SmART Bar Consultant Bios

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 nine nonprofits. She recently worked with Ballet Hispanico in that capacity for an extended period and continues to advise the organization. 

Helene 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, Helene 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. 

Lauren Gibbs: Partner, Sanders & Gibbs Arts LLC, is a multi-disciplinary arts administrator with 10+ years of experience and proven results in diversified fundraising strategies. As a former dancer, she has predominantly worked with start-up to medium sized dance companies and dedicates her career to promoting and advancing the cultural sector. She has held both directorial, full-time and consulting position in development with a variety cultural organizations, including: Ballet Hispanico, Jos Limn Dance Foundation, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Company Stefanie Batten Bland, Gallim Dance, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Museum of Arts and Design, Signature Theatre Company, Tarrytown Music Hall, Millay Arts Colony, Our Time, and Queens Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has extensive experience in the creation and implementation of annual development plans; solicitation of diversified support through prospect research, grant writing, membership, and individual giving; board development and cultivation; event planning and execution; nonprofit incorporation; general management and marketing. She has served as a guest professor at Brooklyn College’s Masters Program for Theatre Management, a dance grant panelist for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and SmART Bar presenter at the Dance/USA Philadelphia and Dance/NYC Winter Symposiums. She is currently an Advisory Board member for Monica Bill Barnes & Company. She received her M.A. in Performing Arts Administration for N.Y.U. and a dual Bachelors Degree in Dance/Theatre and International Business from James Madison University.

Walter Grandberry: Founder and President of Pathway To the Arts, Inc., is a well regarded arts education leader from Harlem who has distinguished himself over the past two decades as a creative and successful program developer, collaborator and partnership builder. Prior to starting Pathway, Mr. Grandberry spent five years at the Harlem School of the Arts where he was Director of Education and Community Programs. In this position he was responsible for developing and facilitating a variety of Arts instruction and performance projects, including residencies, assembly programs and professional development throughout Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and South Bronx communities. Before joining HAS, from 1987-2002 Mr. Grandberry served as Music Department Director, Arts in Education Director, Associate Executive Director and Interim Executive Director at MindBuilders Creative Arts Center in the Northeast Bronx. Mr. Granberry is a graduate of Lehman College with a BA in Music. He continued his studies in piano, music theory and music history in Austria at the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts and Hunter College, CUNY. He has also participated in numerous workshops in youth development and education sponsored by Teachers College, The Partnership for Afterschool Education, TASC, Bank Street College and the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education. 

 

Amelia Lukas: enjoys a varied career in music promotion, concert presenting, and performing. She is Director of the highly-acclaimed multimedia series Ear Heart Music. Managing the dance catalogue for G.Schirmer and the Music Sales Group, Amelia is a trusted resource for choreographers and dance companies. An accomplished flutist, she performs with “a fine balance of virtuosity and poetry” (NY Times). Her recent projects include performances at Carnegie Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, and Lincoln Center. Amelia holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she won three prizes for musical excellence. 

Jina Paik (Financial clinic): advises nonprofits and their funders in areas of financial planning and management. As Associate Director of NFF’s advisory services business, she oversees the delivery of strategic financial consulting services to nonprofits and funders within the New York Metropolitan area and manages teams across NFF’s Eastern Region. Jina presents workshops across the country as well as leads advisory engagements to provide nonprofits with business planning, financial management tools, and management coaching. Jina brings over fifteen years experience in both the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, including the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Helene Fuld Health Trust and the TCC Group. She serves as board Treasurer for DanceNYC, which supports New York City’s dance community through advocacy, research and convenings. Jina holds a M.S. from the Milano Graduate School in Urban Policy Analysis where she was awarded the Kaplan Leadership Award for Excellence and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Honie Ann Peacock: 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 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. Workshops and one-on-one consulting for the following NPOs and their constituencies: Bronx Council on the Arts, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Co, Christine Suarez Dance Co., Pregones Theatre, IATI, Association of Hispanic Arts, Greene County Council on the Arts, and NYSCA. 

Susan Koblin Schear: consultant, speaker, educator and leader, founded ARTISIN, LLC in 1995 to offer comprehensive planning and business development, management and implementation services to the arts and cultural sector. ARTISIN, LLC is proud to introduce a2a/Artist-to-Artist™, a2a.artisin.com – professional and artistic strategies for artists and creatives in all disciplines. 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, funding initiatives and facilitating leadership and community development through the arts. She facilitates board retreats, focus group and town hall meetings as well as presenting workshops for artists and arts organizations. She is also positioned and ready to step into the role of Interim Executive Director (IED). Clients include: Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, 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. Ms. Schear had been seminal in organizing Superstorm Sandy 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 Hurricane Katrina and Rita and also participated in recovery post 9/11. Ms. Schear 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 eleven 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. She has recently been selected and inducted as a Lead NJ Fellow, Class of 2014. She was proud to be honored in May 2013 by ArtPride NJ as a Distinguished Arts Advocate in recognition of her advocacy in supporting the arts in the state of New Jersey. In 2010 she was recognized as one of the top 50 Women Business Owners in New Jersey. 

Janice L. Shapiro: is a management and organizational development consultant who has spent the past 20 years working with arts organizations in and around New York City. Her wide-ranging expertise includes fundraising, team-building, group and individual coaching, developing an empowered board, leadership development, planning just about anything – strategic, project, program and event- and creating a culture of trust and fun in organizations. Janice has worked with La MaMa, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Brooklyn Arts Council, Tami Stronach Dance, Bridgeman/Packer Dance, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Movement Research and Richard Move among others. She is a former Erick Hawkins-trained dancer and teacher, and a former funder with The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Family. When Janice retired from dancing, and before she became a consultant, she was Phylicia Rashad’s personal assistant on The Cosby Show for seven years and had a blast. Ask her anything! 

Susan Stedman: Through her consulting firm, Stedman provides performing and visual artists, as well as staff and board members of nonprofit organizations, with key services and solutions to strengthen their creative practices and carry out their goals: developing good business and professional skills; raising and managing financial resources; designing communications and marketing plans, and implementing strategies for sustainability. Working with organizational leaders as well as start-up organizations she conducts strategic planning, facilitates board development and governance, designs and manages earned revenue and charitable fundraising campaigns and helps to build collaborative partnerships, as needed. As executive director/administrator she led several arts and grant making (NYS Council on the Arts, Massachusetts Arts and Humanities, Wheeler Foundation, etc.) organizations. And, Stedman has also served more than 60 arts, education and social justice clients such as the Smithsonian Institution; National Park Service; Norwalk Maritime Center; La Napoule Art Foundation (FR, US); British Museum International Trust; Museum Education Consortium (Museum of Modern Art, NY); NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Joffrey Ballet; American Indian College Fund; Bronx Museum; Asian Americans for Equality; Paper Bag Players; CUE Art Foundation; Julliard School, L. Henderson Scholarship Fund; Bearden Foundation; Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art. 

Kate Taylor: provides creative development and fundraising services for nonprofit organizations in the arts and culture sector. She founded Kate Taylor Consulting in 2005 to help nonprofits generate increased funds from institutional and individual sources and has raised millions of dollars to support arts & cultural organizations over the past eight years. With a record of securing new funding in a notably difficult climate, Kate Taylor Consulting provides expertise, a tactical approach, and the development of compelling program materials that reflect the voice and vision of each nonprofit. Clients: Shen Wei Dance Arts, HB Studio, Ballet Next, La Mama, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, J Mandle Performance, and RIOULT, among others.