Kathleen Brennan – Kathleen Brennan is a Bay Area native who has been involved in the San Francisco arts community for the past seven years. Kathleen received her BA in Art History from the University of Washington and her MA in Curatorial Practice from the California College of the Arts. Her curatorial projects have been presented in San Francisco, York, Alabama and Tokyo, Japan. After finishing school she worked for a commercial gallery, but soon realized she was more interested in working for a non-profit arts organization, particularly in development. Kathleen worked at Intersection for the Arts as the Artists Resources Intern and is currently the Development Associate at Z Space. In addition to development, Kathleen also curates visual art for the Z Space gallery.
Stacy Bond – Stacy Bond is a public radio producer, engagement journalist and social media strategist, who helps public broadcasters integrate social media with their programming. She uses innovative content to engage new and existing communities, building social narratives that are informative, inspiring and entertaining. Stacy is the Executive Director of AudioLuxe, a non-profit production company that creates independent programming and conducts workshops for podcasters and aspiring journalists. Clients and project partners have included KQED in San Francisco, KTEH-TV in San Jose, the Exploratorium, Yahoo! News, Wired News, and The Pulse of the Planet.
Stacy has been producing radio for close to twenty years at both the station and network levels. She spent three and a half years as the producer of KQED’s “The California Report,” a statewide radio news-magazine heard by 825,000 listeners weekly. Prior to that, at National Public Radio in Washington, DC, she was part of the “Talk of the Nation” team that produced NPR’s Peabody Award-winning news coverage of the September 11th terrorist attacks. She is currently in the process of launching SonicSF, a public radio show about San Francisco. Learn more about the show at: www.sonicsf.org | www.twitter.com/sonicsf | www.facebook.com/sonicsf. Follow Stacy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stacybond.
Katherin Canton – Katherin was born in San Francisco, frequently moved between SF and Oakland as a youngster, and now calls Oakland home. As Operations Assistant at the Center for Art and Public Life at California College of the Arts, Katherin provides administrative support and, when needed, an extra hand, eye and questions. Katherin also works as Community Collaborations Director at Rock Paper Scissors Collective (RPSC), where she coordinates partnerships between RPSC artist’s and local non-arts organizations to allow equal access to arts education and opportunities to typically under-resourced communities. Katherin is dedicated to working towards opening education and arts opportunities to all communities to enable the Do It Yourself model of entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency through creative opportunities.
Mariko Chang – Mariko is originally from the eastside of Oahu, but moved to the Bay Area in 2007 to pursue academic and career opportunities in the arts. She is a full-time curatorial assistant of modern and contemporary art at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University and is also pursuing a combined Master’s degree in Museum Studies/M.B.A. at John F. Kennedy University. Mariko majored in Studio Art with an emphasis in painting at the University of Redlands and worked as a conservator’s aide and a curatorial assistant at the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
Karl Cronin – Karl Cronin is a cellist and composer who writes and performs art songs for solo voice and cello. His music is rooted in an ongoing physical investigation of the kinetic relationships he observes in nature, which he documents with his Somatic Natural History Archive. While performing as a singing-cellist is his primary passion these days, his curiosity has led to him wear many hats over the years. Highlights have included conducting neuroscience research on the effects of music on brain development at Harvard Medical School, coaching artists as a grant administrator at the New England Foundation for the Arts, managing contemporary dance companies (Misnomer Dance Theater, The Equus Projects), and producing music/theater productions and art installations with Karl Cronin Projects. Karl holds a BA in Music and Psychology from Boston College and currently studies music composition with Randy Craig. karlcronin.com
Michael DeLong – Michael DeLong is the Online Community Manager for TechSoup Global. In this role, he oversees a thriving online community gathered around nonprofits and technology. Michael is also a freelance writer and publicist focusing on the arts, events, nonprofits, and small businesses. His passion for nonprofits arts and communications has led him to hold seats and leadership positions on boards and committees for galleries and organizations, and to speak about social media at conferences. Michael holds a BA in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley.
Katie Fahey – Serving as the newly appointed Managing Director of the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco, Katie is currently exploring an alternative management model appropriate to the evolving circumstances of a small-scale, urban arts hub. A recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Master of Arts Administration and Policy program, Katie’s academic research dealt with artist rights-related issues and cultural policy. Her professional career in the arts has also been influenced by her studies in politics: she has served as an independent project manager for panel discussions and artist talks, in Development at the Art Institute of Chicago, worked in galleries, and has engaged in several curatorial initiatives. Katie previously held positions with the Cultural Attaché of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Her role as a conversational English instructor in Seoul, South Korea, also contributed to her ongoing professional and cultural development.
Joshua Hesslein – Josh is an integrated marketing professional, new to the arts management scene, though his roots in performance run deep, dating back to a small part in Oklahoma in first grade. He graduated with a BA in English from McGill University in Montreal and spent 11 years working as an account manager and strategist at advertising agencies, first in Philadelphia, then in Toronto. While in Toronto, Josh found he really enjoyed working with clients such as the Canadian Stage Company, National Ballet School, and the National Arts Centre. After moving to the Bay Area and working in digital advertising for clients like YouTube, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Neutrogena, Josh happily made the move arts-side and now directs marketing and development at the University of California’s Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. When not at the office, Josh can be found at home with his two sons.
Sasha Kelley – Sasha is a photographer that uses documentary, portraiture, and fine art photography to examine the Black experience. She is currently working on various projects including Repeating Conversations: Intro to Black, an ongoing portrait project rooted in exploring cultural detention and identity. Studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Sasha Kelley will obtain a Bachelors in Fine Arts, followed by a Masters in Art Education. As an arts professional she is the founder and chief editor of C-PROOF.ORG, an online entity focused on documenting and archiving creative elements within the ever building arts movements of the San Francisco Bay Area. Working with many artist, collectives, and grassroots organization she is determined to cultivate a sustainable community for emerging black artists.
Lex Non Scripta – Lex Non Scripta is a cut-paper artist, poster maker, illustrator, activist, and organizer. Often portrayed with a dash of irony and a smattering of sarcasm, Lex’s creative focus is heavily informed by social justice/practice/responsibility, transgressive politics, and self sufficiency in/critical investigation of the queer diaspora. Lex is co-founder of Aorta Magazine: for/by/about women and queers in the arts, resident artist at Million Fishes Arts Collective, and proprietor Argot Printshop, with prints that benefit radical, social justice, and community oriented projects and organizations. For the past several years, Lex has focused their energy on creating free, accessible, community focused queer art events, acting as a key organizer for the Mission Queer History walking tour in 2010, Bring Your Own Queer/BYOQ: a free art & music festival in 2009 and 2010, and Dirtstar 2011 in conjunction with the National Queer Arts Festival and Luggage Store Gallery/Tenderloin National Forest. In July 2011, Lex was awarded a residency at Signal Fire Arts in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. Lex is currently involved in planning and programming for the NQAF2012 and acting as support for a collaborative workshop series centered on art and social equity with Larkin Street Youth Services.
Julie Potter – Julie Potter is a dance artist, journalist, and arts manager interested in designing transformative performance experiences that connect art, artists, and audiences through well-examined curatorial approaches and community engagement. Currently the company manager for Liss Fain Dance, and a gallery guide at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Potter also conducts media projects for Mission District arts organizations such as the Red Poppy Art House and ODC School. She writes about the arts for publications including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, In Dance, Theater Bay Area Magazine, Dance/USA Journal, with contemporary art festival coverage for L.A.’s pop-up newsroom Engine28.com and Portland’s Willamette Week. In New York, Potter worked at The Juilliard School and Weber Shandwick Travel and Lifestyle Practice. She was a Fellow in the 2011 NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and the 2010 NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Dance. She was also awarded DCA’s 2010 Gary Parks Emerging Writer Scholarship and a 2008 Access Dance/USA Scholarship. Serves on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards committee, the Dance/USA 2012 Conference planning committee and formerly on Dance/NYC’s Junior Committee and NYJL’s Nonprofit Boards Clearinghouse. Julie earned a B.S. in dance and arts administration from Butler University. Read more about her projects at DanceFeast and juliecpotter.com.
Virginia Reynolds – Virginia works as the Education and Production Associate at San Francisco Performances and previously as the Education/Outreach Associate at ODC/Dance. She is a graduate of the University of Dayton receiving her Bachelor of Music and Master of Science in Education in Music Education. As an educator, Virginia is a firm believer the Arts should be accessible for students of all ages and through her work as an instructor for the American String Teachers Association’s String Project Program, Centerville City Schools, University of Dayton’s New Horizon Band, and as coordinator for the educational programs at ODC/Dance, she has brought arts education to students and community members Pre K through 85 years of age. Virginia is a recipient of the Professional Achievement Award from The National Association for Music Education.
Photo by Samantha Cooper
Danielle Siembieda – Danielle is an art service provider and creative entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her most recent project, “The Art Inspector” was conceived in 2009 as a method to reduce the carbon footprint of art. She recently received a grant from the Silicon Valley Energy Watch to conduct energy assessments on artist’s studios and take them through an eco-art makeover. Siembieda has a MFA in Digital Media Art at SJSU at the CADRE Laboratory for New Media with a focus on green technologies, sustainable materials. Additionally she is the Community Engagement and Special Projects Manager for ZER01: The Art and Technology Network. One of her most recent titles is the New Media Curator of a innovative partnership between San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts and East Bay’s CalShakes. In this position she is responsible for providing visual and technical support for the online presence for new audience participation. She is also the Program Manager for the residencies of the San Jose Climate Clock Initiative, a collaborative public art project to make an iconic landmark measuring climate change and influencing public behavior. Siembieda recently ended her third term as Managing Editor of one of the pioneering online academic new media journals, SWITCH. siembieda.com
Alyson Sinclair – Born and raised in South Carolina, Alyson moved to San Francisco in the fall of 2010 by way of Minneapolis and Brooklyn. As an undergrad at the College of Charleston, she managed a local record store and volunteered at the Gibbes Museum of Art where she was a mentor in their Poets and Painters Program for 3 years. She has worked for the literary magazines Conduit and Crazyhorse. She was also a founding editor for Dislocate and obtained long-term funding and national distribution for the journal, which she’s happy to say is still in effect. In NYC, she was a Publicist at the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux and worked on publicity campaigns for David Mamet, Ishmael Beah, Seamus Heaney, and many other authors. Recently, she was the Publicist for the first annual county-wide poetry festival O, Miami, which took over Miami for the month of April with an amazing mix of programming—from Merce Cunningham dancers to multi-lingual poems on public transit. She is currently the Marketing and Publicity Manager for City Lights Publishers. As one of this year’s EAP Fellows, she is looking forward to connecting with local arts organizations and building new relationships.
Colleen Stockmann – Colleen Stockmann is an artist and curator from the Midwest. After studying studio art and art history, she moved to San Francisco where she acquired a library card and art studio before a job. As the artistic director at the San Francisco Center for the Book, Colleen planned letterpress and bookbinding courses, curated exhibitions, and cultivated the capable volunteers. In order to focus more on curating exhibitions, Colleen began working at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM). Currently she works as a curatorial associate at the CJM and serves on the Imprint committee (publication arm) of the San Francisco Center for the Book. Moving forward, Colleen intends to create accessible avenues for new audiences to approach contemporary art while elevating the integrity of new work. She lives in San Francisco where she also grows vegetables, walks sensibly, and draws fastidiously.
