Trisha Mead works to develop new audiences for the arts through a variety of channels in Portland Oregon. As President of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance she founded the Fertile Ground Festival of New Work, a citywide festival or world premiere performance that takes place the last week of January each year and ranges from dance to theater to puppetry to film, all created or commissioned in Portland Oregon. Currently she works as the Director of Marketing and Communications for Oregon Ballet … [Read more...]

Stephanie Barron is senior curator and head of modern art at LACMA. Among the many groundbreaking and award winning exhibitions she has curated are “Degenerate Art “: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (1991); Exiles and Émigrés- The Flight of European Artists from Hitler (1997); Made in California 1900-2000: Art, Image and Identity (2000); and Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures (2009). She has been decorated twice by the German Government. … [Read more...]

Stanford Thompson is a musician and educator who is passionate about using music for social innovation and serves as the Executive Director for the El Sistema-inspired program, Play On, Philly! As a trumpeter, Mr. Thompson has performed and soloed with major orchestras around the world while actively performing chamber music and jazz. As a conductor and educator, Stanford has served as clinician for the Music In Charter Schools annual festival and Philadelphia All-City Brass Symposium. He has … [Read more...]

Roberto Bedoya has served as the Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council since November of 2006. He is also a writer and arts consultant who works in the area of support systems for artists. As an arts consultant he has worked on projects for the Creative Capital Foundation; The Ford Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundations and the Urban Institute: He is the author of the monograph U.S. Cultural Policy: Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential and The Color Line and US … [Read more...]

Michael Phillips is the film critic of the Chicago Tribune. Previously he was the Tribune's drama critic, a post he also held at the Los Angeles Times, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Dallas Times-Herald. At the beginning of his career he was arts editor of the Twin Cities weekly City Pages, where he also worked as film critic. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and lives on Chicago's northwest side. … [Read more...]

Douglas McLennan is the founder and editor of ArtsJournal. This year he is a Visiting Professor at Claremont Graduate University. … [Read more...]

Lynne Conner is a cultural historian and playwright/director currently serving as Chair of the Theater and Dance Department at Colby College. Her research interests and consulting projects are focused on studying the history and contemporary status of audience behavior and psychology, with a special interest in how audiences engage in the interpretive process. She has given scores of talks on topics in the cultural policy field, including keynote and panels lectures at the Salzburg Global … [Read more...]

Kelly Tweeddale is Seattle Opera’s Executive Director. She plays a key role in organizing and supervising the Opera’s daily operations, in generating and overseeing the company’s budgets, and in developing and implementing the Opera’s strategic long-range plan. She is overseeing Seattle Opera’s future development project—consolidating the company’s operations including administrative, rehearsal, production, educational, technical support, costume and scenic assembly spaces—into one building … [Read more...]

Michael M. Kaiser is President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has expanded the educational and artistic programming for the nation's center for the performing arts and has overseen a major renovation effort of most of the Center’s theaters. As Kennedy Center President, Mr. Kaiser is responsible for the artistic and financial health of the Center’s extensive theater, jazz, chamber music, and dance seasons as well as its affiliates the National Symphony Orchestra VSA, … [Read more...]

Josephine Ramirez is Program Director at the James Irvine Foundation with overall responsibility for the Foundation’s Arts program. Last year under her leadership the Foundation launched a new arts strategy, refining and strengthening Irvine’s focus on arts engagement. Before joining Irvine, Josephine was Vice President of Programming and Planning for the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, founding the programming department and launching several groundbreaking initiatives, including … [Read more...]

Jenny Byrd is the Executive Director of Brimmer Street Theatre Company, an Event Manager at UCLA, and an Executive Arts Management student at Claremont Graduate University. Her spare time is spent wedding-planning with her new fiance. … [Read more...]

Diane is currently working as at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where she is lecturing, researching the impact of social and economic forces on US nonprofit regional theaters since the early 80's, and pursuing a PhD. For the six years prior to moving to Europe, Diane worked in the Performing Arts program at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she had primary responsibility for theater, dance, and technology-related strategies and grants. Before joining the Foundation, Diane served as … [Read more...]

Chad M. Bauman is the Director of Communications for Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, where he supervises the marketing, media relations, publications, sales and front of house departments. He was recruited to join the company in 2007 in order to develop strategies to guide the company through a 2.5 year transition period while a new $135 million, three theater complex was built. During that time, he worked on multiple Broadway transfers, led a rebranding campaign, … [Read more...]