit headquartered in North Philadelphia.
O’Bryan is currently a Corzo Fellow at The Corzo Center for The Creative Economy at The University of the Arts and an Innovation Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation in support of a startup venture focused on the advancement of behavioral skills and equity in the field of workforce development.
Prior to that, O’Bryan spent more than a decade working directly with underserved populations — including veterans, adults in recovery, returning citizens, youth impacted by the foster care and juvenile justice systems, and families experiencing homelessness — and as a consultant and advisor for multiple nonprofits, businesses, and local government agencies.
O’Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of the Arts and a certificate in Childhood Trauma Studies from Jefferson University.
Dr. Zannie Voss
Director, SMU DataArts, Dallas, TX
Dr. Zannie Voss is Director of SMU DataArts as well as Professor of Arts Management in the Meadows School of the Arts and the Cox School of Business at SMU. Previously she was a Professor at Duke University and Producing Director of Theater Previews at Duke, a professional theater company dedicated to the co-production of new works. She served as managing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, associate manager of the Alley Theatre, and worked in audience development for Center Theatre Group. Research consulting clients include the League of American Orchestras, the Irvine Foundation, Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Communications Group, where she has co-authored Theatre Facts since 1998. Her published research on the strategic factors that influence organizational performance appears in over a dozen academic and practitioner journals.
Voss serves on the boards of the International Association of Arts and Cultural Management, TRG Arts, and TACA. She is co-author of the book Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Commission on the Arts.
Meeting Community Needs
Monday, October 29, 2018
Nasher Sculpture Center
Moderated by Zannie Voss, Director of SMU DataArts
Across the country, arts organizations are actively seeking to broaden their relevance, appeal and reflection of America’s changing demographics. As the population continues to shift around us and we seek out ways to become and stay engaged in our community, it begs the question, “How are we meeting the needs of our community?”
This year’s TACA Perforum will explore this question and the idea that when we better understand and take into account the attitudes, behaviors and needs of those in our community, we do a better job with the content and delivery of our programs. In doing so, we create offerings that better meet people’s needs and interests and increase our relevance in the community.
2018 Panelists
Carlos Contreres
Director of Marketing & Innovation, City of Albuquerque, NM
Carlos currently serves as the Director of Marketing and Innovation at the City of Albuquerque. Contreras is a Kellogg Community Leadership Network Fellow, and Masters Student in the Department of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Currently, on hiatus from a post as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chicano/a Studies, Contreras is a community organizer, small business owner, artist, father, and human being. Contreras works daily to try and make the community he lives in, a better place for everyone who lives there too. He is a published author, and National Champion performance poet, working to create space for artists in Albuquerque, in ways that don’t exist. He believes that Art is Economic Development and Community is in Collaboration.
Jon Hinojosa
Artistic & Executive Director, SAY Sí,
San Antonio, TX
Jon is an artist masquerading as an arts administrator who serves as the Artistic | Executive Director of SAY Sí, a national award winning, creative youth development program for urban students. The tuition-free program encompasses 6 distinct multidisciplinary arts programs, including visual, performing, film, and game design. SAY Sí is situated in a 26,000 square foot facility in San Antonio’s Cultural Arts District. Jon has presented and facilitated learning at numerous conferences and symposia on the value, tangible evidence, and the transformative power the arts have on urban youth. Jon also serves as a trustee for the National Guild for Community Arts Education, helping lead their Creative Youth Development initiative. He hopes his legacy will be inspiring and educating the next generation of our nation’s creative leaders.
Elizabeth Merritt
VP of Strategic Foresight, AAM & Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums
Arlington, VA
Elizabeth is the Alliance of American Museum’s Vice President for Strategic Foresight, and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums – a think-tank and research & development lab for the museum field. She is the author of the AAM’s annual TrendsWatch report, and writes and speaks prolifically on the trends shaping the future of nonprofit organizations. (M.A. Duke University, B.S. Yale University, Museum Management Institute.)
Ken Tabachnick
Executive Director, Merce Cunningham Trust
New York, NY
Ken has a long diverse career in and around the arts. He is currently the Executive Director of the Merce Cunningham Trust, where he oversees all operations and strategic planning. Prior to that, Ken worked as a consultant on strategic planning and other organizational matters, independently and as a Senior Associate at AEA Consulting. From 2013-2016, he was Deputy Dean at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, after serving as the first Dean of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, Before joining academia, Ken was the General Manager at New York City Ballet (NYCB), which followed a long career as a lighting designer – Ken still lights for Stephen Petronio with whom he has worked for more than three decades – and as an intellectual property attorney. Ken lives in New York City with his wife and holds a third degree black belt in Taekwondo, which he teaches weekly.
Cross Sector Collaboration: Intersections between Arts Organizations and the Broader Arts Ecology
Monday, October 23, 2017
Nasher Sculpture Center
Moderated by Zannie Giraud Voss, Southern Methodist University
There is no discipline that nurtures the ability to imagine, sparks creativity and innovation and stimulates action more than arts and culture. So it should come as no surprise that many artists and arts organizations are joining together with social, health, education and other sectors in creative intersections to advance shared goals in their communities.
This year’s TACA Perforum will examine instances of these partnerships happening across the nation and why they are important. There will also be an opportunity to discuss ways in which we can fuel further successful collaborations in North Texas.
2017 Panelists
Cézanne Charles
Director of Creative Industries, Creative Many
Detroit, MI
Cézanne Charles is a designer, curator and researcher working on design, technology, social justice and public policy for future-making. Cézanne is the Director of Creative Industries for Creative Many Michigan and co-leads the design and implementation of Creative Many’s creative industries research efforts. Cézanne also directs Creative Many’s programs providing the knowledge, funding, networks and advocacy needed to empower the practices of artists, designers and designer-makers within the state. Programs under her direction include the Kresge Artist Fellows Professional Practice Opportunities program and the Resonant Detroit granting program that supports artists/collectives doing place-based work in Detroit at the intersection of social justice and impact.
Cézanne serves on the Detroit Creative Corridor Center UNESCO Detroit City of Design Stewardship Board and the Board of Directors of Allied Media Project. She recently curated the ShiftSpace exhibition and pop-up café as part of the 2017 Saint-Étienne International Design Biennale.
Lauren Kelley
Executive Director, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
New York, NY
Lauren Kelley is the Director and Chief Curator of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in Harlem, New York. As an integral–and founding–member of the senior staff since 2013, Lauren has played a key role in the strategic growth of the organization in developing the Museum’s curatorial and public programs as Associate Director or Curatorial Programs. Since the Museum’s opening in October 2015, she has organized all of its art exhibitions of established and emerging artists, as well as artists with ties to Harlem and Northern Manhattan. In addition, she has been instrumental in elevating the Museum’s outreach efforts to the artist community, most notably by spearheading the Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program.
Prior to growing the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum, Lauren served as founding curator of the first fine art gallery at Prairie View A&M University in Texas for eleven years. Her artwork has also been on view at The New Museum, NY, The Kitchen, NY, LACE, LA, and the 2016 Parisian Film Festival’s “Cinema Different” an experimental film screening at the Pompidou Center.
Josephine Ramirez
Arts and Culture Strategist and Cross-Field Innovator,
former Arts Program Director & Portfolio Director, The James Irvine Foundation
Los Angeles, CA
Josephine Ramirez is a senior leader in the arts nonprofit sector. Her work focuses on the impact of arts and culture: how they contribute to the development of stronger, healthier communities, and how they help us to understand one another and to live better together. She most recently was the Arts Program Director at The James Irvine Foundation, leading an initiative aimed at benefiting more of California’s diverse and low-income communities. Josephine also initiated Irvine’s inclusion as one of the original funders of ArtPlace America.
Before joining Irvine, Josephine was Vice President of Programming and Planning for the Music Center in Los Angeles, where she founded and launched a major program initiative that increased active arts participation and provided arts experiences that embraced and reflected immigrant communities and culture. Previously, she was a Program Officer at the Getty Foundation. Also at the Getty, she was Research Associate at the Research Institute, creating and implementing a multiyear investigation of the connections between art making and civic participation.
Susan Saloom
Military and Veterans Arts Initiative Field Specialist, ational Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military, Americans for the Arts
Washington D.C.
Arts & Health in the Military (NIAHM) at Americans for the Arts. She began her work in the DC offices as an AmeriCorps VISTA member from 2014-15, sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary’s Call to Service Corps. Through the National Initiative, Susan continues working with military, medical, and arts sectors to advance the arts in the health and well-being of our active duty service members, Veterans, their families, and caregivers, across the military continuum, from deployment to reentry and reintegration. Susan believes that accessibility to the arts is key to building resilience and healing the mental, physical, and moral wounds of war.
Susan is a “military brat,” former Art teacher, certified Memories in the Making facilitator with the Alzheimer’s Association, and a member of the board of Arts For Health Florida. She is currently working from the Northeast Florida region.
Community Connections: Models for Building a Shared Vision for Arts and Culture
Monday, October 24, 2016
Nasher Sculpture Center
Moderated by Zannie Giraud Voss, Southern Methodist University
2016 Panelists
D. David Brown
General Manager, Cultural Access Washington
Seattle, WA
D. David Brown joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as Executive Director in May of 2000. Mr. Brown’s career in ballet began more than 30 years ago as a dancer in the corps of Boston Ballet. Moving quickly through the ranks of the company to principal, he danced many roles including several ballets premiered at Boston Ballet. In 1981, upon retiring from active performing, he moved to Director of Production and then served in the role of General Manager from 1983-1998. He was most recently its Executive Director until June 1999, when he left to pursue arts consulting.
Upon his arrival at PNB, Mr. Brown quickly set about strengthening the administrative staff, guiding PNB’s strategic plan implementation and refining the financial management and budget processes. While forging a strong working partnership with new Artistic Director Peter Boal, Mr. Brown continued to strengthen the organization and better prepare it to support its artistic vision. His background provides the unique perspective of both artist and manager, and his experienced leadership quickly became one of PNB’s greatest assets. Mr. Brown retired from PNB in June of 2014.
Having served as Interim Executive Director for Cultural Access Washington, a non-profit whose mission is to ensure sustainable public support for Cultural, Scientific, and Heritage organizations throughout the state, he currently serves as its General Manager. Mr. Brown currently serves as the Chairman of Culture PAC, a non-partisan political action committee that supports issues of importance to the cultural community in Washington State.
Mr. Brown has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance and is a past chair of the Dance/USA Manager’s Council. He has also served as a Trustee of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) Retirement Plan & Health Fund in New York, NY as well as a Trustee of the Theatrical Stage Employee’s Local 15 Health & Welfare Trust in Seattle. He is a past President of the Washington State Arts Alliance and a past member of the Washington State Arts Commission.
Carlton Turner
Executive Director, Alternate ROOTS
Atlanta, GA
Carlton Turner is the Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional non-profit arts organization based in the south supporting artists working at the intersection of arts and social justice. He is co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling.
Carlton is currently on the board of Appalshop, First People’s Fund, Imagining America, and an advisory member to the National Theater Project at New England Foundation for the Arts. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education, a steering committee member of the Arts x Culture x Social Justice Network, and former Network of Ensemble Theaters steering committee member.
In 2011, Carlton was awarded the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater by Irondale Ensemble Project in Brooklyn, NY. In 2013, Carlton was named to the Kennedy Center Honors Artist Advisory Board alongside Debbie Allen, Maria De Leon, and Ping Chong. M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a recipient of the 2015 Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre recipient.
Karen Brooks Hopkins
President Emerita, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Senior Fellow, Mellon Foundation
Nasher Haemisegger Fellow, National Center for Arts Research
New York, NY
Karen Brooks Hopkins served as President of the Brooklyn Academy of Music from 1999 until her retirement in 2015, and was an employee of the institution since 1979. Hopkins served as the chair of the Cultural Institutions Group from 2002-2004, a member of the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission and, most recently, on Mayor de Blasio’s transition committee. In 2013, Crain’s named her one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in New York,” and in 2014 she was one of ten selected into its inaugural “New York Business Hall of Fame.” Hopkins serves on the boards of the Jerome L. Greene and Alexander Onassis Foundations, and is currently Senior Fellow in Residence at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fellow of the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) at Southern Methodist University.
P. Carl
Co-Artistic Director, ArtsEmerson
Director and Co-Founder, HowlRound
Boston, MA
P. Carl is the the Director and co-founder of HowlRound—a think tank and knowledge commons actively making community among theatremakers worldwide through online resource sharing and in-person gatherings. Carl is also the co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson at Emerson College where he develops, dramaturgs, and presents an eclectic array of theatre from diverse artists from around the globe. Operating from the core belief that theatre is for everyone, Carl seeks to use the power of live performance in concert with opportunities for international dialogue and activism to foster personal and political transformation through the shared experience of art. Carl is a Distinguished Artist in Residence on the Emerson faculty, and a frequent writer and speaker on the evolution of theater practice and theory. He is the former Producing Artistic Director of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, the former Director of Artistic Development at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and holds a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota.