SPEAKERS
 

Ellen Bar, Director of Media Projects, New York City Ballet

Ellen Bar attended the School of American Ballet starting at the age of eight and was asked to join the New York City Ballet as a corps member in 1998. She danced featured roles in classic works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, and was promoted to Soloist in 2006. As a child, Ms. Bar danced as a Candy Cane in Emile Ardolino’s feature film of The Nutcracker with New York City Ballet; as an adult she appeared in the feature film Center Stage directed by Nicholas Hytner and created an animated character in Barbie of Swan Lake. While dancing full-time, she earned an Associate’s Degree in Business from Penn State University. With fellow NYCB soloist Sean Suozzi, Ms. Bar created and produced a modern day scripted film adaptation of the 1958 Robbins ballet “NY Export: Opus Jazz,” which was shot on location in New York City in 2009. The resulting feature film, NY Export: Opus Jazz, won an Audience Award at the 2010 South by Southwest Festival, aired on PBS’ Great Performances series, and has gone on to air in 8 countries, as well as appearing in 37 film festivals and 37 nonprofit cinemas in 71 countries around the world. In May of 2011, she retired from her 13-year career as a professional ballerina and is now Director of Media Projects at New York City Ballet.


Monica Bill Barnes, Artistic Director and Choreographer, the Monica Bill Barnes & Company

Monica Bill Barnes is a New York City based choreographer and performer. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Ms. Barnes moved to New York in 1995 after receiving her B.A. in Philosophy and Theater from the University of California at San Diego. Her company, MBB & CO., has performed throughout New York City and at Jacob's Pillow, Bates Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival. Recent projects include commissions for Parsons Dance ("Love, oh Love") and The Juilliard School ("The way it feels") and the company's third Joyce season. Barnes was thrilled to be a part of her favorite public radio show This American Life Live! this spring wtih radio show host Ira Glass. In May 2013, the company will have their debut season at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.


Adam Bernstein, Deputy Director, Programs, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation

Adam Bernstein joined Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in 2006 as the Deputy Director, Programs. Prior to his current position, Bernstein worked as a consultant providing a range of services to nonprofit cultural institutions and foundations. His clients have included Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Joyce Theater. Previous positions include: Director, Advised Funds and Regranting Programs, Arts International; Program Officer, Arts & Culture, Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Senior Program Officer, Charles E. Culpeper Foundation; and Program Officer, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation. Bernstein has served on the Board of Directors of Art Matters, Dance USA, Danspace Project, the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater, and Small Press Distribution.


Michelle Coffey, Executive Director, the Lambent Foundation

As Executive Director, Michelle Coffey designs, implements and furthers the strategic agenda, leadership and vision of Lambent Foundation. Through innovative grant making and projects, Lambent Foundation supports the intersections of contemporary arts and culture as critical strategies for social change. Lambent’s global grant making provides critical general operating support for artist-centered organizations in the visual, performance and alternative media fields in New York, New Orleans and Nairobi.


AnaMaria Correa, Director of the School of Dance and Education & Outreach, Ballet Hispanico

AnaMaria Correa has worked in arts in education in the disciplines of theater, dance, music, visual art, creative writing and architecture, and collaborated with teachers, artists and students in schools and communities around the country. She has served organizations like the Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center, The Jewish Museum of Florida, Brooklyn Historical Society, and Washington State University’s “Performance as Education." She is doing her life’s work—a mission to ensure that young people, communities and educators have access to, and a meaningful connection with, arts experiences that transform their lives through the incredible work of exquisite artists and their craft. She has earned degrees in Secondary Education and Literature from Hunter College, an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College and is currently a doctoral student in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.


Dr. Chuck Davis, Founder and Artistic Director, African American Dance Ensemble

First professional Dance Company....M.B.Olatunji and his Dancers and Drummers. Second company, Eleo Pomare’s Dance Company....third company, Movements Black with John Parks. Formed The Chuck Davis Dance Company, New York, 1967 and incorporated 1968. Has been and still member of ADF’s International Arts in Education unit. Has served as one of Richard Pryor’s major choreographers. Founded DANCEAFRICA, BAM, 1977. HAS SERVED AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FOR 36 YEARS. Created The Cultural Arts Safari in 1978. Chuck Davis Dance Company sent to Europe as goodwill Ambassadors, 1984. DanceAfrica now in New York; Washington,DC; Dallas, Denver; Pittsburg;Atlanta. Peace! Love! Respect For Everybody. Dance is an outer expression of an inner reality. Uh HUH.


Dian Dong, Associate Director/Education Director of Chen Dance Center

Dian Dong is Associate Director/Education Director of Chen Dance Center—a leading Asian American arts institution in lower Manhattan comprised of a Theater, School and resident company H.T. Chen & Dancers. In the capacity of Education Director, she has organized and designed the education programs for CDC’s home based and residency programs. She has also taught modern dance, pedagogy and dance composition at NYU School of Education, Montclair State College, the Center for Modern Dance Education, and the CDC School. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Ms. Dong has worked with Anna Sokolow, Kathryn Posin, Chuck Davis, Janet Soares, Lance Westergard, Libby Nye, Kazuko Hirabayashi, for the Lincoln Center Institute programs, the ADF Repertory Co, Walter Nicks, and the national tour of The King & I. Since 1998, she has assumed a greater management role for CDC and in June 2005 attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders - Arts - at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She helped lead the organization through a series of expansion and renovation projects, completed in 2010.


Mario Garcia Durham, President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Performing Arts Presenters

In October 2011, Mario Garcia Durham became the fifth President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) since its founding in 1957. Prior to his leadership role with APAP, Durham was posted at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) where he was Director of Artist Communities & Presenting from 2004 – 2011. After holding numerous management positions and serving as artistic director at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the 1990s, he founded Yerba Buena Arts & Events in 2000, the producing organization of the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. During his 20 plus years as a presenter, Mr. Durham has served on numerous boards, advisory committees, and panels. He is currently on the boards of the Alliance of Artist Communities, and the National Center for Creative Aging. Durham was recently elected to chair of the Performing Arts Alliance. He is on the Community Advisory Council of the PBS station WETA in Washington, DC and on the American University Arts Management Advisory Council.


Zlato Fagundes, Program Manager, Aspen Institute Arts Program

Zlato Fagundes is the founding program manager of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, which was established in 2011 to support and invigorate the arts in America. In his current role, he helps create programs that bring together artists, advocates, educators, managers, foundations and government officials to exchange ideas and develop policies that strengthen the reciprocal relationship between the arts and society. Prior to joining the Arts Program, Mr. Fagundes served as program assistant at Ballet Tech: New York City Public School for Dance and as program coordinator for the New York State Summer School for the Arts School of Ballet. A former dancer (School of America Ballet & Carolina Ballet), he is a graduate of Florida International University and was named an Honorary Colonel of the State of Kentucky in 2008. For more information on the Aspen Institute Arts Program go to www.aspeninstitute.org/artsprogram


Joan Finkelstein, Director of Dance, the New York City Department of Education

Education: NYU Tisch School of the Arts (BFA, MFA). National/international performing/teaching: Cliff Keuter Dance Company, Don Redlich Dance Company, Jean-Lon Destin Afro-Haitian Dance Company. Broadway: Rags, original cast. Choreographic commissions: Atlanta Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, SC Ballet Theatre. Grants/ fellowships: NEA; NARB. College teaching: across the U.S. K-12 teaching: NYFA (NY), AIS (national). 1992-2004: Director, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center: children’s/adult dance classes, Harkness Dance Project performance festival, Fridays at Noon & Sundays at Three performance series, Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) teacher training program, space grant program, professional workshops, Breaking Ground dance lectures, Saturday night socials, five teen performing groups. 2004-present: Director of Dance Programs, New York City Department of Education. Publications: the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12; the Arts Education Manual for School Leaders; and Dance Education for Diverse Learners. Responsibilities: supporting dance education in NYC’s 1,750 schools, implementing citywide grant programs, professional development for K-12 dance teachers and principals, development/ implementation of citywide dance assessments, school guidance on dance programming, staffing, and partnerships.


Erik Gensler, President, Capacity Interactive

Erik Gensler is the President of Capacity Interactive Inc. a digital marketing consulting firm for the arts whose clients include some of the country's leading performing arts institutions including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, New York City Center and Seattle Repertory Theater. Erik founded Digital Marketing Boot Camp for Arts Marketers, a two-day conference each October in NYC. Erik has presented sessions on digital marketing for conferences and organizations including Opera America, LORT, Tessitura, Dance NYC, The Arts & Business Council, and NYFA. He has guest lectured at Columbia, NYU, and Baruch College and has been featured on the Carnegie Mellon Arts & Technology podcast series and webinars. Before founding Capacity Interactive he served as Senior Marketing Officer at New York City Opera and Director of Sponsorship for The Marketing Group where he secured over $3 million in sponsorships for non-profit arts clients. He spent four years at NBC Universal in roles in sales, marketing, and business development. Erik began his career at Marakon Associates, an international management consulting firm. Erik holds a dual degree in Economics and Communication from Northwestern University. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, running, cooking, the beach, the theater and spending time with his rambunctious Pitt-mix, Sally.


Gina Gibney, Artistic and Executive Director, Gibney Dance

Gina Gibney has created a repertory of over thirty works, including nine evening length projects that have been widely presented throughout the United States and abroad. In recent years, her work has been presented by such distinguished organizations as Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), Danspace Project (New York), Symphony Space (New York), White Bird Dance (Oregon) the Yale Repertory Theater (Connecticut), L’Agora de la Danse (Montreal, Canada) and Internationale Tanzmesse (Dusseldorf, Germany). Described as a “poet of modern dance” by the New York Times, Ms. Gibney is also dedicated to bringing the power of dance – both in performance and in practice – to new audiences and communities. Gibney has received recognition and support from prestigious organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Emma Sheafer Charitable Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York Community Trust/Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund and many others. Committed to serving the dance community, Ms. Gibney has established Gibney Dance Center, an eight-studio facility at 890 Broadway in New York. Ms. Gibney serves on the Boards of Directors of Danspace Project and Dance/NYC. She is a frequent panelist and speaker on the topics of dance, social action and entrepreneurship. A native of Ohio, Gibney currently resides in New York City.


Brandon Gryde, Director of government affairs, Dance/USA and OPERA America

Brandon Gryde leads Dance/USA and OPERA American’s grassroots advocacy efforts and lobbying for the fields to Congress, federal agencies, and the White House. He was director of communications for Youth Service America, an international youth engagement organization in Washington, D.C. Brandon spent seven years at Jump Street, an innovative community arts organization in Harrisburg, PA, where he managed a state re-granting initiative in partnership with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and launched AND Magazine, a quarterly arts and healthy lifestyles publication written by teens, for teens. Brandon has a B.A. in Ethnomusicology and American Literature and Culture from UCLA and an M.A. in American Studies from Penn State.


Kathleen Isaac, Director of the Arnhold Dance Education Programs, Hunter College

Kathleen Isaac has been a leader in dance professional development, advocacy, K-12 teaching practice and dance assessment in New York City, New York State, nationally and internationally. She authored Revelations - An Interdisciplinary Approach for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Read My Hips for the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, and continues to learn about and share best practices in student-centered integration of dance and technology, Dance Education mentoring models and interdisciplinary models of learning. Her choreography for students has been performed at Hunter College, the Alvin Ailey Studios, Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City Center Studios and at Mayor Bloomberg’s 2008 State of the City Address at Flushing Meadows Park and Hunter College.


Virginia Johnson, Artistic Director, founding member and former principal dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem

During her 28 years with the company Virgina Johnson performed most of the repertoire, with principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Agon, Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, A Streetcar Named Desire, Voluntaries, and Fall River Legend, which was broadcast on television and won a cable ACE award from the Bravo Network. Later choreographic works include ballets created for Goucher College, Dancers Responding to AIDS, the Second Annual Harlem Festival of the Arts, Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center and Marymount Manhattan College, where she was also an adjunct professor. After retiring from performing, she founded POINTE Magazine and was editor-in-chief from 2000-2009. Her honors include a Young Achiever Award from the National Council of Women, the Dance Magazine Award, a Pen and Brush Achievement Award, the Washington Performing Arts Society's 2008-2009 Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2009 Martha Hill Fund Mid-Career Award. She is a Trustee of Dance USA and serves on the advisory committee of Dance NYC. www.dancetheatreofharlem.com


Katie Langan, Chair of Dance, Marymount Manhattan College

Katie Langan is the Chair of Dance at Marymount Manhattan College, which now houses approximately 180 BFA/BA dance majors. In addition to her work at Marymount, Ms. Langan taught company class for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for over three years and has continued to teach advanced levels for the Ailey School summer program on and off for years. She has also taught for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, NYCDA, Dance Space, NYU Tisch, and Ballet Maestro along with Master Classes for the Connecticut Performing Arts Center and others. She has created lectures for Broadway Dance Center’s Teacher Conference and has written several articles for Dancer Magazine including a few of the cover stories. Ms. Langan performed with numerous companies including the Boston Repertory Company, New York City Opera, William Carter Dance Ensemble, the Zurich Ballet, Chamber Ballet USA, New Jersey Ballet and Twyla Tharp Dance. She currently serves as a judge for DRA’s Dancin’ Downtown at The Joyce, served as a “dance professional” in viewing the work of creative residency artist’s for The Joyce Theater, served on the Princess Grace Foundation USA 2010 Dance and Choreography Panel and was a Board Member of Parsons Dance from 2009-2011. She is certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum through Level 5.


Stanford Makishi, Deputy Director & Director of Programs, Asian Cultural Council

Stanford Makishi has been Director of Programs at the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) since 2011, overseeing all grant-making and the planning of the foundation’s fellowship programs. Prior to joining ACC, he held positions at the Baryshnikov Arts Center as Executive Director and at Carnegie Hall as Director of Creative Services. From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Makishi was a performer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, then its development director, and now serves on its board of trustees. He is also Artistic Producer for New York City Center’s Fall for Dance festival, a celebration of the finest movement-based performance from around the world. Born and raised in Honolulu, Mr. Makishi is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was recognized as a Harvard National Scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. He has been a review panelist at the National Endowment for the Arts, a committee member for the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, and a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts Dance Program.


Susan McGreevey Nichols, Executive Director, the National Dance Education Organization

Susan McGreevey Nichols is the newly hired Executive Director of the National Dance Education Organization, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of high quality education in the art of dance. NDEO provides the dance artist, educator and administrator a network of resources and support, a base for advocacy, and access to programs that focus on the importance of dance in the human experience. A national Arts Education Consultant, Ms. McGreevey Nichols has coached districts in Los Angeles County as part of the Arts for All initiative and in Northern California in Alameda County as a part of that county's initiative Revitalizing Classrooms Through Arts Learning: Strategic Plan. As a teacher at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island from 1974-2002, Susan founded and developed that institution’s nationally renowned middle school dance program. She is the developer of a cutting edge reading comprehension strategy that uses text as inspiration for original choreography created by children. This literacy-based methodology combines the creative process with reading instruction. Co-author of five books: Building Dances (1995), Building More Dances (2001), Experiencing Dance (2004), Dance about Anything (2006) and Dance Forms and Styles (2010).


Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer, Brooklyn Academy of Music

Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer since 1999, is responsible for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s artistic direction, overseeing programming in all its performance spaces: the Howard Gilman Opera House, Harvey Theater, BAM Fisher, Rose Cinemas, and BAMcaf Live. He previously served as BAM's producing director and founding director of the Next Wave Festival. Over his 27 year tenure, Mr. Melillo has fostered the work of emerging and established artists, and forged numerous international partnerships such as DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State produced by BAM to showcase contemporary American dance abroad. Awards include the Chevalier and Officier de L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) and an OBE (Great Britain). He has served on the faculty of Brooklyn College, and as a lecturer at colleges, universities, and arts agencies in the US and abroad.


Sara C. Nash, Manager of the National Dance Project, the New England Foundation for the Arts

Sara C. Nash is the Manager of the National Dance Project at the New England Foundation for the Arts. Prior to joining NEFA, Ms. Nash managed the USArtists International grant program at the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She worked as senior producer in programming at Dance Theater Workshop (New York Live Arts) in New York City, where she oversaw the international program The Suitcase Fund and helped develop residency programs for commissioned artists. Ms. Nash has also worked at Tanec Praha, an international contemporary dance festival in Prague, and at the British Council in London. She has served as a moderator, speaker, and panelist for a variety of programs and organizations, including the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Dance/USA, Arts Midwest, Performance Space 122’s Avante-Garde-Arama series, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, among others, and served as the Northeastern Regional Desk for the National Performance Network in New Orleans in 2009. Ms. Nash holds a degree in Theater and Dance from Mary Washington College.


Norton Owen, Director of Preservation, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival

Norton Owen is a curator, writer, and archivist with more than 40 years of professional experience in the dance field. He has been associated with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival since 1976 and has been Director of Preservation since 1990, initiating and conducting projects that involve documentation, exhibitions, audience engagement, and archival issues. He is a key member of the team that produces Virtual Pillow, an online engagement effort that reaches audiences worldwide. In 2000, Dance/USA selected him for its Ernie Award, honoring “unsung heroes who have led exemplary lives in dance.” Last year, the Dance Films Association presented him with its first Dance in Focus Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the dance film genre, while the Jos Limn Dance Foundation gave him its 2012 Preservation Advancement Award.


Stephanie Pereira, Art Program Director, Kickstarter

As Kickstarter's Art Program Director, Stephanie looks after art projects on site and organizes special events for the community, including artist presentations and workshops. Stephanie previously served as Associate Director, Learning & Engagement at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, a non-profit residency center in New York City. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA in Visual Art from Rutgers University.


Elka Samuels Smith, Artist Manager and Producer, Divine Rhythm Productions

Born in 1977 to renowned jazz dancers Sue Samuels & Jo Jo Smith, Ms. Samuels Smith spent her first years of life growing up at JoJo’s Dance Factory in New York City. Her passion for dance was both innate and nurtured throughly by the diverse offerings of dance that were always so available and by being exposed to music as a natural part of everyday life. Training has included a variety of dance forms both informally and formally including jazz, tap, ballet, african, hip hop, belly dance, and salsa originally from teachers at Broadway Dance Center and as part of the Frank Hatchett Professional Children’s program. Performances (dancer/percussionist) include T.W.A.P.A. (teens with a positive attitude), Sesame Street, LA Gear Commercial, 25th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center, Sadlers Wells Sampled (London), Arrastao do Dende, and Debbie Allen’s “Cool Women”. Productions include the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival, The Art & Appreciation of Percussion (TAAP) at Swing 46 (NYC), Mr. Wiggles’ Wreck Session, and Ladies Get Down among others. In 2002, she officially registered Divine Rhythm Productions, a company co-created with brother and professional Tap Dancer Jason Samuels Smith offering business management and production services to professional performers and choreographers worldwide.


John-Mario Sevilla, Director of 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center

John-Mario Sevilla hails from PaukAkalo, Maui. He teaches at New York University Steinhardt. He has danced in the companies of Pilobolus, Rebecca Stenn, From the Horse’s Mouth, Daman Harun, Erin Dudley, Lisa Giobbi, Nikolais and Louis, Shapiro and Smith, Janis Brenner, Anna Sokolow and Bill Cratty. He also performed with juggler Michael Moschen, film animator Laura Margulies, drag artist Sherry Vine, poet John Unterecker, and Navajo sandpainter-healer Walking Thunder. Mr. Sevilla’s choreography has appeared in New York City at LaMaMa, NYU Steinhardt, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92Y Tribeca, Dance Theatre Workshop, Columbia University, ABC No Rio, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Asia Society, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, as well as at universities throughout the country. He was the Director of Education at New York City Ballet. Mr. Sevilla is a dance student of Betty Jones and a student of the hula with Kumu Hula HAkAlani Holt. He has a MA in Dance and Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MFA in Dance Performance from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.


Sydney Skybetter, Partner, Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency

Sydney Skybetter is a technologist, choreographer, and speaker based in Washington, DC. Mr. Skybetter has consulted for a bunch of blue-chip companies – The National Ballet of Canada, the DBNA Group, Sterling Publishing / Barnes & Noble among illustrious others- and lectures on everything from dance history to technology to why you shouldn’t be an idiot on the Internet. He has been brought in to speak by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York University, Juilliard, Dance/USA, and Opera America, among others, and is the co-host of #SKYNOVA, an Internet TV show that features culture warriors in their native habitats. He is a Founding Partner with the Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency, the artistic director of the dance company skybetter and associates, and a Producer with DanceNOW[NYC] Festival. www.EdwardsAndSkybetter.com


Andrea Snyder, Co-Director, American Dance Abroad

Andrea Snyder, co-director of American Dance Abroad, is also a management & leadership strategist specializing in coaching for the arts. Andrea served as Dance/USA’s president and executive director from January 2000 to June 2011. She created and directed the National Initiative to Preserve America’s Dance (NIPAD) grant program for The Pew Charitable Trusts from 1993 to 2000; was assistant director of the NEA Dance Program between 1987-1993; booking agent for Sheldon Soffer Management; executive director of Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians; administrator of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department; associate administrator for the Cunningham Dance Foundation; and assistant to the Director of the Dance Notation Bureau. She chaired the Performing Arts Alliance board and was a member of the Dance Magazine inaugural Board of Advisors. From 1995-2011, she moderated The Kennedy Center’s contemporary dance post-performance discussions. Her life/career in dance is profiled in Renata Celichowska’s recent book, Seven Statements of Survival. An alumna of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute and recipient of the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award, Ms. Snyder became a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach in April 2010.


Jessie Smith, VP, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Northside Media

Jesse Smith started with The L Magazine in 2005 where he began working closely with both brand and arts and culture partners. In that time The L Magazine has grown to become Northside Media Group (NMG) and now also publishes Brooklyn Magazine and BAMbill (the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s program guide) and produces several events including Northside Festival, SummerScreen and Taste Talks. Mr. Smith has helped to build a number of customized events and marketing initiatives for a wide range of brands ands cultural institutions such as Brooklyn Museum, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, Carnegie Hall and many more.


Douglas C. Sonntag, Director of Dance, National Endowment for the Arts

Douglas C. Sonntag is the director of dance at the National Endowment for the Arts, a position he has held since 1997, where he supervises the review of applications seeking federal support for projects from dance companies, presenting and service organizations, and projects that focus on technology and dance history. From 2004-2008 he also served as director of the Office of National Initiatives. He has served as a judge for the American College Dance Festival/Dance Magazine Awards, and as a panelist for the Utah Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation, and the Carlisle Project. He has spoken at and served on panels for the Monaco Dance Forum, the International Tanzmesse NRW in Dsseldorf, Germany, Dance/USA, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the International Association of Blacks in Dance, and at conferences in Colorado, Michigan, Texas, Nevada, Florida, and New York. He has taught arts administration courses at the University of Utah, and was a consultant to the University’s Department of Ballet. Mr. Sonntag attended the American College in Paris and the University of Utah.


Sydney Skybetter, Partner, Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency Sydney Skybetter is a technologist, choreographer, and speaker based in Washington, DC.

Mr. Skybetter has consulted for a bunch of blue-chip companies – The National Ballet of Canada, the DBNA Group, Sterling Publishing / Barnes & Noble among illustrious others- and lectures on everything from dance history to technology to why you shouldn’t be an idiot on the Internet. He has been brought in to speak by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York University, Juilliard, Dance/USA, and Opera America, among others, and is the co-host of #SKYNOVA, an Internet TV show that features culture warriors in their native habitats. He is a Founding Partner with the Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency, the artistic director of the dance company skybetter and associates, and a Producer with DanceNOW[NYC] Festival. www.EdwardsAndSkybetter.com


Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, PhD, Senior Director, Institutional Advancement, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Dr. von Prelle Pecelli is an anthropologist and cultural interloper who has been working in New York City’s contemporary performance sector since 1999. She joined Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2011 where she is the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement, managing the organization’s strategic partnerships and fundraising/communications teams. Before joining LMCC, she served as Director of Development for Performance Space 122; Co-curator (10 & 09) and Dramaturg (08) for the Prelude Festival; Managing and Programming Director of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater from 2004 – 2006 where she started the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator, and now serves on the OHT’s Board of Directors. In 2010, she completed her PhD in Anthropology at Columbia University. The title of her dissertation was “Tendrils of Lost Time and the Self: An Aesthetic Anthropology of New York City’s “Post”-Avant-Garde”. While completing her dissertation at Columbia, she taught courses on Anarchistic Anthropology and Western ethics and political theory. Before attending Columbia, she received an MA from the University of Chicago, was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, received a BA from Colby College, and is a proud alumna of Philips Academy (Andover). She has served on The Bessies’ Small Cap sub-committee since the 2010-11 Season.


Marya Wethers, Program Manager, New York Live Arts

Marya Wethers is the Program Manager at New York Live Arts and was a member of the Programming Department of Dance Theater Workshop since 2007. In this capacity she manages the Fresh Tracks and Studio Series creative residency programs and the international program, The Suitcase Fund, representing the organization at several international festivals in East/Central Europe (Macedonia, Slovenia, Russia, Budapest) and Africa (Burkina Faso, South Africa, DR Congo, Senegal, Mali, and Tunisia). Previous arts administration experience in New York includes Company Manager for Nora Chipaumire (2005-08) and nicholasleichterdance (2006-07); Artist Representative/Booking Agent at Pentacle (2004-07); and Marketing Associate at Danspace Project (1999-2004). Ms. Wethers curated the Out of Space @ BRIC Studio series from 2003-07, and three evenings of Food for Thought, both through Danspace Project, with a particular focus on work representing the perspectives and experiences of artists who are of color, queer, and/or female. She has served on selection panels for several presenting and funding organizations in NY and as a guest lecturer for presenting/service organizations and college/university dance programs in the tri-state area. Ms. Wethers was a member of the New York Dance & Performance/Bessie Award Committee in 2006-07. Her writing, UnCHARTed Legacies: women of color in post-modern dance, was published in the 25th Anniversary Movement Research Performance Journal #27/28 (2004). She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance with High Honor, cum laude and a Minor in African-American Studies.


Clint White, President, the Arts and Culture Network

Clint White was named one of the Top Entrepreneurs of 2012 by Crain’s New York Business magazine. The core components of the Arts and Culture Network include: WiT Media (a 21st century full service marketing agency that serves arts, culture, education, hospitality, and non profits nationally); Culturadar (a new online tool that proactively connects cultural presenters and cultural consumers, currently in three key markets nationally); the CASE Study Advertising Network (a highly targeted, fully transparent, rich media based interactive solution to reaching consumers online and in mobile), and Workinthearts.net (a central source of all of the known career opportunities in the arts/cultural vertical in the English speaking world). During the 1990s he was in company management and marketing for The Santa Fe Opera, Martha Graham Dance Company, Whitney Museum of American Art, Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, and NYSCA.


SMART BAR TENDERS

Helene Blieberg, Principal, Helene Blieberg Associates LLC
Specialties: Board Development, Marketing, Strategic Planning, Communications, Management, Governance, Organizational Development, and Executive/Board Coaching

Helene Blieberg has been providing management, communication and grantmaking services to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, corporations, and foundations since 2001. She is a specialist in working with organizations undergoing transitions and has served as Interim Executive Director for seven nonprofits. She recently spent 11 months working with Ballet Hispanico in that capacity and continues to advise the organization. Ms. Blieberg spent 18 years with CBS, having held management positions in philanthropy, communications, media relations, sales development and promotion. She served as Vice President and Executive Director of the CBS Foundation and as Vice President of Communications for the company’s national radio division. She has also been a marketing and sales executive in the hospitality industry and was an account executive at a New York public relations firm. A frequent speaker and presenter, Ms. Blieberg regularly leads public programs and workshops in arts management, leadership, communications and grantmaking. She devotes time and expertise to the boards of service organizations across the nonprofit field and currently serves on the Board of Directors or advisory boards of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, the Coro New York Leadership Center, and the Support Center for Nonprofit Management.


Emma E. Dunch, President, Dunch Arts, LLC
Specialties: Board Development, Fundraising, Marketing, and Strategic Planning

Emma E. Dunch has worked across the United States with organizations including the Apollo Theater, A.R.T./New York, Aspen Music Festival, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance/NYC, Glimmerglass Opera, Harlem School of the Arts, HB Studio, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joyce Theater, League of American Orchestras, London Philharmonic Orchestra and WNYC: New York Public Radio, among others. Ms. Dunch holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and a Bachelor of Music Performance in Opera, and is a graduate of the League of American Orchestra’s Orchestral Management Fellowship Program. She was trained as an interim executive director by New York’s Support Center for Non-Profit Management, and has undertaken advanced studies at New York University’s Heymann Center for Philanthropy and at the American Management Association. Her client projects have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Crain’s New York Business. She founded Dunch Arts in 2008.


Lauren Gibbs, Independent Development Consultant
Specialties: Development Strategy, Board Development, and General Management

Prior to establishing an independent consulting practice, Lauren Gibbs served as Development Director at Jos Limn Dance Foundation and Deputy Director of Development at Ballet Hispanico where she worked closely with the Board of Directors and managed strategy and implementation for all areas of fundraising. She has also held development positions with classical music, theater, and presenting non-profit organizations. In her spare time, she provides development, board, and general administrative consulting for dance companies in NYC. Over the last six years she has worked with artists such as Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Company Stefanie Batten Bland, Gallim Dance, Malcolm Low, and Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance. She has served as a guest professor at Brooklyn College’s Masters Program for Theater Management and as a dance grant panelist for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. She is currently an Advisory Board member for Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Ms. Gibbs received her M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from N.Y.U. and a dual Bachelors Degree in Dance/Theatre and International Business from James Madison University.


Robin Parks Lockwood, Partner, Pivot Point Consulting
Specialties: Business and Strategic Planning, Board Development, Program Design and Evaluation, Management and Human Resources Support, Fundraising, and Marketing and Communication

Robin brings more than twenty years of experience in arts education, management, and administration to Pivot Point Consulting. Most recently, she served as the Assistant Director for the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City where she was responsible for fine-tuning operations, fundraising, program planning, and human resources management. She was instrumental in steering the museum through an enormous period of transition and growth. Before moving to New York from the Midwest in 2006, Ms. Lockwood developed programming for Kansas City’s Coterie Children’s Theatre as well as the Pembroke Hill School, where she specialized in Early Childhood education. She has also held management positions in a variety of corporate and non-profit organizations where she specialized in staffing, community outreach, and the development and evaluation of programming for young people. Having recently completed her Master’s degree in Arts Administration from Columbia University’s Teachers College, she also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Film from the University of Kansas and a certificate in Fundraising from the City University of New York. This past August, she welcomed her first child to the world.


Honie Ann Peacock, President, HAP’nings now, Inc.
Specialties: Marketing, Business Planning, Organizational Development, and Fundraising

HAP’nings now inc., is a business coaching and consulting firm that works holistically to assist small arts organizations reach their maximum potential by creating and implementing strategic approaches to marketing, business planning, organization development and fund-raising with a specialty in developing/ increasing earned income streams. Founder Honie Ann Peacock has a unique, pragmatic approach based on her unique background of working in Fortune 500 companies, NYC government, and in founding four 4 small businesses of her own – including a socially entrepreneurial 501c.3 in culinary arts. Ms. Peacock is an entrepreneur and an agent of change. She has won recognition and awards for exceptional entrepreneurial outcomes in diverse organizations. Clients include: Bronx Council on the Arts, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Co, Christine Suarez Dance Co., Pregones Theater, IATI, Assn. of Hispanic Arts.


Melissa Sandor, Owner, Melissa Sandor, Inc.
Specialties: Fundraising, especially Institutional Fundraising; Board Development, Major Donor Engagement, and Strategic Development Planning

Melissa Sandor has 20 years of experience in not-for-profit fund raising in New York City and nationally, with a particular expertise in the arts & culture field. She has provided services in strategic planning, capital campaigns, corporate and foundation relations, major gifts, prospect research, and special events. Current and past clients include: New York City Ballet, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, New York Stage & Film, Queens Theatre in the Park, American Craft Council, Asian American Arts Alliance, Queens Museum of Art, Queens Council on the Arts, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, BOMB Magazine, and Meredith Monk/The House Foundation among others. Prior to consulting, Sandor was the Director of Development for Studio in a School, a New York City based visual arts-education organization. She has held senior development positions at The City University of New York, Queens College, where she managed corporate and foundation relations, and Pratt Institute. Sandor is the Chair of The Millay Colony for the Arts Board of Directors where she is a past resident. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of Women in Development, New York. She is a writer whose work has appeared in Ploughshares, BOMB, and ArtVoice.


Susan Schear, President, ARTISIN, LLC
Specialties: Business & Strategic Planning, Board Development, Collaboration/Partnerships, Earned Income Opportunities, Marketing/Branding/Identity, Project Planning & Implementation, and Disaster Planning: Preparedness and Recovery

Susan Koblin Schear, consultant, speaker, educator, and leader, founded ARTISIN, LLC in 1995 to offer comprehensive business development, management and implementation services to the arts and cultural sector. ARTISIN, LLC is proud to introduce a2a / Artist-to-Artist™, a new program designed to help artists, arts-related/creative-sector businesses, and artists in hybrid careers, develop the business side of their creative practices. Structured as a series of professionally led peer group workshops, a2a guides participants in goal setting, accountability, creative problem solving and entrepreneurial skill building. Ms. Schear benefits her clients (organizations, artists and those with hybrid careers) by customizing services and providing all aspects of goal setting and planning including, strategic, business and marketing. In addition to concentrating on organization and capacity building, she also focuses on board development, membership campaigns, audience development, collaboration/partnerships, earned income opportunities, needs assessment, community development and outreach, cultural tourism, and funding initiatives. She facilitates board retreats, focus group and town hall meetings as well as presenting workshops for artists and arts organizations. Clients include: Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, The ARTS Council of the Southern Fingerlakes, CFEVA, Louisiana State University School of Art, NYSCA, Queens Council on the Arts, Queens College, Center for Books Arts, Newark Arts Council, Louisiana Crafts Guild, and Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.

Since Hurricane Sandy, Ms. Schear has seminal in organizing relief efforts for the arts in New Jersey, while also continually sharing resources with New York arts leaders. She has been engaged in disaster planning and response since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and also participated in recovery post 9/11. For the past four years she served as the National Professional-Development Workshop Consultant for the College Art Association. She is a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Arts and Cultural Management Program for the past ten years, where she is also a thesis advisor. Ms. Schear is an active board trustee. She serves on the advisory committee for ArtsPlan NJ. Ms. Schear has received several awards and honors. In 2010 she was recognized as one of the top 50 Women Business Owners in New Jersey.


Susan Stedman, Principal, Nonprofit and Philanthropic Management
Specialties: Board Development, Communications, Development, Fiscal Planning, and Governance

In recent years Susan Stedman’s consulting practice has been devoted to building the capacity and financial resources of arts, educational, humanitarian and social justice organizations. In this role she conducts strategic planning, facilitates governance and board leadership, marketing and communications; and manages philanthropic campaigns, both annual and capital. She enabled La Napoule Art Foundation to establish its international artists residency program in the south of France; as Executive Director, launched the North American campaign for the British Natural History Museum’s International Trust; directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s annual campaign nationwide; initiated the MGH Institute of Health Professions’ endowment campaign; supervised the national campaign for the American Indian College Fund’s 32 tribal colleges; and managed The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ annual and capital campaigns. Other clients and projects include: Cincinnati Museum; Detroit Historical Museum; Corporate Arts Programs, Metropolitan Life; Joffrey Ballet; Consortium of New England Museums of Art; Lenox Hill Hospital; Asian Americans for Equality; CUE Art Foundation; The Paper Bag Players; Romare Bearden Foundation; The Luther Henderson Scholarship Fund for the Juilliard School; Women’s Refugee Commission; Intl Coalition of Sites of Conscience; College of Labor & Employment Law; and Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art.


Marie-Louise Silva Stegall, Senior Consultant, Dunch Arts LLC
Specialties: Board Development, Fundraising, Marketing, and Strategic Planning

Marie-Louise Silva Stegall has been a fundraiser and executive director for New York City cultural institutions for over two decades. For Dunch Arts to date, she has provided interim management for Fractured Atlas, The Little Orchestra Society, The Futuro Media Group, and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and managed a strategic planning process for Franklin Furnace. Her previous full-time roles included interim executive director and director of development for Ballet Hispanico, director of development for The Joyce Theater Foundation, and fundraising positions with Symphony Space, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.


Elinor Slomba, Principal, E. Slomba Arts Interstices
Specialties: Grantwriting and Strategic Planning

Elinor Slomba helps creative organizations identify their highest-value business goals, quickly, and delivers narrative intelligence to achieve them. Eighteen years experience includes grantwriting and strategic planning for clients in visual and performing arts, with a concentration in dance. She helped Dance/USA raise seed money for creating branch offices, beginning with Dance/NYC. As Development Manager for Institutional Support for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, she helped complete a $12.5 million Millennium Campaign and drafted an Open Space Plan to manage its 100+-acre campus. She has achieved ambitious fundraising goals for Bates Dance Festival and helped independent artists fund international research and outreach projects in Macedonia and Kenya. Her entrepreneurial approach was covered in Mind Edge, an e-learning resource for project managers. She offers an agile project management framework known as Scrum to help clients build their capacity for productivity, and her wordpress blog - Artbux: stories at the crossroads of art, business and agility - was featured at the 2012 World Scrum Gathering in Barcelona. Ms. Slomba is based at The Grove, a co-work space for social innovators and entrepreneurs in New Haven. She received a 2013 award from the Awesome Foundation, Connecticut Chapter.


Kate Taylor, Principal, Kate Taylor Consulting
Specialties: Fundraising and Board Development

Kate Taylor provides creative development and fundraising services for nonprofit organizations in the arts and culture sector. With a record of securing new funding in a notably difficult climate, Ms. Taylor helps nonprofits generate funds from institutional and individual sources. Ms. Taylor’s company, Kate Taylor Consulting, also provides Board development assistance including facilitating educational and planning retreats for new nonprofit Boards. Previous positions in development include overseeing all fundraising activities at Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts as well as institutional grant writing at New York Foundation for the Arts. She has led workshops on fundraising at DTW (New York Live Arts), the Queens Council for the Arts, and NYFA. Ms. Taylor performed for many years with the Nancy Meehan Dance Company. Her choreography has been presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as festivals across the country. Recent highlights of Ms. Taylor’s career in dance and comedy include a series of dance solos with organist Martha C. Galie and the premiere of a duet at the New York Clown Theater Festival. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College where she studied with Viola Farber.


Claudia Zelevansky, Associate, Martin Vinik Planning for the Arts
Specialties: Programming, Strategic Planning, Educational Models, and Cultural District Development

Claudia Zelevansky holds a BS from Northwestern University in Performance Studies and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. Her professional career in the performing arts spans more than fifteen years and includes post in senior management, academia, and research. Her directing credits include more than 35 resident theatre productions at such theatres as the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, The Flea in New York, and the Dallas Theatre Center. She worked at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Joseph Papp Public Theatre for such directors as Lynne Meadow and Mary Zimmerman. She was the Associate Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center until 2004, where she worked with Education, Marketing, and Development as well as serving as director and line producer on numerous productions. Ms. Zelevansky has taught acting and directing and served as guest artist at Yale University, CUNY, Oberlin College, CalArts, and Bard College and served as Research Associate at Columbia University’s Research Center for Arts and Culture before joining MVPA as a planner and operations analyst.