Contributors
Editorial Team
Amy Shimshon-Santo (Editor; Introduction: "We Have Always Been Fabulous") is a writer and educator who believes that creativity is a powerful tool for personal and social transformation. Her work connects the arts, education, and urbanism. Amy is the author of three books of poetry, numerous peer-reviewed essays in academic journals (GeoHumanities; Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice; and PUBLIC, among others); she is the editor of Arts = Education (UC Press). She founded CREO Changemakers to generate a just society, amplify community knowledge, and catalyze great ideas into action. Earlier in her career directed the Arts Management Program at Claremont Graduate University, led the ArtsBridge Program at UCLA, and co-founded the Brasil Brasil Cultural Center. She earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in urban planning (UCLA), an M.F.A. in creative writing (Antioch University), and a B.A. in Latin American Studies (UC Santa Cruz).Genevieve Kaplan (Editor; Introduction: "We Have Always Been Fabulous") is the author of (aviary) (Veliz Books, 2020), In the ice house (Red Hen Press, 2011), and four poetry chapbooks, most recently I exit the hallway and turn right (above/ground press, 2020), an anti-ode to office work. She earned her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writer's Workshop and her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California; she works as an adjunct professor, small press publisher, and arts administrator.
Gerlie Collado (Editorial Contributor; Preface: "Using our Superpowers: Dismantling Exclusion and Racism in Arts Administration") is an arts, culture, and social justice junkie. Professionally, she has spent the majority of her career working with grantmaking and direct-service nonprofit organizations. She currently serves as the grants and administration lead of The Panta Rhea Foundation, a family foundation aimed at catalyzing a just and sustainable world through food sovereignty, people-powered systems change, and grassroots resilience around the globe. In addition, Gerlie has designed and curated participatory-driven arts and culture programming for multidisciplinary arts organizations in Los Angeles. She holds an MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University, and a BA in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco.
Kio Griffith (Creator of Cover Art) is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and arts writer working across themes of social issues, geopolitics, and migrating cultures through multimedia, craft, and technology-based works, including graphic design, sound and video, performance, computer programming, writings, installation, and publishing. He has exhibited internationally in the UK, Japan, Germany, Croatia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Turkey, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the US, and Japan. Griffith was the 2017 Emerging Curator at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions). His notable artist exhibitions include: Tokyo Arts And Space, the 2016 Aichi Triennale, and Open Site 2018. He is the co-founder of OOTE 41221, Transit Republic (an art and socio-anthropological publication), and Genzou (an intercultural photographic journal).
Danielle Hill (Creator of Contributor Portraits; "The Fire in Time: Black Women Leading Arts Institutions") is a Generation Z arts manager, artist, and art historian from Cleveland, OH. She is committed to enhancing the arts by providing access, opportunity, and education for inadequately serviced communities, and fostering community, interdependency, nurturance, love, and passion. Supporting Black artists, arts managers, and creatives by any means necessary is intertwined in Hill’s mission. Hill finds peace in reading literature, creating YouTube videos about Black artists, Black art history, and plant care.
Authors
Britt Campbell ("Archival Re-Imagining Through Sound: Versos y Besos Amplifies the Story of Manuela Garcia") is a Manager of Public Engagement at the Autry Museum. A second-generation Angelino, she locates her practice in Los Angeles with a focus on contemporary artists using their craft to tell stories about place and identity. Britt received a BA in Art History from the University of California Santa Barbara and is a part of the 2021 cohort for Executive Education for the Next Generation of Museum Leaders at Claremont Graduate University.Delia Xóchitl Chávez ("Textos Textiles: aprender desde otros territorios") es licenciada en Derecho (Univeridad Autónoma de MexicoUNAM), con estudios en letras hispánicas, despistada y promotora de eventos y prácticas culturales. Su labor profesional ha enfatizado la promoción de la literatura contemporánea escrita en lenguas indígenas de México. Su mayor interés profesional se ha centrado en crear y organizar diálogos interculturales e intergeneracionales entre diversos sectores de la sociedad mexicana a través de la literatura y la música. Delia Xóchitl Chávez ("Texts Textiles: Learning from other territories") earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Law (Universidad Autónoma de Mexico), with studies in Hispanic literature. She is an advocate and promotor of cultural events and practices. Her professional tasks have promoted contemporary literature written in Mexico's indigenous languages. Her central professional interest is reating and organizing intercultural and intergenerational dialogues between various sectors of Mexican society through literature and music.
Sean Cheng ("New Approaches to Preserving Chinese Antique Porcelain") was a high school History teacher in China before 1989. Now he is a business entrepreneur and church pastor, and also a long-time Chinese antique porcelain collector. In 2015, he established the non-profit, “Eileen Foundation,” with a digital museum to showcase more than 780 pieces of Chinese antique porcelain objects, which he believes to be historically and aesthetically meaningful.
Yvonne Farrow ("White Space / Black Space + Occupational Hierarchy = Racial Battle Fatigue") is an Arts Manager in the Performing Arts Division of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Farrow completed her Masters in Arts Management from the Center for Business & Management of the Arts at Claremont Graduate University. Farrow is an award-winning actress, producer, choralographer, and filmmaker, and she is co-partner with her twin sister in their production company, TWINBIZ.
Abraham Ferrer ("The Womxn Who Saved VC") is a staff member at Visual Communications (VC), the nation’s premier Asian American and Pacific Islander media arts center. A Studio Art major at UCLA, he has served VC as a publication and collateral designer, an organizer of public exhibition programs, and as Co-Director and Programmer of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. He currently oversees the organization’s Asian Pacific American Photographic and Media Archive, and writes on topics of importance to APA cinematic and media arts.
Allen Kwabena Frimpong ("Creating Spaces for Black Artists to Thrive") is an artist, cultural strategist, cooperative entrepreneur, and resource mobilizer. For the past fifteen years, he has organized internationally to advocate for philanthropical investment in local solidarity economies, transforming our livelihoods toward a just and liberating world. Allen is a founder and principal manager of ZEAL, a creative studio cooperative for artists throughout the Black diaspora, where he is also known as "ananse & the tricksters" as a conceptual and performance artist. He has also been a Senior Fellow at PolicyLink as the co-founder of Liberation Ventures, a national field-building effort supporting the movement for reparations in the US.
Julie House ("Reimagining African American History Through Prosthetic Memory and Family Archives") is a native of California. For over twenty-five years she worked as a finance professional in the film and television industry. She also produced a NYTV Festival award-winning reality-documentary pilot, “A Week With My Father.” She holds an MA in Film and Television Studies from California State University, Los Angeles, and an MA in Art Business from Claremont Graduate University/Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is an art enthusiast, and a PhD candidate in History at Liberty University.
Kayla Jackson ("Shí Yázhí: 'there is money underneath your fingers'") was raised on a horse, among her livestock at Round Rock. At a young age, she knew art was essential to her. Passion is what drives her to support and encourage art within her community. An art leader is what she aspires to be. She creates art with happiness in mind, allowing her viewers to feel and seek happiness. With all her work she hopes to make connections: visual connections and personal connections.
Erika Karina Jiménez Flores ("Textos Textiles: Aprender desde otros territorios") es originaria del pueblo de Tlaxialtemalco, Xochimilco Ciudad de México. Aprendiente del cultivo y el cuidado de las plantas tintóreas de la zona lacustre. Se dedica a observar y aprender los procesos de teñido para aplicarlos en bordados realizados a mano con técnicas de la región nahua lacustre. Actualmente trabaja en el proyecto Tintes "El Duraznito" el cual está dedicado a la memoria de su abuelo campesino Manuel Jiménez.
Cobi Krieger ("The Process is the Goal") is a Los Angeles-based arts administrator and researcher. Krieger’s main focus is equity and sustainability in the arts workforce, which he examines with financial and data-driven lenses. Prior to LA, Krieger was based in Tel Aviv where he worked with emerging artists and in art tourism. He holds an MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Accounting and Art History from Tel Aviv University.Loreto Lopez ("Interaction and Accessibility through Public Art Maps") is an emerging arts manager who is committed to discovering different avenues for increasing the participation of low-income families and people of color in the arts. Loreto is currently the Administrator for the Culver City Education Foundation and is a member of the Leadership Council for Emerging Arts Leaders Los Angeles (EAL/LA). She holds a BA in Art History with a minor in Archaeology from Loyola Marymount University, and an MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University.
Cynthia Martínez Benavides ("Textos Textiles: Aprender desde otros territorios") estudió grabado e hizo una maestría en Comunicación y Lenguajes visuales. Su obra ha sido seleccionada en importantes certámenes nacionales. Becaria del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. Ha expuesto siete veces individualmente y participado en más de 30 exposiciones colectivas. Tuvo a su cargo el Taller de Grabado en Metal de la Escuela de Bellas Artes de la UABJO. Desde 2007 se unió al Colectivo Arte Guenda.Radica en la Ciudad de México. Cynthia Martinez Benavides ("Texts Textiles: Learning from other territories") earned a degree in printmaking and a Masters of Visual Communication. Her work has been selected for important national art competitions. She has been awarded a scholarship from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. She has exhibited her work seven times individually and has participated in more than thirty collective exhibitions. She taught Etching at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la UABJO from 2000-2004. Since 2007, she has been a member of the Guenda Collective. She lives in Mexico City.
Christy McCarthy ("Thirsting for the Written Word") completed an MA in Arts Management at Claremont Graduate University and has started her career in nonprofit work with Mission Driven PR in Los Angeles, focusing on Advancement and Development at St. Lucy’s Priory High School, where she is also an alumna. Christy has always seen literature as a pillar of knowledge and comfort as it played a vital role through her education and personal journey. She remains steadfast in her mission to create sustainable organizations, while bridging communities with the written word.
Janice Ngan ("Archival Re-Imagining Through Sound: Versos y Besos Amplifies the Story of Manuela Garcia") is a multidisciplinary artist and art business manager. An international creative nomad, she is fluent in English, Chinese, and Mandarin. Her practices place an emphasis on multiculturalism, involving the intersection of site-specific works, technology, and relational aesthetics. She utilizes art as a storytelling tool and as an avenue to create harmonious spaces for humanizing experiences. She received her MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University and her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts.
Cailin Nolte ("Community, Creativity, and Catastrophe: A Freirean Approach to an Arts Sector in Crisis") is an arts management professional working at the intersection of art, culture, resilience, and public spaces. She works in Boston, MA as an Event & Sponsorship Manager with Culture Amp, producing the Culture First Global Series. Previously, she worked in Los Angeles as the Director of Production, Events & Festivals at Community Arts Resources (CARS). When she’s not putting on intergenerational public programming, Cailin likes to read voraciously, roller skate, knit, play the cello, and bake!
Ya’ah’tééh. I am Michaela Paulette Shirley ("Shí Yázhí: 'there is money underneath your fingers'"), a Diné daughter, sister, auntie, grandma, friend, and scholar. My clans are Water Edge, born for Bitter Water. My maternal grandparents are Salt, and my paternal grandparents are Coyote Pass. Originally, I am from Kin Dah Lichii, AZ. Currently, I live in Albuquerque, NM. I am a Program Manager at the University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Design and Planning Institute and a PhD student in the American Studies Department.
Robin Sukhadia ("A Suit and Tabla") brings over twenty years of international community organizing, technology leadership, project management, music performance, and teaching experience to his arts education and fundraising areas of expertise. He is a disciple of tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Robin most recently served as the Major Gifts Officer at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. He holds an MFA in World Music from the California Institute of the Arts.
Katrina Sullivan ("From Observer to Researcher") is a recent graduate of the Arts Management Program at Claremont Graduate University. She has been working with the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and culture for the past year as a research consultant, where she focuses on the intersection of the artmaking process and accessibility.
Tatiana Vahan ("The Process is the Goal") is the founder of the Los Angeles Artist Census. Vahan is a visual artist focused on creating research-based, socially-minded art projects that consider the role of data and economics in the arts. Since 2016, her work has focused on the lack of infrastructure supporting the basic needs of visual artists. She holds an MA in Aesthetics and Politics from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Visual Art from New World School of the Arts.
Karina Esperanza Yánez ("Taking it Virtual") is an experienced visual arts educator from South-Central Los Angeles with a history of working in arts education and arts management. Her goal is to provide students with the necessary tools to become creative in their own right as young artists and positively engage with their communities. Karina is a multidisciplinary artist who works in photography, printmaking, sewing, drawing, and everything in between. Fascinated by history, sociology, politics, and literature, she incorporates all of these interests into her work as much as possible. She is the Founder of Greetings From South LA. Karina holds a BFA in Fine Art from CalArts, and two graduate degrees: one from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Community Arts Education and one from Claremont Graduate University in Arts Administration.