BIOS

FRIDAY EVENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Sandra Bialystok is the Director of Communications at the International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH). A Canadian living in Geneva, Switzerland, she has worked for NGOs and UN agencies on topics ranging from the protection of cultural heritage to protection of cultural heritage to workers’ rights. Over the past few years, she has been particularly interested in how to create extended reality experiences that tell compelling stories and build empathy for humanitarian causes. Most recently, in 2022, she developed ALIPH’s immersive exhibition “Protecting Heritage to Build Peace”, and in 2018/19, she produced the award-winning VR experience “Home After War” for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. She has been an invited speaker at SXSW, the UN, and Facebook Connect. Sandra holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and a Masters from Oxford University. Photo: A. Tardy

SATURDAY EVENING KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
ARTISTS UNDER ATTACK, ARTISTS AS POLITICAL ACTORS
Panel Organizer and Moderator: Julie Trébault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a project of PEN America

Julie Trébault is the director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a project of PEN America that aims to safeguard the right to artistic freedom by connecting threatened artists to support, building a global network of resources for artists at risk, and forging ties between arts and human rights organizations. She has nearly two decades of experience in international arts programming and network-building, including at the Museum of the City of New York, the Center for Architecture, the National Museum of Ethnology in The Netherlands, and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Julie holds a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration from the Sorbonne University, a Master’s Degree in Archeology from the University of Strasbourg, and teaches at Fordham University.

Tania Bruguera is a Cuban artist whose work has focused on installation and performance. Her work is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana. Bruguera’s work pivots around issues of power and control, and several of her works interrogate and re-present events in Cuban history. As a result of her art actions and activism, Bruguera has been arrested and jailed several times. She is currently a senior lecturer in media and performance at Harvard University.

Liudmyla (Lucy) Nychai is the curator of the Nazar Voitovich Art Residence (NVAIR) in the Ukraine, the project coordinator of the NGO Congress of Cultural Activists (leading the direction of Art Mobility), an independent researcher, art critic and curator-at-large of Lite-Haus Gallery Berlin. Since 2013 she has been researching art residency practices in the world, conducting lectures and consulting culture managers in the Ukraine. In the process of reforming cultural policy in Ukraine, her NGO lobbied for the support of art mobility and the priority of this area for public funding.  She opened an art residence as a laboratory for testing various formats. In 2018 she founded the International Exchange Program with German and Slovak partners. In 2020, she conducted the first virtual program using 3D Internet tools, entitled the Artist is Absent. In 2021, she initiated the Digital Art Mobility Conference – an international dialog about the digital practice of art residences; and, at the end of 2021, she became a Board member of the CryptoArt Ukraine (CAU).

Omaid Sharifi is an Artivist Curator and President at ArtLords and Wartists and Scholar at Risk Fellow at Harvard University. ArtLords and Wartists are grassroots movements of artists and volunteers motivated by the desire to pave the way for social transformation and behavioral change through employing the soft power of art and culture as a non-intrusive approach. Sharifi is a Millennium Leadership Fellow with Atlantic Council, Asia Society 21, and American Foreign Relations Council-Rumsfeld Fellow. He is also a Board Member of World Trade Centre Kabul, Board Member of Free Speech Hub Kabul, and Steering Committee Member of Afghanistan Mechanism for Inclusive Peace.

SUNDAY CLOSING KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Eva Respini is Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the ICA Boston. Before joining the ICA as Barbara Lee Chief Curator in 2015, Respini was Curator at the Museum of Modern Art for over a decade. Respini is curator and co-commissioner for the 2022 U.S. Pavilion’s historic presentation of Simone Leigh in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. She is currently organizing the first mid-career survey of Simone Leigh’s work, opening at the ICA in March 2023, before its tour across the country. Specializing in global contemporary art and image-making practices, Respini has organized at the ICA such critically acclaimed group exhibitions as Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today; When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art; and ambitious solo presentations such as Deana Lawson; Firelei Báez and John Akomfrah: Purple. Respini has been a visiting lecturer, critic, and speaker at a number of universities, among them Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, School of Visual Arts,Columbia University and Yale University’s School of Art. She has published numerous books and catalogues and her writing appears in museum publications and periodicals. Photo Credit: Liza Voll.

Murray Whyte has been the art critic at the Boston Globe since 2019. Previously, he was at the Toronto Star, the largest daily newspaper in Canada. Over a decade with the paper, he had been a feature writer, cultural journalist, and most recently, art critic. His work has ranged from long-form narrative features on a broad range of subjects to analysis and opinion. He has been published by many international publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), The Times of London, The New York Observer, Esquire magazine and Details magazine, among others. He is a National Newspaper Award winner, Canada’s highest journalism honor; a Southam Journalism fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College; the winner of the journalism fellowship from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, which sponsored a reporting project in China; and a fellow of the Western Knight Centre for Journalism at the University of Southern California.

Complete List of Conference Speakers in Alphabetical Order

Geetika Agrawal is Founder and CEO at Vacation with An Artist (VAWAA) – the first curated platform to book mini-apprenticeships with master artists and craftspeople across 27 countries –in-person and online. Her mission is to create a more creative and connected world through these experiences, as well as provide a global platform for artists to teach, earn additional income and help in the preservation of their craft. Prior to VAWAA, Agrawal was a Creative Director at digital agency R/GA in New York, adjunct professor at School of Visual Arts, and founder of the traveling dinner series Food For Thought. Her work has won several international awards and featured in New York Times, SXSW, Artsy, National Geographic, CondeNast Traveler and more. She has a Bachelors in Interior Architecture from CEPT, India and MS Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

Azra Akšamija, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the MIT Department of Architecture and the Director of the MIT Program in Art, Culture, Technology. Akšamija’s work interrogates forms of cultural mediation within the context of conflict, migration, and forced displacement. She is the author of Mosque Manifesto (2015), Museum Solidarity Lobby (2019), and editor of Architecture of Coexistence: Building Pluralism (2020), and Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp (2021). Her work has been exhibited in leading international venues, including the Biennials in Venice, Liverpool, Valencia, and Manila, Manifesta 7, Museums of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana. She received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2013), the Art Award of the City of Graz (2018), and the Montserrat College of Art’s honorary doctorate (2020).

Yemi Alalade is the founder of ANIKE, a Consultant and Invention Educator at Lemelson-MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and an “accidental artist.” Her organization focuses on exploring nature-inspired Indigenous knowledge in Africa and promoting representation in Invention education.

Jane Ingram Allen is a visual artist, independent curator and art writer. She has received exhibitions and grants from most of the participants on the two panels that she organized for this year’s TCE Conference. She has been a Fulbright Scholar artist in Taiwan for two years (2003-04 and 2004-05) and a Fulbright Specialist in Turkey in 2015. Jane’s residencies and art project s in the US and other countries including the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Brazil, Tanzania, Thailand, and Taiwan, have all been the result of finding grants and other ways to fund them. She is originally from Alabama and has lived in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa and New York (14 years) and now lives in Santa Rosa, California (since 2012). She has been an art teacher at colleges and universities as well as a curator and educator at art centers and museums. She writes regularly for SCULPTURE magazine and other art publications and curates exhibitions and residencies in Taiwan and the US, with a specialty in environmental art and hand papermaking art.

Shaarbek Amankul is a leading Kyrgyz artist and curator within the field of contemporary art of Central Asia. His artistic work combines conceptual approaches with traditional local customs and practices, which he translates and reformulates using critical, poetic and conceptual approaches, reflecting the challenges of a rapidly changing society. In 2007, Amankul founded B’Art Contemporary, one of the first contemporary art institutions in Kyrgyzstan, to stimulate and promote critical dialogue between the communities of Central Asia and the global art world. In order to continue his traveling art practice and cultural research, he started a series of nomadic art projects in Kyrgyzstan in 2011, which continue to this day. An important part of this is the use of the traditional nomadic way of life as a source of inspiration for a conceptual, contemporary and globally relevant art practice. Since 2007 he is the Director B’Art Contemporary.

Bolor Amgalan is an interaction design researcher, educator, and design strategist leveraging virtual reality, craft, and blockchain technology to design culturally sensitive transition design interventions with implications on the future of work and human-machine collaboration. Bolor is the founder of FABERIUM, a community platform for NFTs promoting the artisanal values of creativity, commitment, and authenticity in the digital landscape. She is currently Assistant Teaching Professor of Design at Northeastern University and have previously taught at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. Bolor’s work has been internationally exhibited in museums and shows including the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Sydney), the Museum of Science (Boston), Milan Design Week, and Dutch Design Week.

Andrew Anselmo is a mechanical engineer by training (Cooper Union, B.S.M.E.; Columbia University, M.S. and Ph.D.) based in the Boston area. He has worked in a variety of fields – aerospace, exotic finance, and renewable energy (wind and solar) – and served as a consultant (Clipboard Engineering) with many small startups at Greentown Labs. He co-founded BrightSpot Automation, and currently is the Principal Controls Engineer at Leading Edge Equipment Technologies. As a long-time member of the maker space Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA, he has held many roles, including the Electronics and Robotics shop co-lead, instructor, liaison, election commissioner, and tour guide. He provides technical assistance and tutors artists who incorporate electronics and sensors in their projects. As a long-time origami enthusiast and artist who teaches, designs, and busks as a street performer at the renown Waterfire festival in Providence, RI, he helps foster connections between engineering and art through paper.

Alberto Balestrieri participated in TransCultural Exchange’s 2018 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts as a moderator and has advocated for the arts for more than thirty years. In appointments at Cornell Rare Books and Special Collections, Moshe Safdie-Architect, the Harvard/MIT Aga Khan Program, and Roger Williams School of Architecture, Art & Historic Preservation, he had promoted the work of visual artists and architects. When not through talks, exhibits and conferences, he has sought out networks and partnered collaborations that would support and enhance the exposure of visual artists. He lives in Montreal, Canada.

Suzanne Ball represents CODAworx, a global online arts company that identifies and connects artists, creative industries, and art commissioners to generate public art. She is passionate about finding art commissioning opportunities, facilitating open calls, and working closely with public art agencies, art committees, stakeholders, creative industries, and artists throughout the creative process. As head of Business Development for CODAsummit: Art, Technology and Place, she aligns corporate clients with programs, including CODAworx’s Student Scholarships, Emerging Artist Awards, Creative Industry Presentations, Artist Showcases, and custom art events.

Kaitlyn Bass is originally from Calgary, Alberta. Bass serves as the Associate Director of SQx Dance Company, where she acts as both the Rehearsal Director and Financial Planner for forthcoming projects in Canada and internationally. Bass’ works combines the arts education curriculum with arts-based community development practice to provide vulnerable youth with transformative arts and culture experiences. She is an expert in using art-based community development projects to increase engagement in arts and culture and physical activity for vulnerable populations. Kaitlyn’s work has been supported by the Government of Canada, Province of Alberta & British Columbia, Telus, Canadian Tire – Jumpstart, and the European Commission.

Ute Meta Bauer was born in Germany and studied visual communication, stage design and art theory at Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. Bauer is an editor, professor, curator and, since 2013, she is the Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, a national research centre of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Bauer has held leadership positions in cultural and academic institutions including Artistic Director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (1990-1994); Professor of Theory, Practice and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Academy of fine Art Vienna (1996-2006); and Founding Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo (2002-2005). At Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Bauer she served as Director of the Visual Art Program (2005-2009) and Founding Director of ACT, the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (2009-2012). Currently, she is curating the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Venice Art Biennale featuring Shubigi Rao: Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book and is a curator of the 17th Istanbul biennale alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar. Bauer was a co-curator of Documenta11 (2002) on the team of artistic director Okwui Enwezor and served as artistic director for the 3. berlin biennale for contemporary art (2004). Her most recent publication is Climates. Habitats. Environments. published by NTU CCA Singapore and The MIT Press (April 2022).

Thaddeus Beal was formally educated at Yale College and Stanford Law School. He then practiced law in Boston, first as a criminal prosecutor and then as a corporate and securities lawyer for twelve years. He left active practice in 1985 when he withdrew as a senior partner of the Boston law firm, now Nixon, Peabody to attend The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has continued to work in the legal field in many pro bono capacities, including serving as a hearing officer in matters relating to lawyer misconduct; but he now devotes substantially all of his work life to the practice of art. He has been awarded three Massachusetts Council for the Arts Fellowships. His works are in many collections, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and he regularly shows in Boston, Connecticut and New York City. He has served on several charitable boards, and he is currently actively involved as a board member of Discovering Justice, a non-profit dedicated to educating public school students about notions of justice and community involvement, as well as TransCultural Exchange.

Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps is the co-founder & CEO of LaCollection and co-founder of the NFT Factory. He always has been fascinated by new technologies and their impacts on traditional companies or sectors. He is today combining his 15+ years expertise in digital transformation and blockchain technologies – built in industries such as Media, Finance, B2B services, insurance or as a strategy consultant or investor – with his personal passion in art and culture. He launched LaCollection in 2021, with the British Museum as the first partner (now working with cultural institutions in Europe and the US). Jean-Sébastien is supporting cultural institutions in engaging the next generation of art enthusiasts and facilitating a new way to discover a museum, an artist or even a specific artwork or cultural item. Through the NFT Factory, Jean-Sébastien is supporting the French ecosystem to embrace this new technology and bring it to its full potential.

Catherine Bernard is Professor of Art History at SUNY Old Westbury. Bernard’s research focuses on transcultural phenomena and pluri-cultural identities in contemporary art. She has written extensively on Diaspora, post-colonial and contemporary art. Her work has been published in African Arts (UCLA); Parkett Magazine; The Art Journal (College Art Association); Documents of Contemporary Art, (Whitechapel Art Gallery and MIT Press); Nka Journal (Duke and Cornell Universities); Les Carnets du Bal, Paris; and the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston. Her curatorial work includes more than 20 exhibitions and several catalogues on contemporary artists for the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Neuberger Museum of Art; Hunter College Galleries, CUNY; the Katonah Museum of Art; Museo Gurvich, Montevideo, and the Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin. Her most recent exhibition: Trees Also Speak, in 2018, showcased the work of contemporary indigenous American artists and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is currently working on a book about the politics of extraction on indigenous lands to be published in 2023.

Courtney Bethel is the Admissions Director at MacDowell, a contemporary leader in the field of artists’ residency programs whose mission has been advancing artistic freedom since 1907. For more than 20 years she has guided the application experience for artists; successfully transitioning the application to an online, paperless process. Bethel’s responsibilities include overseeing more than 2,000 applications a year, and coordinating a selection process that fields rotating admissions panels in seven disciplines three times a year. Bethel also currently serves as a member of MacDowell’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Task Force. Before joining MacDowell in 2000, Bethel served as an information coordinator with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at Women Together/Mujeres Unidas in McAllen, Texas and as an intern with the International Rescue Committee in London, UK.

Kathleen Bitetti is an independent curator and arts administrator with over 25 years of experience. She is also a practicing visual artist. Her most recent solo show was at Boston’s Gallery Kayafas. Currently, she is providing curatorial programming for Medicine Wheel Productions’ Spoke Gallery. In Fall of 2016, she was the curator for “Tír na Óg”, an international outdoor temporary public art project in Boston that was a collaboration between many organizations including: Medicine Wheel Productions, the Fenway Alliance, the City of Boston, and Culture Ireland. “Tír na nÓg” was supported by Culture Ireland as part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme – a global initiative to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising which set Ireland on its path for independence.

Dan Blask is Program Officer at Mass Cultural Council, a state agency that promotes excellence, inclusion, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities, and sciences to foster a rich cultural life for all Massachusetts residents. At Mass Cultural Council, Dan coordinates grants and services for artists and other individuals in the cultural sector. He is co-creator and writer of ArtSake, an online resource focused on practical and creative issues for artists in all disciplines. He has moderated or participated in panel discussions at conferences such as TransCultural Exchange, the Associated Writers Program, GrubStreet Writers’ Muse and the Marketplace, and others, and he has served as an arts juror for the City of Boston, Maine Arts Commission, the Glovebox Film Festival, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. Dan received his MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and lives with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

George Bossarte is an Interactive Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in designing, building, and making things work. He has worked in industry and well as with artists over the years. He is equally comfortable producing a single unit as designing for builds of hundreds. He has worked with lights (bulbs, LEDs, lasers), motion (motors), sensors, pyrotechnics, and sound. He does analog and digital design, as well as computer programming. He has experience working with micro power controllers for battery applications as well as higher power requirements. He most known for designing the MagicFire precision timing system for fireworks.

Audrey-Anne Bouchard works primarily as a lighting designer for both dance and theatre productions. Bouchard benefited early in her career, both artistically and practically, from an apprenticeship with lighting designer Étienne Boucher on various creation projects (including Hippocampe – Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Lipsynch – Ex Machina) and assisting lighting and set designer Eric Mongerson for more than two years. In 2019, she conceived the immersive theater experience “Camille: un rendez-vous au-delà du visuel”, a multi sensorial work for blind and blindfolded audience.

John Boylan is a writer and producer living in Seattle. Boylan has worked in web publishing and as an editor, journalist, art critic and researcher. He has produced a number of events exploring interactions between art and technology, including “9e2”, a nine-day festival of art, science, and technology held at Seattle’s King Street Station. The festival included work by more than 100 artists, performers, engineers, scientists, and technologists. For more than 20 years, he has produced and hosted a roundtable conversation series about art, politics, and science. The series has featured more than 400 guests, including some of Seattle’s most fascinating artists, scientists, poets, engineers, writers, musicians, composers, architects, actors, activists and impresarios.

Miguel Braceli is a multidisciplinary, Venezuelan artist working at the intersection of art, architecture and education. His practice is focused on participatory projects in public space, exploring notions of borders, migrations, national identities and social-political conflicts. Most of these projects have been large scale works, developed in Latin America, Europe and the United States. His most recent recognitions include Future Architecture Fellow, Young Artist Award of the Principality of Asturias, and AICA International Artist award. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar working and living in New York.

Peter Bunten is the President of the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, New York. Mr. Bunten has served on the board of the Foundation since its inception in 1982. This small, independent, not-for-profit foundation honors the late Ruth Chenven, a jewelry artist, and her husband Harold, an advocate for the arts. For forty years, the Chenven Foundation has offered small grants to individual visual artists and craft persons living and working in the U.S. In recent years, the Foundation has awarded six grants of $1,500 annually. The Chenven Foundation has an open application process and is juried by art professionals, including past grantees.

Anna Calise is a PhD student in Visual Arts and Media Studies at the IULM University of Milan, with a research project on the digitization of museums and the medialization of the cultural experience. She works on the design of participatory cultural strategies, and coordinated the Matera 2019 Community Projects Program in the year of the European Capital of Culture. With her work, she wants to contribute to the accessibility of cultural heritage in her country (Italy) and in the world.

Pieranna Cavalchini is the Tom & Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she has organized over 34 exhibitions and produced many catalogues and artist books. For the museum’s centennial, she curated a three-part project with Joseph Kosuth. During her tenure at the museum, the Artists-in-Residence program has included over 70 well-known and emerging artists from around the world, representing a wide range of disciplines. Prior to the Gardner, she served as a Special Advisor to Rome’s Incontri Internazionali d’Arte and as coordinator for the Concerti di Mezzogiorno at the Festival of Two Worlds of Spoleto. She was the Italian Coordinator at P.S.1 for The Knot Arte Povera and Michelangelo Pistoletto at P.S1 and Isamu Noguchi at the Venice Biennale, and Special Advisor to Geneva-based Art for the World, which included the traveling exhibition Playgrounds & Toys, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees.

Chen Chia-Lan graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from National Taiwan Normal University. She currently is the Executive Secretary of the Taiwan Art Space Alliance (TASA). Previously, from 2014 – 2019, she worked as a project manager at private galleries and non-profit art institutes. In recent years, her work has focused mainly on developing non-profit art spaces in Taiwan, cultural accessibility and inclusive practices, and the culture and art ecology in South-East Asia and Austronesian. Projects that she has coordinated include CO-Temporary : Southeast Asia – Taiwan Forum and Exchange Program on Arts and Culture (2016, Open Contemporary Art Center), The Time-Space Loops, -Southeast Asia -Taiwan Contemporary Art Interchange Exhibition (2016, 435 ART ZONE , New Taipei City), CO- Temporary #2 Itu Aba Island (2017, Lifepatch, Jogja Indonesia), An Act of Showing: ARIs and Place (2017, Melbourne, Australia), PETAMU Project (2018, No Man’s Land Residency and Nusantara Archive, Taiwan Art Space Alliance Annual Meeting (2020-2022), The Playground In Between: Research on /in Virtual Residency (2021).

Alberta Chu is a Cultural Producer bringing science, technology, and art to the public in Boston and beyond. Her current project Facetopo, applies face-mapping technology to beauty education and makeup artistry. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker at the intersection of science, technology and art; her work has been broadcast on television, and exhibited globally at film festivals, art museums and science museums. Alberta resides on the Board of Directors for the art and science lecture series Catalyst Conversations and on the Advisory Committee for Boston public art advocates Now+There. In 2017, she helped to organize the Nasty Women Boston Art Exhibition and Sale, a fundraiser. With her husband Dr. Murray Robinson, she supports the MIT List Museum as well as Boston Art Review. She is a graduate of UCSD in Biology with a minor in Art History. Photo: Gulnara Niaz.

Susan Cohen is on the board of TransCultural Exchange and an arts administrator who served as director of the Council for the Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1996 – 2016. A dedicated and resourceful leader, she is a trustee of the Massachusetts State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and a founding member of Arts Administrators in Higher Education. She also is a former board president of the Mobius Artists Group. Over the span of her career, she has organized and led a dozen exclusive excursions, bringing groups of up to fifty people to cities around the world to experience “behind-the- scenes” tours of arts and culture. In addition to travel planning, she ran the MIT arts grant program, which awarded $150,000 annually in support of all types of projects and endeavors.

Zen Cohen is the lead program director for the Open Air Media Festival and an Assistant Professor of Media Art and Film Studies at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She received her MFA in Art Studio at the University of California at Davis and her BFA in Media Art from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. Her work has been exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area at the deYoung Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFMOMA, SOMarts, and nationally at ARTSpace New Haven in CT, Vanity Projects in NY, and internationally at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City and Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in the Canary Islands. Her production experiences include working as a video editor for Al Jazeera America and owning a media production studio in San Francisco, which produced short documentaries, music videos, and photo shoots for artists and organizations.

Roger Colombik lives in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and artistic collaborator Jerolyn. Born and raised in Chicago, the city’s monumental sculptural presence helped to define his understanding of the relationship between the artist, the community, and public spaces. His Socially Engaged projects are often undertaken in milieus where traditions and cultural heritage have collided head-on with westernization and government malfeasance. Rooted in the tradition of documentary studies, the projects utilize contemporary formats that include large-scale photography, publications and intervention. Fulbright Scholar Program, CEC Artslink, and the Texas State University Research Program have supported Roger’s projects including work in Burma, Armenia, Republic of Georgia, Indonesia and Ecuador. In 2016 Roger and Jerolyn collaborated with the International Rescue Committee – Abilene on a project to examine assimilation and citizenship for families from Congo and Nepal. He teaches sculpture at Texas State University.

Dr. Stephanie Couch is the Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program administered by the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research explores ways prolific inventors find and develop technological solutions to problems. She also examines factors that support or constrain the development of creative and inventive problem-solving capabilities among people at different age ranges and stages of development with an emphasis on discovering ways of remedying historic inequities in the U.S. with respect to who develops and protects their intellectual property. Insights into these subjects are informed by her Interactional Ethnographic approach to examining opportunities for learning. Prior to joining the Lemelson-MIT Program, Stephanie worked in California in numerous roles focused on K-12 and higher education policy including school finance and technology in teaching and learning. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis and a MA/PhD in education from UC Santa Barbara.

Luc Courchesne is an artist, designer, Associate Professor at the École de Design Industriel, Université de Montréal and lecturer at Montréal’s McGill University. Courchesne’s engaging works have been widely exhibited and collected. He received Quebec’s Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas (2019) and Canada’s Governor General’s Award in Media Arts (2021).

Artist and writer Geraldine Craig is currently Professor of Art at Kansas State University and co-founder/director (with Nelson Smith) at Mother’s Milk. Previously, she served as Assistant Director at Cranbrook Academy of Art (2001-2007). Her research-based creative practice explores the relationship between textile history and contemporary art. Additionally, she founded The Earl Project, a community arts program for veterans/ soldiers that takes inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry, and received an Artistic Innovations Grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance & National Endowment for the Arts (2018-19) for the project. In 2018, she also completed a thirty-feet long mixed media art commission for the University of Kansas Medical School-Salina with Nelson Smith. Further, she has been an International Fellow/Artist-in-Residence in Thailand (2018), Morocco (2016) and Santa Fe (2014). Other awards include being named the Dorothy Liesky Wampler Eminent Professor at James Madison University; a James Renwick Senior Fellow in American Craft at the Smithsonian Institution and a Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs Individual Creative Artist grantee.

Jay Critchley is a conceptual and multidisciplinary artist, writer and activist whose work has traversed the globe, showing across the US and in Argentina, Japan, England, Spain, France, Holland, Germany, Ireland and Columbia. Jay has had residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain; CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; Milepost 5, Portland, Oregon; Cill Rialaig, Ireland and Harvard University, where he also lectured. His movie, Toilet Treatments, won an HBO Award and he recently gave a TEDx Talk: Portrait of the Artist as a Corporation. He was honored by the Massachusetts State Legislature as an artist and founder and director of the Provincetown Community Compact, producer of the Swim for Life, which has raised $6M for AIDS, women’s health and the community. The Compact sponsors residencies in the Cape Cod National Seashore for artists, writers and the public.

John Crowley is an artist, former member of the Boston’s youth Mural Crew and, currently, Director of Exhibitions at Boston City Hall.

Ada Pilar Cruz is a Museum Educator at MoMA, and The Drawing Center, and a professor of Art History for Mercy College. She is also an artist whose work has been exhibited in New York, the U.S. and internationally. Awards and residencies she has received include the Studio Museum in Harlem, 1990; Jerome Foundation Grant and Residency, 1989; New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, 1993; Lower East Side Printshop, 1997; Ellenville, NY Storefront Residency, 2007; Museum of Art and Design, 2014; RIA/CE, India, 2016; Nes AIR, Iceland, 2017, 2019, 2021; and Baer AIR, Iceland, 2021. Her recent residencies in Iceland and in Maine have resulted in a new body of work using seaweed from North. She is a member of Buster Levi Gallery, Cold Spring, NY; and Taller Boricua, Rafael Tufino Print studio, Spanish Harlem, NY.

Madeleine Cutrona is a Senior Program Officer of Fiscal Sponsorship at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), where she consults with artists about fundraising strategies, grant proposals, and project management. She brings a decade of experience teaching visual art, helping artists connect with audiences, making art and fundraising for her own projects. Madeleine is interested in how artists garner resources, build support, and hone skills to execute their creative visions.

Christine D’Onofrio is an uninvited and grateful guest living on the unceded territories of šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waaututh), Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish), and S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō) nations that some refer to as Vancouver. The first generation of immigrants, D’Onofrio spent her childhood as a guest on Haudenosaunee, Anishinabewaki and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations, where she is currently an Associate Professor of Teaching, and Chair of the Bachelor of Media Studies program.

Purva Damani is an art enthusiast, member of a variety of advisory boards and the Founder and Director of 079 | STORIES. 079 | STORIES is an art gallery, workshop and art and cultural space with an amphitheater, designed and created by Khushnu and Sonkje Hoof, Partners to Pritzker and Padmashree Awardee Shri. Balkrishna V. Doshi. Its mission is to revive fading art techniques by promoting emerging contemporary Indian artists’ works. Since its inception, the gallery has hosted multiple shows of young contemporary artists along with modern masters of international and national fame, while also giving a platform to emerging artists. It is Damani’s endeavor to create a platform for bringing art and culture together and making it accessible to the people. Previously, she worked in Communications & Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and as a human resource consultant in Mumbai before moving back to Ahmedabad, where 079 | STORIES is based.

Chad Davidson is the author of four collections of poems, most recently Unearth (Southern Illinois UP, 2020). Terra Cognita, a collection of travel essays, is forthcoming with Louisiana State UP in fall 2022. He directs the School of the Arts at the University of West Georgia near Atlanta, co-directs Convivio, a summer arts conference in Postignano, Italy, and also serves on the board for the Newnan ArtRez, an artist-in-residence program located in Newnan, Georgia.

Deborah Davidson is an artist, curator and educator. Her curatorial practice is an equal portion in that equation. She has been the curator and director of the Suffolk University Gallery since 2013, with a continued focus on the exciting Boston area artists. Davidson also has worked as an independent curator, mostly recently at the Art Complex, Duxbury MA with Cannot Be Described In Words. She has a particular interest in the dialogue between art and science which often determines the theme and content of many her exhibitions.

Matthijs De Block is a multidisciplinary visual artist, focusing on the artistic exploration of fundamental scientific research in biotechnology. This cross-disciplinary engagement results not only in the development of innovative artistic practices but also focuses on alternative and sometimes disruptive ways art in general can define meaning within our society at large. De Block has researched the implications of micro-biodiversity on health for z33 House of Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium. During a residency at Waag Society Amsterdam he explored different biohacking techniques and created installations with artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies. He is now artist-in-residence at the biological laboratory of the University Hospital of the University of Ghent, Belgium, working around synthetic biology, bacteria and the human microbiome.

Mark DeGarmo, PhD, BFA is a dancer/performer, choreographer, writer, and researcher who hails from a rural New York State farming community. He is Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of Mark DeGarmo Dance, a New York City nonprofit dance organization celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2022 with its tri-part mission to educate, perform and build transcultural community through dance. “Dance Teacher Magazine” highlighted DeGarmo’s accomplishments in its June 2017 cover feature article, and Martha Hill Dance Fund recognized his achievements with its 2015 Mid-Career Award. Dr. DeGarmo was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (Peru) and a U.S. Department of State American Cultural Specialist (Ecuador). His over 100 dance works include “Las Fridas: A Movement Installation and Offering” slated to premiere in Latin America at the Mexico City International Contemporary Dance Festival (August 2022). New York press and audiences have heralded his work as “mesmerizing” and “fearless” and DeGarmo as “a gladiator in various arenas.”

Peruvian born Alicia Ehni is an artist and Program Officer at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Ehni works closely with Fiscal Sponsor projects on strategic planning and fundraising. At NYFA she also facilitated and managed professional development programs and entrepreneurial training, including the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. She serves on Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) Support for Individual Artists committee, is a former ArtTable NY Chapter Chair for Membership, NALAC Leadership Institute Fellow and SHIFT resident at Elizabeth Foundation. Previously she was the Director of Frederico Seve Gallery/Latincollector in New York.

Kara Elliott-Ortega is the Chief of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston. She is an urban planner in the arts focusing on the role of arts and creativity in the built environment and community development. Prior to becoming the Chief of Arts and Culture, she served as the Director of Policy and Planning for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. Her work to implement Boston Creates, Boston’s 10-year cultural plan, includes creating new resources for local artists, developing a public art program, and supporting the development of cultural facilities. Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Kara received her bachelor’s from the University of Chicago and her Master in City Planning from MIT. Prior to the City of Boston, she worked with MIT’s Community Innovators Lab in a community ownership plan for Project Row Houses in Houston, and served as the Media and Communications Editor for the Society of Architectural Historians. Some of her past research includes an analysis of the local impact of artists and art production in Detroit following the 2008 recession, and the role of urban designers in complex problem solving in the Rebuild by Design Hurricane Sandy Design Competition.

Collaboratively and independently, Janeil Engelstad has produced multiform projects, public art and exhibitions throughout the world. Her work has been exhibited and produced in partnership with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, ARTMargins/MIT, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Dallas Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art Gdańsk (Poland), Museum of Arts and Design, The Nasher, New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program, Oboro Montréal, Stanica Žilina- Záriečie, U.S. Department of State and others. Engelstad is also the Founding Director of Make Art with Purpose, an organization that produces collaborative artist-led projects that address social and environmental concerns throughout the world. A Fulbright Scholar, she is a member of the Social Practice Art Research Center at University of California, Santa Cruz and is the 2021-22 Artist in Residence and Visiting Faculty at the Institute of Innovation and Global Engagement at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

Lidy Ettema is the Director of Residenties in Utrecht and a specialist in the never-ending learning capacity of humans and their need to respond to the constantly changing world. Previously, Ettema worked as a coach and producer of community-based projects for cultural institutions for more than 25 years as a freelancer for a variety of clients: cultural institutions, educational institutions and governments at home and abroad.

Claudia Fiks is an Arts Administrator/Museum professional with 20+ years of experience working in arts and culture nonprofit organizations in the US and abroad. Claudia is currently the Development Director at Society of Arts and Crafts, Director at Newton Open Studios, and founder of Arts Administration Association New England (AAANE), which provides artists and art administrators professional development, career growth, and knowledge exchange. Working closely with artists, art leaders, policymakers, and funders, Claudia’s primary focus is to ensure that artists’ and communities’ needs are met, remove barriers to participation, advocate, and act on behalf of inclusion and equality. She has served on several art organizations’ boards of trustees, grant panelists and is currently leading an Artist in Residence program in partnership with Beacon Gallery. Claudia is also launching a call for art for the second edition of the “Speak Up” Exhibition in Boston in November 2022. Claudia received her MS in Arts Administrator and Nonprofit Fundraising and Management from Boston University.

Flurin Fischer is a research associate at the artists-in-labs program (ail) of ZHdK. In this role, he works on the co-conception, curation, organization and implementation of residencies at the interface of art and science, as well as exhibitions, books, short documentary films and other public formats. He also has experience in project work in complex, transdisciplinary and transcultural settings, collaborating within the fields of astrophysics, dynamic systems, pathogens and invasive plants, medicine, neuroscience, and microorganisms, among others and with institutions and partners from science and culture in Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong, Denmark, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Further activities involve cultural journalism (film, architecture, art), interactive, theatrical installations screenwriting and short film-making. For his work as a film journalist, he was awarded the Prix Pathé, Preis der Filmpublizistik and Solothurner Filmtage in 2012.

Karen Fitzgerald’s work is actively exhibited in the United States. Heavily influenced by poetry, her work delights in the energy of gardens, mysteries and all things invisible. She has received grants from the Queens Community Arts Fund, the Women’s Studio Workshop, and NYFA Artist Corps. Her work is in many private and public collections.

Dorothea Fleiss, PhD is a visual artist and life-long believer in artistic collaboration across the arts. Her works, which include paintings, installations, works on paper and book art has been exhibited in more than 60 solo and 190 group shows. As an artist, she has taken part in the Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale in South Korea, DakÁrt Biennale Senegal, Biennale Cuenca Ecuador and Biennale of Cairo. She is the co-founder and director of the DFEWA Artists Association, based in Dresden, Germany and the curator of the DFEWA’s two-week residencies in Carei, Romania; Mallnitz, Austria; Marrakesh, Morocco; Valparaiso, Chile; New York City, USA; Budapest and Nograd, Hungary, Stuttgart; Dresden, Germany; Lyon, France; Totovo Selo, Serbia; Qinhuangdao. Heze. Harbin, China; Zhutian, Taiwan; and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Additionally, she is the founder and curator of the EIBAB – European International Book Art Biennale.

Cynthia Fowler, Ph.D. is an art historian and Professor of Art at Emmanuel College, Boston, MA. She also teaches in the Museum Studies program at Harvard University Extension School. Her scholarship related to transcultural exchange includes Art History at the Crossroads of Ireland and the United States (Routledge, 2022), co-edited with Irish art historian Paula Murphy; and “Transatlantic Textiles: Ireland’s Dun Emer Textiles in America During the First Decade of the Twentieth Century” in Textile History (2019). She has also published on modernist textiles and craft with a focus on women’s artistic production. Her book The Modern Embroidery Movement (London: Bloomsbury, 2018) focuses on the abstract embroideries of American women artists made in the first half of the twentieth century.

Karol Frühauf, MSc in Electrical Engineering, is co-founder of INFOGEM AG in Baden, Switzerland, which provides consultancy and training in the field of software engineering since 1987. Frühauf co-authored two books and is a frequent speaker, tutor and teacher in the field of requirements engineering and test management. He initiated the Bridge Guard Art / Science Residence Centre in Štúrovo, Slovakia, which has been open since the summer of 2004 and is its director. Štúrovo is on the left shore of the Danube, facing Esztergom in Hungary on the other side. Since 2001, Maria Valeria bridge again connects the two towns. Additionally, he is a board of trustee member of the Yehoshua and Margrit Lakner Foundation (Yehoshua Lakner was a composer) and advisory board member of the Foundation Old Church Boswil (also called House of Music), both in Switzerland. He has also been a Res Artis board member as treasurer for eight years.

Rita Fucillo is grateful for an extensive and happy career spent working in the arts. She is the associate publisher of Art New England magazine, the region’s premier resource for contemporary arts and culture; Panorama: The Official Guide to Boston; Theatrebill magazine; and several other titles in the arts and hospitality sectors. Amidst the pandemic, Ms. Fucillo became certified as a life coach and has been working with artists on their personal, professional, and artistic goals. A graduate of Boston’s Commonwealth School and Brandeis University, her experience includes theatrical general management, marketing and communications, public relations, and, most prominently, arts publishing.

Anne-Karin Furunes is an artist and a Professor at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art. For her artwork, Furunes works by sourcing photographic material from various archives and then processes it further, concentrating on the faces and removing references to the subjects’ social status and moments in history that shaped their lives. In addition to the portraits, her recent exhibitions include perforated paintings that depict landscapes and melting icebergs. Her work has been subject of important solo shows at Palazzo Fortuny and Palazzo Ducale in Venice; Millesgården in Stockholm; Västerås Art Museum; Ryan Lee Gallery in New York; Trondheim Art Museum; The University of Wyoming Art Museum – and now in Stiftsgården Royal Residence in Trondheim/Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum. Large-scale commissions of her work have been realized at Barcode KLP in Oslo, Deutsche Bank in Sydney, St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Trondheim Airport Værnes, Fram II in Tromsø, The National Theatre Station in Oslo, and Wergeland’s House in Eidsvoll. She is represented in prominent public collections worldwide including the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Kistefos Museum in Norway, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Palazzo Fortuny in Venice and Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim.

Elizabeth Gerdeman is a visual artist from the USA currently based in Germany, where she is a Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Her work has been exhibited extensively. Recent exhibition venues include the Modern Art Museum in Yerevan, Armenia; Athens Digital Arts Festival in Athens, Greece; (Z)ORTEN in Graubünden, Switzerland; Else Foundation Symposium in Mexico City, Mexico; site specific interventions in Venice, Italy; Hammond Harkins Galleries in Columbus, OH; and Бükü, Helmut and BSMNT galleries in Leipzig, Germany. Her artistic practice explores ways that humans are tied to their environments.

Amy Giese is an American artist and educator living in Boston, MA. Giese has taught at a wide range of institutions, from technical schools, to museums, to community college to art schools. She is currently the Program Director of the MFA in Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a cross-disciplinary, low-residency MFA at the college. Prior to that she was the Director of the MFA in Photography at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, another low-residency MFA program. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Amherst College (Amherst, MA) and an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design (New York, NY).

Rotem Goldenberg is multi-disciplinary artist, puppeteer, storyteller and medical clown. Holds a dual Bachelor’s degree from Tel Aviv University in the Multidisciplinary Program in Humanities and in the Theater Arts. Graduated from the School and Stage for Physical Theater, inspired by the method of Jacques Lecoq. She creates art for both young and adult audiences. Her art exists between the spaces of visual theater, puppets, performance, storytelling, and clowning. She performed with her works in various festivals in Israel (The Train Theater, Acco festival) and worldwide (China, Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Germany, France and more). She believes in using theater as a tool in both social activism and therapy. For the past decade, she has been working in medical clowning, accompanying children and their families to treatments and procedures via the Dream Doctors project. She is an actor and partner in the Holot Theater, a social theater group for Israelis and asylum seekers.

Rosie Gordon-Wallace is the founder and senior curator of Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, one of the most talked about art incubator spaces in Miami. Always a passionate lover of art, in 1996 Gordon-Wallace made up her mind to devote herself full-time to the gallery she created and developed. Diaspora Vibe Gallery, which specializes in Caribbean and Latin American Art with an emphasis on exhibiting emerging artists, supports the development of new work by resident artists by offering workshops and other skill-building opportunities for young artists. The gallery also provides educational and outreach programs for the community. Gordon-Wallace has been awarded The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center 3rd Annual Calabash Amadlozi Visual Arts Award, International Businesswoman of the Year, One of South Florida’s 50 Most Powerful Black Professionals of 2007, The Images and Voices of Hope: What works: From Inspiration to Action award; The Champion of the Arts Award; The Red Cross Spectrum Award for Culture; The Women in International Trade Businesswoman of the Year award, and the Miami Beach Black Advisory Board Award for Arts and Culture.

Florian Grond is an artist and interaction designer working as a research associate in the Shared Reality Lab at McGill University. His research and design interests are multimodal participatory design in the context of disability, the arts, and assistive technology. He has several years of experience in immersive 3D sound recording and reproduction. When connecting design and disability, he draws from his creative practice as an artist. Over the last years, he started various collaborations with colleagues with disabilities from academia and the arts resulting in research output, artistic creations and the curating of exhibitions.

Susanna Gyulamiryan (Yerevan, Armenia) is a curator, researcher and feminist activist who has initiated and implemented numerous exhibitions, educational programs, and public events in Armenia and internationally. In 2007, she co-founded the non-governmental organization ‘Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory’ (ACSL), where she is currently the appointed president. In 2008, she also founded the ‘Art Commune’ International Artist-in-Residence Program in Yerevan, which is a general member of the Res Artis worldwide network of artist residencies. Additionally, since 2006, she has been a member of AICA-Armenia (International Association of Art Critics). Further, during a period of ten years, Gyulamiryan has led courses in Gender Studies and Feminist Art (Theory and Practice) at the Department of Fine Arts, Armenian Open University (International Academy of Education); and, in 2019, Gyulamiryan was appointed curator of the Pavilion of Republic of Armenia, entitled ‘Revolutionary Sensorium’ at the 58th Intentional Art Exhibition, La Biennae Di Venezia. In 2022, Gyulamiryan initiated and curated the 1st edition of the Queer, Feminist International Festival in Armenia entitled ‘Feminism CorpoReal’ with support and co-curation of the FemLibrary Armenia.

Jan Hanvik directs Crossing Bridges in New York City and New York State’s Hudson Valley, and Puentes y Redes A.C. (Bridges & Networks) in Mexico. Previously, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (Dance in El Salvador in 1990-91, and Arts Management in Uruguay and Argentina in 1999 and 2001). For CEC ArtsLink, he taught Dance Company Management in Volgograd, Russia to artists from the former USSR (2001). He also has been panelist, reviewer, and consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, andFord Foundation, among others. He was named Ambassador by the indigenous P’urhépecha-led Pantzingo Ecotourism Center, Michoacán, Mexico to adapt the center into an international artist residency to foster exchange among indigenous North American artists and non-indigenous artists.

Chantal Harris is the Director of Monson Arts. Monson Arts is an artists’ residency and arts center in Monson, Maine. The goal of the residency program is to provide time and space for artists and writers to devote to their creative practices. Residencies are two or four weeks long and come with studio space, a private bedroom in shared housing, all meals and a stipend of $1,000 ($500 for two-week programs). Located at the edge of Maine’s North Woods near the Appalachian Trail, the town is surrounded by areas of stunning natural beauty. Harris comes to Monson Arts with sixteen years of experience working in the arts. With a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she has a broad knowledge of multiple disciplines with a focus in sculpture. Her years supporting students through their arts education as well as professionals at all stages of their career, has highlighted a passion in this work of raising up artists and providing the time, space and encouragement for their creativity. She enjoys connecting artists to the community and facilitating storytelling through their work.

Sam Harvey is a Professional Development Specialist at Pratt Institute. There, Harvey chairs the MISA Committee, coordinates the Mindful Pratt community drop-in practices and ran Pratt’s inaugural summit on Mindfulness & Contemplative Practices in Student Affairs. She also has been the Research Assistant in contemplative practices and involved with Pratts’ Visiting Associate Professor Rhonda Schaller’s initiatives for the last four years. In their work in Pratt’s Career Center, she is interested in the ways organizations support their employees and help others find ways to balance professional and personal passions.

Irène Hediger is head of the artists-in-labs program (AIL), Department of Cultural Analysis at Zurich University of the Arts. She curates and promotes inter- and transdisciplinary exchange and practices at the interface of art, science and technology in the fields of environmental science, astrophysics, biology, neuroscience and medicine. In 2009, she initiated the International artists-in-labs Residency Exchange program with scientists and artists from China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Switzerland on environmental challenges and regional implications of climate change. Hediger has also (co-)curated numerous exhibitions and accompanying programs on contemporary art, science and technology such as “Quantum of Disorder,” “(in)visible transitions,” “Displacements – Art, Science and the DNA of the Ibex,” “Propositions for A Poetic Ecosystem” in Jeddah and “Interfacing New Heavens” in Pretoria. Additionally, she is the author of numerous essays and books.

Sin-Ying Ho was born in Hong Kong, immigrated to Canada, and currently resides in New York City. She is an associate professor at Queens College, City University of New York teaching ceramics art. She holds an MFA from Louisiana State University in 2001, BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1997, and has taught and run workshops, lectures and exhibitions all across Canada, as well as from Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harvard University to Hong Kong and Jingdezhen – China’s over 1000 years old city of porcelain. She has exhibited in the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, France, Germany, Romania, Turkey and Italy. Her pieces are in the permanent collections of museums, corporate companies and private collections. Additionally, she is an advisor of Taoxichuan Art Center, Jingdezhen, PR China, and advisory board member of Watershed Center of Ceramics Art.

Cuong P. Hoang is the director of programs of Mott Philanthropic, helping philanthropists design, implement, and assess their grant making in arts and culture, education, climate justice and just transition, and fiscal policy. Cuong previously worked at Philanthropic Advisors; at Hunt Alternatives Fund, a family foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and at the City of Boston Mayor’s Office. In the arts, he has worked at Boston Center for the Arts, the South End News, and American Repertory Theater. Currently, Cuong serves on the boards of Company One Theatre and the EDGE Funders Alliance, an international network of progressive funders. He received his AB cum laude in Russian Studies and East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a certificate in Russian Politics, Economics, and Language from the St. Petersburg State Pedagogical Institute.

Lynn Hughes is an Emeritus Professor in Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal / Tiohtià:ke). From 2004 to 2018, she held a Concordia Research Chair in Interaction Design and Games Innovation. In 2000, she was instrumental in the conception, structuring and funding of Hexagram, the Montreal Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies. In 2008 she founded, with Bart Simon, the cross-Faculty Technoculture Art and Games (TAG) Research Centre which focuses on interdisciplinary research in Games Studies and games design. More recently, she founded, with Bart Simon and Christopher Salter, Milieux, the umbrella Institute for Art, Culture and Technology which currently brings together over 200 graduate students and 99 faculty members. Lynn’s creative production has been exhibited at festivals and galleries, locally, nationally and internationally in the United States, Asia and Europe. Her current work explores the area between participatory theatre, games and larps (live action role playing games), and new media art.

Iris, Ping-Chi HUNG is an independent curator and a professional art coordinator. She is the president of the Taiwan Art Space Alliance and a member of the curatorial team INSIDER. Previously, she was the Managing Director of Bamboo Curtain Studio; and Manager of Taipei Brick House. Hung received her MA in Culture Industry from Goldsmiths, University of London, focusing on the role of pop-up culture in gentrified areas. She is interested in exploring the systems of support in the art and culture field, collaboration in cross-disciplines, and connections between international exchange and local connections. Her curatorial concept focuses on perception and emotion through the experience of the body.

Boston-based David Ibbett is a composer, educator and musical advocate for science, and was the first guest composer at Fermilab. He directs the Multiverse Concert Series, a project that combines music and science in live performance. Inspired by sonified data, musical metaphors for scientific concepts, and experimental sound and images from contemporary research music, he describes his compositions as electro-symphonic, a fusion of classical and electronic styles that interweaves influences from songs, symphonies, pop, rock and electronica. He also mentors young composers and is a Visiting Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Recent scores include “The Octave of Light”.

Hanna Isaksson works as manager at ASC, Artists Support Center, in Luleå, Arctic Sweden. ASC (Resurscentrum för konst) works to strengthen the professional art scene in northern Sweden by creating exhibition possibilities, facilitating commissions as well as organizing education programs for visual artists and professional craft makers. Additionally, Isaksson is the founder of Swedish Lapland AiR, launched in 2018. It is a network, consisting of eight residencies/hubs, located in the vast geography of northern Sweden. Together, these programs host between seven and ten residencies per year. She is also a board member of Konstfrämjandet Sweden and Gefvert Insurance company for artists and one of the leading project partners in the international project well-being residencies, building a network of residencies placed in environments like hospitals, prisons, orphanage etc. She also has previously worked as the CEO at The Swedish Artists’ Association (KRO) and as the marketing director/producer at Havremagasinet International Art Gallery, Boden.

Kassem Istanbouli is the Founder of the Arabic Culture and Arts Network, dealing with the design and implementation of online culture activities for Arab countries; manager and founder of the Lebanese National Theatre – Tyre; project manager at Tiro Association for Arts, Lebanon (dealing with various international projects related to capacity building, youth empowerment, equality, and working for UNESCO, DROSOS FOUNDATION, UNIFIL, and PAX projects, among others); and, since 2014, leading the rehabilitation of historic cinemas, abandoned/destroyed after the war. Additionally, he is the founder and director of several cultural festivals, operating at the international level: the Tyre Short Films Festival (8 editions); Lebanese International Theatre Festival; Women International Monodrama (2 editions); International Storytelling Festival (2 editions), Tyre International Music Festival (4 editions), as well as other international events on contemporary dance, painting and photography. Previously, from 2014 – 2020 he was a teacher of Theatre at South of Lebanon public schools.

Stephan Jacobs is an Associate Professor of Art at Emmanuel College, leading courses and programs of study in traditional and contemporary still and motion imaging. Stephan is the Acting Director of Emmanuel College’s annual summer Artist in Residence program (ECAR), now entering its second decade. A fervent supporter of inter-cultural cooperation for students and faculty alike, Stephan is the founder and American director of an academic mobility program with Bauhaus University-Weimar, Germany and spearheaded Emmanuel College’s new partnership with University of San Francisco Quito, Ecuador.

Tonasia Jones (she/her) is a Boston based Disruptor, Program Director, and Creator (Actor/Director) whose work focuses on diverse collaboration and inclusive storytelling to conquer the societal divides through new and reimagined work. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, in recent years she has ventured to work in places such as Arts Emerson (Creative Producer), Huntington Theatre (Casting/Producing Apprentice), Bad Habit Productions (General Manager), Brown Box Theatre Project (Artistic Outreach Manager), The Theater Offensive (Programs Coordinator, and now Program Director), and StageSource (Program Director). Her Acting and Directing work has enabled her to work freelance at New England theaters & universities such as Greater Boston Stage Company, Suffolk University, A.R.T, Fresh Ink, Speakeasy Stage Company, Huntington Theater and more.

Kyle Keane, PhD, is a computational scientist and disability advocate who has taught Principles and Practices of Assistive Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2016. He has extensive experience in academic, corporate, and startup settings. He has worked internationally, establishing communities of practice focused on the full inclusion of persons with disabilities. At Wolfram Research (the makers of Mathemematica and Wolfram|Alpha), Dr. Keane has developed business partnerships to launch new products and services to help persons with disabilities, including writing code that let Apple’s Siri speak the answer to technical questions provided by Wolfram|Alpha.

Described as the “Lady Gaga of Vietnam” and compared to Russian artist-activists Pussy Riot, Mai Khoi’s career began as an award-winning pop singer. When she decided to use her platform to criticize the Government of Vietnam’s censorship and lack of democracy she faced harassment, surveillance, and was eventually forced to leave her home country. In 2018 she received the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in recognition of her democracy activism. To date Khoi has released eight albums and she is currently an Artist Protection Fund Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.

Annette Klein is program curator for the performative and visual arts as well as director of the artist residency Studio 170 at the Goethe-Institut Boston. She has been curating programs that promote cultural exchange and dialogue for almost 20 years profiting from her former life as a professional musician and teacher in Germany and the US. Photo Credit: Carla Zahrte

Gordon Knox is a deeply experienced cultural innovator, educator, and institution builder.  Knox has a profound sensitivity for the potency of cultural dynamics and a fundamental belief in the arts, artists, and creative practice as a means for connecting, disrupting and effecting systemic change. His skills and proclivities lie in building and developing cohesive teams, communities, institutions and organizations; he attracts talented people and creates around him the alliances, partnerships and networks needed to see with new eyes, challenge assumptions, dissolve social and cultural boundaries, and create concrete impact in the social sphere. Between 1990-2020 he held the following positions: founding director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation – Italy and NYC; founding director of the Lucas Artists Programs at Montalvo Arts, CA; director of global Initiatives at the Stanford Humanities Lab, CA; director of the Arizona State University Art Museum, AZ; and president of the San Francisco Art Institute, CA.

Khalid Kodi is Sudanese American artist, cultural critic and professor at Northeastern University, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Boston College. As an African living in America, Kodi has embraced both American and African cultures. His work has tackled the subjects of racism, injustice, the legacy of slavery and purely artistic subjects and have been widely exhibited with critical acclaim. He has received many grants, including from the Sudan Studies Association and Open Society Institute of Eastern Africa in partnership with HS (Hope Society) of South Sudan, among others; fellowships; and residencies, including at Art Omi and the University of Hawaii-Hilo, AAMARP (African American Masters Artists in Residency Program) Boston, among others.

Kate Kostopoulos is the Director of Chase Young Gallery. She received her BA in Writing and Literature at Emerson College, MA in Arts Administration at Savannah College of Art, and a Masters of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music. Her experiences as both a performer and arts administrator have provided her a unique and comprehensive perspective on various aspects of art. Her interest in education, innovation and preservation led her to pursue her passion promoting visual art on a larger scale in various art galleries. She became the owner of Chase Young Gallery in 2016 and continues to be a valued resource not only for both emerging and established artists, but also for beginning and experienced art buyers and collectors.

Joel Kowit is a former Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology at Emmanuel College (1975-2016), and founder and presenter of Immunology Workshops (3-day presentations to more than 5,000 scientists at more than 50 pharmaceutical companies over a 30-year period). Additionally, he has worked as a graphic designer, creating hundreds of complex, referenced, scientific immunology diagrams for his presentations, As an artist, he has had exhibitions of his blown glass at the Lexington Senior Center, of his paintings at the Lexington Cary Memorial Library, and of his stained glass at Lab Central, Cambridge, and at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

In 2001 Otis Kriegel co-founded the public art collective, Illegal Art, whose interactive pieces have been installed throughout the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. Illegal Art’s work has been featured by National Public Radio, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Public Art Review, The Guardian, Dwell Magazine, International Herald Tribune, including three times featured on the New York Times Op-Ed page. Recently their projects have been exhibited in association with Wonderspaces, Arte Abierto in Mexico City, The Beijing Times Museum in Beijing, China, The Tenement Museum in New York City, The Clarice Smith Center in College Park, Maryland and the municipalities of Providence, Rhode Island, Provincetown and Somerville, Massachusetts and Ithaca, New York. Their project, TO DO, was featured at South by South Lawn Festival at The White House. In 2018, Otis gave a TED Talk about Illegal Art’s projects.

Helene Larsson Pousette is the Counsellor for Cultural Affairs at the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC. Larsson Pousette has more than twenty years’ experience in the museum and exhibition profession with a special focus on the relationship between heritage and contemporary societies. She has worked at the Swedish Exhibition Agency, the Swedish Institute, Swedish National Heritage Board and the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. She was also the Counsellor for Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade. Additionally, she is the co-founder of the Stockholm Museum of Women’s History. There, she headed the department of research, collections and progressive archiving, and initiated such various programs as History Labs, Archivism and Archive Excavations as well as the development of contemporary collecting.

Neil Leonard is a composer, saxophonist and transdisciplinary artist. Leonard’s works include concerts for ensembles with live electronics, audio/visual installation and multimedia performance. He maintains active collaborations in Cuba, Italy, Israel, Canada, China, Brazil, Mexico, and across the US. Leonard works with artist from film, video, installation, dance, and theater to create and perform music, often using immersive multichannel audio configurations. Leonard’s sound installations have been featured by Mass MoCA, Williams College Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Media Lab at MIT, Havana Bienal (Cuba), Bienal de Bahia (Brazil). Large scale installations and performances with Magdalena Campos, Fujiko Nakaya, Phill Niblock and Tony Oursler were featured by the Tate Modern, documenta, Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennale. Leonard has taught electronic music composition and production in more than a dozen countries. He is a Professor at the Berklee College of Music and the founding Artistic Director of the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute.

Linda Lighton is the founder of the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program, an artist and a fervent arts activist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a passionate advocate for the arts both regionally, nationally and internationally, and she is committed to being creatively prolific and politically engaged on a daily basis. Lighton has worked on many boards in her community and currently serves on the National Committee at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Parsons Dance Company. As an artist, she has had more than 60 solo shows and has participated in more than 170 group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Jing-Jing Lin is a conceptual artist whose work deals primarily with social-political themes such as confusion and quest, existence and absence, constraint, and resistance through a lens of paradox.

Janna Longacre is a sculptor/site-specific installation artist; Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design; member of the board of directors for TransCultural Exchange and The Quarry, Contemporary Art Center; and member of the International Ceramics Academy (IAC) and the NCECA Green Task Force. She identifies as a narrative artist, using materials – including light – to create visual poems. Space, time, process and material are the critical elements of her work. Raised on a small farm with traditional life methods and materials, she has since embraced every opportunity to explore the world. Her curiosity started in 1973 when, at the age of twenty-one, she drove the length of Africa. Since then, she has had direct cultural experience in 48 countries. As an explorer, she absorbs history, culture and science, which she reflects upon in her work. She has received numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artist Foundation.

Krishna Luchoomun is the founder of pARTage, an artist-led organization working for the promotion of contemporary art in Mauritius. He is the leader of the group and is currently teaching at the School of Fine Arts, Mahatma Gandhi Institute. He also has participated in a series of exhibitions and residencies in different countries.

Jane D. Marsching is an interdisciplinary artist who explores our past, present and future human impact on the environment through collaborative research-based practices. Projects have been sited in museums and galleries as well as weather observatories, public parks, city streets, radio waves, and the internet. She has worked with scientists, educators, kite builders, meteorologists, architects, and musicians, among others. She is currently a professor and sustainability fellow at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Director of the Colleges of the Fenway’s Minor in Sustainability at MassArt.

Fátima Martínez Gutierrez has been a journalist and lecturer since 2008, Her expertise is in social media, digital journalism and international journalism. Since 2017, Martínez Gutierrez has been a full-time Professor in journalism at the Universidad del Rosario, in Bogota, Colombia. Previously, she worked for Cordoba International TV in a Muslim television station based in Madrid. As a journalist and photographer, she documented the migrant crisis on the Lesbos island. In Athens, Greece, she organized and curated exhibitions addressing the migrant crisis in Europe and Colombia and was a chief-coordinator in the radio-programme Ondas Sin Fronteras (Waves Without Borders) in Madrid, Spain as well as served as a director of their digital platform Plaza Capital in Bogota, Colombia.

Bill Marx is the Editor-in-Chief of The Arts Fuse. For just over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater and books for National Public Radio Station WBUR, the Boston Globe, and a number of national publications. He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he started The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England.

Purnima Mitra works as a Senior 3D Artist in LiveRoom (PVT) Ltd. Her artworks reflect the complex issues that shape our diverse, global, and rapidly changing society. She uses her creativity to bridge art and technology, in ways that allow the audiences to directly participate in her works. She has held several exhibitions in Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, among others. In 2012, she won the runners-up award in the Young Painters exhibition, organized by Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited.

Giovanni Enrico Morassutti is the artistic director of the International Cultural Center Art Aia-Creatives / In / Residence, which fosters sustainability in the arts and cultural mobility.  At the moment, he is consolidating his collaborations with several international partners, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, and other entities rooted in the local community. Morassutti is also an Italian actor, theatre director, artist, writer, and cultural entrepreneur. He is best known for having deepened the study of the realistic school of acting. Since 2001 he has played leading and supporting roles in more than 30 Italian and International films. As a stage actor and director, he worked with Ellen Stewart at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, among others, and directed Lydia Biondi at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2012 and in Madre sin Pañuelo, a theatrical play based on the Dirty War. .

Carmen Moreira is the Executive Director and Choreographer of SQx Dance Company, a registered Canadian charity based in South Slocan, British Columbia, which she founded in 2012. Moreira is also the EU Cooperation Projects Manager for Município de Vila do Porto on the island of Santa Maria in Açores, Portugal.. Her performances and program designs use contemporary dance to foster positive social change and target vulnerable populations. Her work has been supported by the Government of Canada, Province of British Columbia, Columbia Basin Trust, Canadian Tire – Jumpstart, Telus, Governo dos Açores, and the European Commission. Her work has been presented across Canada, Europe and in Mexico and Morocco. Because of the long-term repercussions of congenital heart disease, Moreira identifies was a disability artist.

Catherine T. Morris is the Director of Arts + Culture at the Boston Foundation and a social entrepreneur, visionary, and creative strategist who works at the intersection of arts and culture, equity and creative place-keeping. She has created platforms, produced shows, and mobilized and engaged audiences in interactive events to experience the arts from a holistic perspective. She is the Founder and Interim Executive Director of Boston Art & Music Soul (BAMS) Fest, an organization that breaks down racial and social barriers to arts, music and culture for marginalized communities and artists of color across Boston. She also has served as the Director of Public Programs of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2018 National Art Strategies Creative Community Fellow (The Barr Foundation) and has served on grant review panels for the Cambridge Arts Council, The Lewis Prize for Music, and the Boston Neighborhood Fellowship (The Boston Foundation).

Dana Moser is an educator, curator, film/video/installation artist, and currently, a professor in the Studio for Interrelated Media in Boston. He has exhibited widely including in Networks & Computation in the Futures of Our Past, Galerie Weisser Elefant (Berlin, Germany); Group Show, AMP Gallery (Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA); We See Each Other All the Time (with Nita Sturiale), Boston Cyberarts Gallery (Boston, Massachusetts, USA); Selections, Bakalar and Paine Galleries (Boston, Massachusetts, USA); and DecodeRecode – Celebrating 100 years of Alan Turing, MediaCity at University of Salford (Salford, UK).

Susanne Mueller-Baji graduated in Graphic Design in Stuttgart/Germany and was an Art Director with American advertising agency Bates Saatchi & Saatchi in Budapest/Hungary. Today she is an acclaimed art critic, artist and illustrator based in Germany. As a writer, she has published in various magazines and newspapers. In 2019, she also collaborated with author Anja Mattila-Tolvanen on the book “Medelplanin matkassa” on Finnish alphabetization and the joy of reading and writing. In the field of visual art, she has served as a resident in various artist-in-residency programs and has also initiated international art projects and exhibitions.

Mattia Mura is a documentary and visual artist based in Italy. His practice revolves around the concept of limits (of life, of perception, of geography …) as an opportunity to increase consciousness and understanding. Mura has exhibited projects in a solo and group exhibitions in Italy, Macedonia, Belgium and Slovakia. His documentaries and movies have been screened in festivals all over Europe and abroad. He has received awards for best movies in Russia (Zero+ film festival), Italy (Medlimes), India (JIFFA), Japan (Meihodo International Film Festival), and selected in the New Zealand platform “Films for Change” for his first long documentary, The Choice of Staying (2020). He also has been a recipient of international art residencies at Nomadic Island (Luxemburg 2022, appointed), Selina (Ecuador 2021), Bridgeguard (Slovakia 2020-2021), and Fabrica Research Center (Italy 2015-2018).

Megumi Naitoh is a professor of Art at Emmanuel College and an artist who fuses ceramics and digital technology. She was born in Japan, currently works and resides in Boston, USA and Birmingham, UK. Megumi is a She holds a B.S. from San Diego State University and an M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Grant, Brother Thomas Fellowship, International Residency Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art. Her work is exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally at the Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan; Guldagergaard (International Ceramic Research Center), Denmark; Bernardau Foundation, France; Gaya Ceramic Arts Center, Indonesia; International Ceramic Symposium, Germany; and Manchester Metropolitan University, UK to name a few. She is also a founder of ECAR (Emmanuel College of Artist in Residence) Program. This International program has been running since 2010.

Ahmed Naji is an Egyptian novelist and author of four books, including The Use of Life (2014) and Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison (2020). In early 2016, Naji was imprisoned on charges of “violating public modesty” and was sentenced following complaints about sexual content in his book The Use of Life. Naji spent 10 months in prison until May 2017 when he was conditionally released, though subject to a travel ban pending appeal of his case. A year later, the court overturned his original sentence, replaced prison time with a fine, and lifted Naji’s travel restrictions. In July 2018, he fled Egypt and now lives in the United States. Naji has nevertheless continued to write: He was appointed a City of Asylum fellow at the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute in 2019). Naji is the 2016 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write honoree.

Jake Neuberger is a member of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) at PEN America working closely with its director on providing assistance to persecuted artists. He graduated from the George Washington University with a double major in Political Science and International Affairs and minors in Spanish and Sociocultural Anthropology. Before his role with ARC, Jake served as a research and international advocacy intern with AsiLegal, a civil society organization in Mexico City, focusing on marginalized communities and reform within the Mexican prison system. His experience also includes work concerning policy research and advocacy, database and archive management, graphic design, and more. He hopes to further serve communities at risk through direct service and research work and currently resides in Connecticut.

Erica Puccio O’Brien is the Director of the International Education Center at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, providing strategic direction for MassArt’s internationalization efforts. In Ms. Puccio’s 20+ years at multiple institutions, she has shaped, coordinated, and established policy around study abroad program development, education abroad experiences, and international student support services. She directed a study abroad program in Paris, France for three years, and is the former President of MaCIE, the Massachusetts Council for International Education. Ms. Puccio earned her M.A. in International Education from the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, and her B.A. from Dartmouth College.

A native of the Boston area, but a global citizen at heart, Christine O’Donnell opened Beacon Gallery in her hometown in 2017. This fulfilled a lifelong dream to create a space to promote emerging and established artists and foster social impact and community-building initiatives. After more than a decade spent living and working in Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore, she cultivated her passion for the arts by experiencing the diverse cultural and creative depths around her and developed close connections within the art world. She is also a member of the Association of Women’s Art Dealers (AWAD), Boston Art Dealers Association (BADA), trained as an appraiser with the International Society of Appraisers, and is a partner in Madrid’s Very Private Gallery. She is pursuing a MA in Art History through the UK’s Open University, holds a MA in teaching from Tufts University and a BA from Holy Cross.

Jennifer Okumura has a strong comprehensive knowledge of the art market: modern and contemporary art with diverse and extensive fine art experience, including as operations manager, fine art consultant, design associate, adjunct educator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and currently sits on the board as President and founding Exhibition Chair for the National Association of Women Artists, Inc. Massachusetts chapter. Okumura’s work is featured and a part of The Vendue Art Hotel; Massachusetts State Senate, Office of Senator Will Brownsberger; Four Seasons Downtown Boston; Kayak, Boston Consulting Group; Boston College; Morgan Stanley; Acadian Asset; Worcester Polytechnic Institute Collection; Aetna Corp. Collection; and numerous private collections. She a has relationships with galleries in Manhattan, Westport, Boston, Charleston and has exhibited in the Swiss Art Expo ZÜRICH; Art Metropole Europe Barcelona, Spain; and the upcoming Artexpo New York Art Fair in 2022.

Emmanuel Ortega (PhD, Art History, University of New Mexico) is the Marilynn Thoma Scholar in Art of the Spanish Americas and an Assistant Professor in Colonial Latin American Art at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ortega specializes in the topics of sentimentality as it pertains to nineteenth-century Mexico, and Novohispanic Franciscans portraiture. Springing from his research interests, Ortega has curated in Mexico and the United States. An essay titled “The Mexican Picturesque and the Sentimental Nation: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Landscape” was published in the June 2021 issue of the Art Bulletin. He is a recurrent lecturer and member of the Board of Directors of Arquetopia Foundation based in Mexico, Peru and Italy, one of the largest artist residencies worldwide.

Bojana Panevska is artist, researcher and writer based in Amsterdam. For the past ten years, she has been developing the interdisciplinary project entitled 12 steps towards enlightenment. Segments of it have been exhibited and published widely. In addition, since 2009, she has served as a project manager for international collaborations and a workshop facilitator at TransArtists, a leading web resource for artists around the world.

Amanda Phillips is the Executive Director of Development & Operations at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA) in Philadelphia. Passionate about strengthening communities and supporting creatives as a force for social change, she thrives on forging unexpected partnerships, leading teams and executing mission-driven, strategic events. She also has experience in all aspects of revenue-stream generation, operations and budget stabilization, strategic planning, communications and marketing and team development. Prior to her time at CFEVA, she oversaw the transformative growth of the iconic historic site based in Alexandria, VA: Woodlawn & Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House, now a dynamic, and more relevant space. She also served as the Development Director at FRESHFARM Markets, DC, where she partnered with such art institutions as The Philipps Collection and those supporting emerging creatives such as Transformer DC and Washington Projects for the Arts. She is also a board member of the James Renwick Alliance, a meber of ArtTable and program committee at CraftNOW.

Jeff Plunkett is a former investment management executive. As global general counsel at Natixis Investment Managers, he led the legal function of this top-15 investment management company. Prior to Natixis, he was a corporate and securities law partner at Goodwin, a leading international law firm. Currently, he is the chairman of the Audit Committee of ALIPH (International Alliance for the Preservation of Heritage in conflict areas), a foundation established in Switzerland by nations and private donors. He also serves on the board of the French-American Chamber of Commerce – New England, a non-profit that supports companies, entrepreneurs and individuals based in New England and France, and is a past member of the board of trustees of the French Cultural Center in Boston. He received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Elizabeth Ponce is the Public Programs Coordinator at the List Visual Arts Center at MIT. Working alongside List Center staff and student guides, Elizabeth engages with audiences at MIT and those visiting from around the world, to provide context and information about the List Center’s current exhibitions and extensive Public Art Collection. Elizabeth plays a lead role in the List Center’s tour program and student programs including the ‘Graduate Student Talks’ series, inviting MIT graduate students from a range of disciplines to explore visual art through the lens of their own research, background and interests. Prior to joining the MIT community, Elizabeth served as Program Coordinator for the Brookline Arts Center, an organization committed to bringing visual arts opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds, through classes, exhibitions and outreach.

Johan Pousette is currently based in Washington DC. On temporary leave as director of IASPIS in Sweden, Pousette is active as curator, writer, and consultant. His previous positions include National Co-ordinator for Contemporary Art at Riksutställningar and Founding Director of BAC, Baltic Art Center, Expert advisor to the Nordic Council of Ministers and Kulturkontakt Nord on artist-in-residence programs in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Member of the TransCultural Exchange’s international advisory board, and board member of Res Artis global network of residence centre. His experience as a freelance curator includes the Gothenburg Biennial and the October Salon in Belgrade and Baltic Sculpture, as well as extensive curatorial assignments with established international artists as William Kentridge, Alfredo Jaar, Annika von Hausswolff, Jessica Stockholder, Rosa Barba, Fiona Tan and many more. With a special interest in artistic processes, Pousette is also editor of COLLECTIVELY, a new book on collective artistic practice, released 2021.

Ponnapa Prakkamakul is a visual artist and landscape architect based in Massachusetts. She has been working extensively in public engagement art projects in the Greater Boston Area. Her body of work, using painting as a process to connect with her surroundings to better understand cultural displacement and isolation issues as an immigrant, overlaps fine art and landscape architecture. Her landscape and urban design work in open, public spaces also have been built nationally and internationally. She currently is a licensed landscape architect at Sasaki.

Sonya Rademeyer is a South African visual artist who will present Tankwa Artscape Residency on behalf of its founder, Leli Hoch. Rademeyer participated in the first 2018 Residency as well as others thereafter. Tankwa Artscape Residency is an annual, free artist residency for emerging and mid-career artists, both national and international, taking place in South Africa. It is a unique desert experience with a conceptual focus that looks to interact creatively with the harsh environment of the Tankwa Karoo and the history of the First Nations People (The San) who lived there. The residency is suited to works relating to the environment, offering space and time for investigation, unusual art practice and interdisciplinary collaboration. Artworks lean towards ephemeral and performance-based works predominantly, which are documented through video/photography/audio podcasts. Land/nature artists, sculptors, sound artists, musicians, spoken word artists, storytellers, movement artists and performance-based artists are encouraged to apply.

Shabani Ramadhani is a musician, bass player, song writer, festival organizer and founder of the Marahaba music expo in Bujumbura, which allowed him to serve as an ambassador of Visa for Music in Morocco and in a range of musical events throughout Africa as well as Europe. He has extensive music industry training in U.K, Tanzania, Uganda, the Ivory Coast, Malawi, Morocco, Mayotte Island, Egypt, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Burundi and Kenya and has served as an intern in music industry in the British Council in Tanzania and the British Council in London, financially funded by the European Union. He also has performed as a musician in Tanzania and abroad and been a teacher of music in Tanzania, notably at the House of talents (THT).

Rebecca Reynolds co-founded the Manship Artists Residency five years ago to save an historic and environmentally-significant property as an international, interdisciplinary artists residency to continue the legacy of this place as one for artists and art making. An art historian specializing in American sculpture, Reynolds first worked in museums and then in unconventional settings, introducing signature programming that connects contemporary artists with the history of a place and which creates meaningful cultural experiences. Reynolds began the outdoor sculpture path at Forest Hills Cemetery in 1998 and initiated the Lantern Festival in 1999. In Spring 2022, she received an achievement award from the National Sculpture Society for years of service to the field and for advancing the work of sculptors. At Manship Artists Residency, Reynolds nurtures and supports artists working in many media, scientists, and creatives who challenge us and who transform the way we see the world.

Diana Riesco Lind, born in the amazon region of Peru, is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working inside and outside the Amazon. Since 2012 she is founder and director of Centro Selva Arte y Ciencia, a space that develops rural artistic residencies for national and international artists in the amazon region of Peru. Member of MAV, Peruvian Women Visual Artist Association, and member of Peru’s Curator association. She has a Master of Art with a specialization in digital media from the Valand School of Art, University of Gothenburg Sweden and a Bachelor of Art with a specialization in painting from the Catolica University in Lima, Peru. She has studies and has thesis on Shipibo Konibo Art history and its influence in contemporary amazon art. Her art has been exhibited in various cities in Peru and the world. It reflects on personal and collective experiences towards our connections with the earth.

Riley Robinson is the Director of Artpace San Antonio, a non-profit residency program which supports regional, national, and international artists in the creation of new art. Riley worked with philanthropist and contemporary arts advocate Linda Pace to open Artpace in 1994 and provided direction for the International Artist in Residence program as he worked with over 260 resident artists as well as the 200 plus artist in the Hudson Show Room and Main Space exhibition programs. Riley has also initiated many new programs for Artpace including a curational residency, writers’ residency and Artpace Fine Art Builders arts services for artist and commissioning agencies. In 2018 Riley became the Director of Artpace and is responsible for leading a 14-person staff with a $1.4M annual budget. Riley has a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He lives in San Antonio with his wife, artist Joey Fauerso and their two sons, Brendan and Paul.

James Rutter, Ph.D. is the Technology Director for the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. He has over ten years of experience working with schools and community organizations on integrating digital fabrication into educational programs. Prior to joining Haystack last year, he was serving as a Graduate Research Assistant and completing his dissertation at the Lab School for Advanced Manufacturing at the University of Virginia (UVA). There he developed educational programs and conducted a number of research studies integrating fab lab technologies into K-12 schools. His work at UVA has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Education, and he continues to serve as a research consultant with ongoing grant work.

Mitch Ryerson is an artist, designer, and craftsperson specializing in wood structures and furniture. He began his career building wooden boats in Maine and later attended Boston University’s Program in Artisanry, receiving his BAA in Furniture Design in 1982. His work for the last fifteen years has focused on children’s playgrounds. He has exhibited extensively and his work is in numerous private and public collections including the Fuller Craft Museum, the Mint Museum, the Boston Public Library, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. He has served as an instructor at the Haystack Mountain School, the Penland School of Crafts, Peter’s Valley Craft Center and has been an adjunct professor of furniture design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design for over twelve years. He maintains a studio in Allston, MA.

Ellie Schimelman is the founder of Cross Cultural Collaborative in Ghana. She also has been an art teacher, gallery owner and potter in the United States. Drawn to Ghana by a love of African art, she did volunteer teaching, studied with traditional artisans, started Aba Tours, built a cultural center/guest house and incorporated Cross Cultural Collaborative (CCC). Schimelman divides her time between Boston, Massachusetts and Nungua, Ghana where she facilitates CCC’s programs.   She has presented at many meetings and conferences such as The International Conference on Intercultural Dialogue Through The Arts in Saga, Japan, The International Arts Therapy Association Conference in Winnipeg, Canada and two TransCultural Exchange Conferences.

Hannah Schmidt is a Research Development Manager at the University of Tennessee- Knoxville, where she works primarily with faculty in arts and design who are applying for funding and residencies. Prior to UT, she worked for th eart logistics company UOVO and Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts, both based in New York.

Michael Sheridan is the Founding Director of Community Supported Films and Sheridan works, and a filmmaker and educator who has produced documentary and experimental films for local, national, and international humanitarian and cultural organizations through Sheridan Works productions. PBS, ABC, National Geographic, TLC, and Discovery have aired Sheridan’s work as a producer, cameraman and editor. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Cyberarts Festival and many other galleries have exhibited his experimental work. The National Education Media Network, the Columbia International Film and Video Festival, the United Nations Association Film Festival, and EarthVision have screened and awarded his films. Additionally, for 25 years Sheridan has taught filmmaking and has been on the faculty at Northeastern University and MassArt. He also offers filmmaking courses through SheridanWorks-Learning. From 2007-08, he served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia. In 2010, he founded Community Supported Film to amplify local voices by training and mentoring storytellers and change-makers in under- and mis-represented communities.

Mary Sherman is an artist, former art critic (The Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, among others) and teacher at Boston College. In 2010, she served as the interim Associate Director of MIT’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology. She also founded TransCultural Exchange in 1988, which grew out of and has always remained a parallel endeavor to her art work, for which has received numerous grants and awards, including three Fulbright Senior Specialist Grants. She has also served an artist -in-residence at such institutions as MIT, the Taipei Artist Village and Cité des Internationale Arts, Paris. Her works have been shown widely, including at Montreal’s Oboro and the International Digital Art Biennial (BIAN), Boston’s ars libri, Nantes’ APO-33, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, Trondheim’s Academy of Fine Arts and Stuttgart’s Staatsgalerie, among others. In 2016 MIT Press/Leonardo Electronic Almanac published What if You Could Hear a Painting, an overview of her work with painting and sound.

Kira Simon-Kennedy is the co-founder & co-director of China Residencies, a multifaceted arts nonprofit that has supported hundreds of different international creative exchanges to China since its inception in 2013. She has been a fellow at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, design & technology, as well as the Gotham IFP Made in NY Media Center. She also produces independent films and documentaries, including Ascension 登楼叹 as well as an ongoing series about the creative scenes in China’s 2nd and 3rd tier cities. She thrives in mentoring justice-oriented nice people with projects for the public good, writing guides, redistributing resources, and curating Meme Tactics.

Russian born artist Mariana Smith is an Associate Professor of Visual Art at Stockton University, New Jersey. Her artwork combines printmaking, miniature painting and digital video to address the nature of immigrant dislocations and an unrealized dream of homeland. Smith’s work has been exhibited in USA, Italy, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Guam and Armenia and displayed at the State of Ohio Governor’s Mansion in Columbus, Ohio. Smith also has served as an artist-in- residence at such institutions as the International printmaking workshop Auckland, New Zealand; Scuola Internazionale di Grafica di Venezia, Venice, Italy; International Printmaking Workshop, Xi’an, China; GCAC Dresden Residency, Dresden, Germany; Vermont Studio Center; and Fedoskino Lacquer Miniature Factory in Russia.

Doris Sommer is Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies. She is founder of “Cultural Agents,” an Initiative at Harvard and an NGO dedicated to reviving the civic mission of the Humanities. Her academic and outreach work promotes development through arts and humanities, specifically through “Pre-Texts” in the USA, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Pre-Texts is an arts-based training program for teachers of literacy, critical thinking, and citizenship. Among her books are Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (1991) about novels that helped to consolidate new republics; Proceed with Caution when Engaged by Minority Literature (1999) on a rhetoric of particularism; Bilingual Aesthetics: A New Sentimental Education (2004) for our times of contested immigration; and The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities (2014). Sommer has enjoyed and is dedicated to developing good public-school education. She has a B.A. from New Jersey’s Douglass College for Women, and Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

Alex Soulsby is a Creative Education Director with over 20 years’ experience of formal and informal Education, Arts Advocacy and Creative Projects Management. Soulby’s work has been recognized both nationally in the UK and internationally, twice nominated for the prestigious British National Charity Award and, most recently, as a finalist for ‘International Impact’ in the 2021 ‘ISA awards.’ He also is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and has been a project lead on National Arts campaigns that were fronted by the late Sir Ken Robinson and a strategic advisor to international schools and children’s arts organizations. He is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of the arts and the benefits they bring to individuals, communities and organizations, especially to the lives of children and young people. He is currently the Creative Director for Artist Residency Thailand and the Prem Tinsulanonda International School.

A.J. Steinberg is the CFRE founder of Queen Bee Fundraising. With over 20 years’ experience as a nonprofit event planner and engagement strategist, A.J. Steinberg has produced over 100 successful events and raised millions of dollars for organizations with her Los Angeles-based production company. In 2015, A.J. launched Queen Bee Fundraising to share the art of nonprofit event planning and engagement strategies with organizations worldwide. She is a recognized topic expert, and presents on subjects such as nonprofit event planning, event sponsorships, committee and volunteer leadership, generational giving and guest engagement.

Harold Steward (they/he) is the Executive Director and Cultural Strategist at The Theater Offensive. Harold is a cultural organizer and arts administrator from Dallas, TX. Harold previously served as Manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, a division of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Harold also founded Fahari Arts Institute in 2009 after recognizing a gap in the landscape for LGBTQ artists of color in Dallas. Harold is a proud member of Alternate ROOTS, as well as Board member for National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network, Theater Communications Group, and Steering Committee of the Black Theater Commons. Harold is a founding member of NextGen National Arts Network and Founding Partner of Steward Cultural Development Group, as well as a Cultural Equity facilitator and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Theater Studies at Emerson College.

Caitlin Strokosch is President & CEO of the National Performance Network, a national nonprofit based in New Orleans committed to building artists’ power and advancing racial justice in the arts. Previously, she served the Alliance of Artists Communities—an international association of artist residencies—from 2002 to 2016, where, as Executive Director, she was instrumental in creating the Artist Communities division at the NEA in 2008. Working to advance more just and equitable cultural policy, she currently serves on the board of the Performing Arts Alliance and as a member of the Cultural Advocacy Group. As a board member of Grantmakers in the Arts (2014-2020), Caitlin served on the Racial Equity committee and Support for Individual Artists steering committee; she is an Advisory Board member of Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology and TransCultural Exchange; and she is a former Board Chair of Girls Rock! Rhode Island.

After studying music and cultural management, Jörg Süßenbach worked for several years as a dramaturge and PR consultant, as well as a journalist and lecturer in Berlin. This was followed by a position as artistic director and managing director of a concert hall/club in Zurich before Jörg Süßenbach moved in 2004 to the headquarters of the Goethe-Institut in Munich as head of the music department and later as deputy head of the culture department. Since September 2021 he works as director of the Goethe-Institut Boston. Photo Credit: Loredana LaRocca

Japan born, Naoe Suzuki is a visual artist based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Suzuki’s work is driven by her love for water and nature, and engaged with researching humankind’s relationships with the environment through maps, language and history. She has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council (twice), Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Her residency fellowships include Blue Mountain Center, MacDowell, Jentel, Millay Colony for the Arts, Centrum, and Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan. She has also been an Artist-in-Residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (2016–2017).

Ying Tan is currently a trustee of the Liverpool Biennial and Senior Programme Manager, Collections at Art Fund (UK), where she leads museum acquisitions, including the development of new funding streams, commissioning projects and managing various areas of Art Fund’s diverse portfolio of programs. Since 1903, Art Fund has supported the development of museum and public collections, providing grants to help museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections and share them with wide audiences, and support the training and professional development of curators. Previously, she was a Curator in visual arts at the British Council in London, UK from 2018-2020 and served as Curator at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester, UK from 2013-2018. Additionally, she has been a visiting lecturer for Christie’s Education in the MA Art of Asia course as well as the Curating the Contemporary MA course at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A firm believer in collaboration, Sarah Tanguy is a DC-based independent curator and writer whose projects often address the intersection of art and science, food, tools, and books. Recent exhibitions include SUSTAIN, a public art installation and soundwalk marking 10 years of the climate justice project Storytelling with Saris; Reveal: the Art of Reimagining Scientific Discovery, American University Art Museum; Traces, The Kreeger Museum; and a series at The American Center for Physics. From 2004-2019, Tanguy was also a curator at the Office of Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, where she created exhibitions for US diplomatic missions. In addition to exhibition-related essays, she has written for Sculpture, American Craft and Readers Digest, among other publications.

Meliha Teparic is a Bosnian and Herzegovinian multimedia artist. Since 2010, Teparic teaches at the International University in Sarajevo in the Department of Visual Arts and Communications Design; and, since 2014, she is also the curator of the Art Gallery at the International University in Sarajevo. Additionally, she is a member of the Artists Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has participated in 66 exhibitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, has won several national and international awards and has published numerous scientific articles.

Curator and Artistic Director in the fields of digital contemporary art, electronic music and sound art, Alain Thibault is also the founder of two major events in Montreal, ELEKTRA – an annual festival showcasing performances in digital art since 1999, and the BIAN, International Digital Art Biennale, oriented towards exhibitions, installations and public art since 2012. As an electronic music composer, his works have been presented throughout the local and international scene in several contexts, namely contemporary music and digital art festivals in America (Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil), Europe (France, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium) and Asia (Japan, South-Korea, Taiwan).

F. Javier Torres-Campos is Director of Thriving Cultures at Surdna overseeing a portfolio dedicated to investing in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) to prototype racially just systems and structures with their communities and build a more just world. His career has been committed to supporting power building and cultural leadership as an important lever (of many) for transformative change. Prior to Surdna, he was the Director of National Grantmaking at ArtPlace. In this role, he built a comprehensive set of demonstration projects that illustrate the many ways in which arts and culture strengthen the processes and outcomes of the planning and development field. Before his time at ArtPlace, Javier was Senior Program Officer for Arts and Culture at the Boston Foundation and previously spent six years as the Director of Villa Victoria Center for the Arts. Additionally, Javier was a founding design team member of the Constellations Narrative and Culture Fund and currently serves as a funding and evaluation partner for the Mosaic Fund and Network at the New York Community Trust.

Lisa Tung is the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Boston’s only free contemporary art museum. For almost three decades, she has organized numerous solo and group exhibitions that highlight living artists and works that contribute to contemporary culture. Her work has been recognized by Art in America, The Boston Globe, Forbes, hyperallergic, Metropolis, The New York Times, and Sculpture magazines, among others. She has received awards from the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and has been recognized by Boston magazine as Best Curator. In addition, she has been a Nominator for various Fellowships, including the MacArthur and Guggenheim; been a reviewer for the NEA; and been asked to propose artists for contemporary art prizes. Lisa has also been asked to curate projects at other institutions, and was chosen to curate the 2020 and 2024 iterations of the “Women to Watch” exhibition (MA/New England region) for the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Joe Upham is one of the original founders of the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now Urban Glass) and remains on the advisory board. He founded the NYEGW Neon program in 1979. His interest in both technology and art has led to fuel efficient melting equipment, unusual Neon applications and many large architectural installations. He also has been a consultant for creative lighting applications at Litelab, EGL and Focus Lighting. He has installed projects in the US, Greece, Aruba, Saudi Arabia, Italy and the Netherlands; and lectured and given workshops at numerous institutions both in the US and Europe. His artwork is in private collections as well as the Corning Museum. He received a Lumen Award for his development of “Confetti Crackle” neon and developed “Multi Flow” neon and wearable neon.

Urbonas Studio was co-founded by artists and educators Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Vilnius, Lithuania. Urbonas Studio is an interdisciplinary research platform that facilitates exchange amongst diverse nodes of knowledge production and artistic practice in pursuit of projects that transform civic spaces and collective imaginaries. The Studio collaborates with experts in different fields to develop practice-based models that allow participants—including their students—to pursue projects that merge urbanism, new media, social sciences and pedagogy to critically address the transformation of civic space and ecology. Urbonas Studio has exhibited internationally at the São Paulo, Berlin, Moscow, Lyon, Gwangju, Busan, Taipei Biennales, Folkestone Triennial, Manifesta and Documenta exhibitions, including solo shows and curatorial projects at the Venice Biennale and MACBA Barcelona among others. Urbonas are researching and teaching at the Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) program at MIT, USA.

Petros Vamvakas is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science and International Studies. Since 2012, he has directed and taught at the Emmanuel College Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Summer Program in Crete. In 2018, he founded and currently directs the Institute of Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Emmanuel College. and Director and Professor of the Emmanuel College Security Studies Summer Program in Crete. His area of interest is the intersection of international security and democratization. Since the 1990s, he has researched, written, presented and published on the general topic, covering a wide geographic area from the Andes to Central Asia. Since 2012 his work has focused on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caribbean, especially as geopolitical shifts have affected issues of geopolitical security and democratization in these regions. He teaches courses in Comparative Politics, International Relations and Political Theory and has developed several courses such as Street Democracy, Imagining the Nation in Modernity, Revolution and Nationalism, American Foreign Policy as well as a travel course in Greece: In the Steps of Thucydides. His most recent presentations and publications center on “Global Stability and The Geopolitical Vortex of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caribbean.” Photo Credit: Ann Fong.

Catheline van den Branden is a multidisciplinary artist and seasoned non-profit executive. She is the former president and executive director of the French Library/French Cultural Center in Boston and a former cultural attaché for the government of Québec. Most of her career in the cultural sector has been devoted to promoting the arts and francophone cultures. In 2018 Catheline was named Knight in the Order of Academic Palms (Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques) by the French government for services rendered to the nation in the fields of language and culture. In 2021 Catheline was awarded the Robyn Gittleman Teaching Fellowship at Tufts University. Aside from art-making, teaching and doing related research, Catheline is also a long-time committee member and supporter of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and has recently joined the board of Catalyst Conversations, an organization which presents intimate and provocative conversations among artists, scientists, and the public. Photo Credit: Russ Mezikofsk.

Dr. Christine Veras is an experimental animator and scholar originally from Brazil. Her research integrates physical and digital technologies to experiment with the multimedia possibilities of animation. She has exhibited and lectured worldwide. Among her works, she has invented and patented a new animated illusion device called the Silhouette Zoetrope, part of the permanent collection of museums in Germany, namely the Children’s Museum in Dresden and the Lingelbach Barn in Leinroden. As Assistant Professor, she teaches the history of animation and experimental animation at the School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication (ATEC) at the University of Texas Dallas. In addition, Dr. Veras is the founding director of the experimenta.l. lab, a space for collaboration, collective production, and experimentation with animation.

Gudrun Wallenböck is the founder and artistic director of hinterland galerie, Vienna, an independent art space and platform dedicated to the promotion of intercultural and interdisciplinary projects. Since its inception hinterland has remained committed to supporting the work of emerging and established artists from the MENA (or SWANA) region. Gudrun is also the founder of Hinterland Design and co-founded Sitios, a global network on urban solutions for public space. She was a core member of the programming team for 2 European Capitals of Europe (2003 Graz, 2009 Linz). Additionally, since 2009, she has been working as a curator and designer for international and intercultural projects and sits on the advisory board of the Simorgh Foundation, which promotes intercultural dialogue and of the Austrian Pakistan Society.

Courtney Wasson is the Executive Director of the Kansas City Artists Coalition. The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC) is an artist centered non-profit that has been in operation for over 47 years. KCAC supports over 400 member artists and hosts year-round exhibitions which are open to regional, national, and international artists. Prior to joining the coalition, she was the Executive Director of Studios Inc. and a dedicated artist advocate whose mission is to service the promotion of artistic dialogue and connect artists to opportunities. Wasson continuously works to support artists through exhibitions, studio critiques and marketing. In 2019, she joined Studios Inc. with 10 years of gallery, marketing and business management experience. Previously, at the beginning of 2016, she worked for Weinberger Fine Art, working as the Curator, Marketing and Gallery Director. Since 2010, she has worked with the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and is now the acting Executive Vice President for the Leedy Foundation. She also serves as the Program Coordinator of the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program.

Crispin B. Weinberg is president of Biomedical Modeling Inc. (BMI), an anatomical engineering and 3D modeling service bureau located in Boston, Massachusetts.  BMI makes 3D printed and digital models of human anatomy, primarily from CT scans. He primarily works with surgeons, hospitals and medical device companies, but enjoys collaborating with artists such as Kiki Smith and institutions such as the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Previously he was Chief Scientific Officer of Angio-Oncology Sciences Inc, and a co-founder and Organogenesis Inc. one the earliest tissue engineering companies. Organogenesis grew in part from a fellowship he held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also president of the Coolidge Corner Community Chorus, active in local schools, and an avid folk dancer.

Glenn Williams is a dedicated advocate of the arts in Boston and beyond. He is committed to ensuring community participation in sharing information and discovering our common goals and happiness. He has long been a community activist, volunteer, and Board President for The Roslindale Village Main Street. As General Manager of Boston Neighborhood Network, Boston’s PEG Access stations, Glenn continues his mission by assuring every community voice has a place to be heard. He holds seats on the Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center Board of Directors, Alliance For Community Media’s New England Board of Directors, The Alliance For Community Media’s national Inclusion, Equity and Engagement Caucus and The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Virology and Vaccine Research Community Advisory Board of Directors.

Marianna Dixon Williams is an Assistant Professor of New Media at Augusta University. Williams builds technologies that make systems in our environment more visible, using sensory devices within media installations to augment or reframe space. Often hand-built electronic devices are used to collect data within sites directly, allowing the artist to translate audio or visual material as an index of a given place. The relationships presented through this translation push against themes of loss, place making, navigation, and sustainability.

Jana Winderen is an artist who currently lives and works in Norway. Her practice pays particular attention to audio environments and to creatures which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally – deep under water, inside ice or in frequency ranges inaudible to the human ear. Her activities include site-specific and spatial audio installations and concerts, which have been exhibited and performed internationally in major institutions and public spaces. Recent work includes The Art of Listening: Underwater at Lenfest Center for the Arts, Colombia University, New York, Listening through the Dead Zones for IHME, Helsinki, The Art of Listening: Underwater for Audemar Piguet at Art Basel, Miami, Rising Tide at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Listening with Carp for Now is the Time in Wuzhen, Through the Bones for Thailand Art Biennale in Krabi, bára for TBA21_Academy, Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone for Sonic Acts, Dive in Park Avenue Tunnel in New York and Ultrafield for MoMA, New York. In 2011 she won the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica for Digital Musics & Sound Art. She releases her audio-visual work on Touch (UK).

Shu-Lun Wu is an artist, founder of Taitung Dawn Artist Village, and through her parentage, a member of the Makatao tribe. Her work focuses on the relationship of the Austronesian culture between Taiwan and other countries. Through her interest in the Taiwan’s indigenous arts, she explores each region’s local cultures, histories, environments and social issues.

Nasser Yari is a seasoned professional engineer with over thirty years of professional experience in civil engineering and construction management. He worked for New Hampshire Department of Transportation for over thirty-three years in various positions including Construction Engineer, Project Manager, and Maintenance Engineer. He also has ten years of experience in teaching in various disciplines including Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Construction Management, and Architecture.

Tiffany Shea York joined the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 2000 to manage one of the oldest Artist-in-Residence programs in the US as well as all contemporary exhibitions, related materials, and public programs. She has worked with over 100 Artists from around the world and helped to realize 50 exhibitions and artist’s projects there. Tiffany received her B.A. from Tufts University and holds a diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Before coming to the Gardner, she worked as a studio jeweler and co-founded/directed Boston’s White Elephant Gallery in the Fort Point Channel which exhibited work of up-and-coming artists in all media.

Amanda Zhang lives in Massachusetts by ways of the Pacific Northwest and Southwestern China. Amanda Zhang is the Co-Director of China Residencies. Since 2010 in partnership with collaborators, she has curated and stewarded loving space by and for young poets, writers, musicians, technology critics, artists, biologists, organizers, and critical readers within the Asian American and queer & trans people of color communities in the Greater Boston area. She is interested in solidarity economics and the pathways art offer for collective engagement and transformation.