Causing a scene

since 1776

Katherine Sachs was an Adjunct Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and now serves as a Museum Trustee and Chair of the Contemporary Art Committee. At the PMA, Kathy and her late husband Keith endowed the Modern and Contemporary curator, named the gallery dedicated to the work of Jasper Johns and promised a large part of their collection to the Museum for which the Modern and Contemporary galleries were named for them. At Penn, Mrs. Sachs is an Emeritus Trustee.

Prior to his current role at ArtPhilly, Bill Adair was program director at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage of the Pew Charitable Trusts for twelve years.

He has over two decades of experience as a practicing museum curator and educator, most recently at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, where he began an artist-in-residence program, commissioned several new media projects, and produced a range of educational and public programs.

Rob Blackson’s curatorial initiatives include Symphony for a Broken Orchestra, Funeral for a Home, 100 People Listening, Philadelphia Doll Museum Forward with Barbara Whiteman, and reForm with Pepón Osorio and the Fairhill community.

From 2011 - 2021 he was the founding director of Temple Contemporary at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

Tania Isaac is driven by unending curiosity, with published writing alongside her choreography, performance and teaching. She was a member of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Bush Women and David Dorfman Dance, while her Open(living) Notebooks- interactive creative research installations - have been funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, FringeArts, and the Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography. Tania is a former Pew, McDowell, ACA, MANCC and Urban Leaders Fellow.

After graduating from Temple in 2021 for film and music, Dan Fare wrote, performed all of the instruments on, and self-produced 2 indie rock EPs and a single under his name.

In the past year, he has curated, illustrated, and hand-crafted a series of commissioned cassette mixtapes centered around unique bespoke themes, as well as DJing throughout Philly as Elevator Machine Room. In his free time, he likes to fold origami, play Guitar Hero, and browse record stores for new music.

Patricia Wilson Aden has worked in Philadelphia’s arts and culture sector for over twenty-five years. Currently, she works with the Cultural Alliance team as President and CEO. Before joining the Cultural Alliance team, Patty served as President and CEO of the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee, and as president and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia for eight years prior.

Jamie J. Brunson has brought storytelling to the stage within different spheres of the arts and cultural community for over 16 years. She served as Managing Director of New Freedom Theatre and the Providence Black Repertory Company and as Director of Institutional Gifts and Sponsorship for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. An accomplished playwright, Brunson is a four-time Delaware Division of the Arts/NEA grantee for playwriting.

Catherine M. Cahill has served as the President and CEO of the Mann Center for Performing Arts since 2008, and before joining the Mann she led the Brooklyn Philharmonic as its President and CEO. Since starting her role at the Mann, she has drawn on her leadership experience to reinvent the audience experience at the Mann’s grand campus in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.

Thom Collins is currently the President of the Barnes Foundation and Executive Director of the Neubauer Family Foundation. An innovative educator and accomplished art historian, administrator, and author, Thom has more than twenty years of experience at some of America’s top arts institutions, including the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Jane Golden has been the driving force of Mural Arts Philadelphia since its inception in 1984, overseeing its growth from a small city agency into the nation’s largest public art program and a global model for transforming public space and community through art. Under Golden’s direction, Mural Arts has created over 4,000 works of public art through innovative collaborations with community-based organizations, city agencies, nonprofit organizations, schools, the private sector, and philanthropies.

Anne Ishii is a writer and musician based in Philadelphia and New York. She is currently the Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative. Anne is a writer and editor by trade, with a background in Japanese letters. Her work hinges on issues relating to gender and sexuality, and has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Village Voice, Slate, and Publishers Weekly. She has translated and rewritten over twenty books.

Aviva Kapust is currently the Director of the Culture & Community Power Fund, as well as a designer, educator, and advocate for equitable revitalization in underserved urban communities. Since 2013, Aviva has served as Executive Director of The Village of Arts and Humanities, an organization whose mission is to build opportunity through innovative arts, educational, social, environmental, and economic development programs in North Central Philadelphia.

John McInerney is the inaugural Executive Director of The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania and launched the program in 2017. The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation provides strategic leadership, grantmaking and other resources for the arts community at Penn. In its first five years the program has distributed over $1.5 million in funding for hundreds of ambitious arts initiatives across campus.

Nasheli Juliana Ortiz González is a designer, academic, activist, creative worker, and entrepreneur born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Ortiz González is a highly sought-after fashion designer who is the principal owner of Nasheli Juliana (NJ), an apparel company focused on social justice. Founding Board Member of the Philadelphia Fashion Garment and Industry Task Force, her work has been featured in Vogue, Netflix, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, and Forbes, among other prestigious publications.

Neil Bardhan earned a Ph.D. in Brain & Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. Neil was later a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and taught at the University of Tuebingen. Since 2013, Neil has coached speakers and led workshops across the country in improv, storytelling, and communication. He has appeared on dozens of podcasts, as well as performed onstage with Story Collider, Nerd Nite, Creative Mornings, and Ignite Philly.

King Britt is a Philadelphia-born producer, composer and performer in the global advancement of electronic music. King’s work has led to collaborations with De La Soul, Madlib, Kathy Sledge, director Michael Mann, as well as being called for remixes from an eclectic list of giants, including Miles Davis, Solange, all the way to Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa. He also serves as a Full Teaching Professor in Computer Music at the University of California San Diego.

Lorene Cary writes: Plays: Ladysitting, My General Tubman;  Librettos: Jubilee!; Memoirs: Black Ice, Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century; Novels: The Price of a Child, Pride, and If Sons, then Heirs. Lorene teaches Creative Writing at UPenn and directed #VoteThatJawn.

Creating deep emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges, the music of Andrea Clearfield is performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. She has written 170+ works for opera, chorus, orchestra, chamber, dance and multimedia. Among her works are 17 cantatas including one for The Philadelphia Orchestra. She is Founder/Host of the Philadelphia SALON concerts since 1986.

Jos Duncan-Asé is the founder and CEO of Love Now Media and Love Now Magazine. She uses her voice and platforms to empower diverse communities to create and tell their own stories. A thoughtful, creative business leader with a demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and social justice, she is an empathy-focused, design-thinker, and story generator who creatively synthesizes and contextualizes information to solve problems.

Terry Fox is the director of Philadelphia Dance Projects (PDP) and a former choreographer/dancer. Concurrently she is on the Faculty in the College of Performing Arts, Rowan University. In 2021 she served as a member of the Arts & Culture Task Force for the City of Philadelphia. Her many curatorial activities have included being Artist Curator at the Painted Bride Art Center and Managing/Artistic Director of the Danspace Project in New York City 1984-89.

V. Shayne Frederick has captivated audiences for nearly 20 years. DownBeat Magazine called him “soulful,” All About Jazz said he’s “a shining light,” and Philadelphia Inquirer hails his "silken baritone and elegant charm.” He’s electrified TEDx, NPR, national stages, and international airwaves. Shayne has produced five recordings, collaborated on Yolanda Wisher and The Afroeaters’ album Doublehanded Suite, and is the primary voice on projects from Ropeadope Records and Outside In Music.

Glenn Holsten creates human-driven documentary films about art, social justice and mental health. He explores journeys of recovery and discovery, and strives to give the “red carpet treatment” to stories that are hiding in plain sight. Beauty is everywhere. Hope is everywhere. But they do not exist without pain and suffering.

Germaine Ingram is a Philadelphia PA-based jazz percussive dancer, choreographer, song writer, vocal/dance improviser, oral historian, and cultural strategist and archivist. She creates evening-length pieces that explore themes related to history, collective memory and social justice, and designs and directs arts/culture projects that explore and illuminate community cultural history.

Aisha Zia Khan, Co-founder and Executive Director since 2009 at Twelve Gates Arts, creates a platform for contemporary art projects. Her career focuses on innovative programs bridging cultures and promoting diversity. Starting her career at a financial institution, her strategic expertise shapes 12G’s vision for a dynamic artistic space.

Obie Award-winner Jennifer Kidwell's performer-driven theater work addresses the complexities of race and notions of American history with sharp intelligence and wry humor. Invested in probing challenging social and historical truths, Kidwell says her work is "concerned with discomfort and/or confusion around normative practices and systems." With Scott Sheppard, she premiered and performed in Underground Railroad Game.

Dave Kyu is the Director of Programs at Asian Arts Initiative, and a graduate of the Tyler School of Art. He was an artist in AAI's inaugural Social Practice Lab, and developed AAI's neighborhood plan. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Dave has also worked at the Mural Arts Program, the City of Philadelphia's Percent for Art Program, is a co-founder of Practice Gallery, and co-editor of the Campfire Stories book series. He continues to advocate for Chinatown as a member of the Save Chinatown Coalition.

LaNeshe Miller-White has dedicated nearly two decades to Philadelphia's arts scene. As the Executive Director of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, she champions student voices through playwriting. Formerly leading Theatre Philadelphia, a Temple University alum, she co-founded Theatre in the X, an organization dedicated to breaking the barriers to theater. She is a Parent Artist Advocacy League advisor, a performer and cultural producer, and winner of the Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival 2022 Story Changers Award.

Walé Oyéjide is a filmmaker, designer, writer, speaker, photographer, musician and lawyer who combats bias with creative storytelling. As the founder of Ikiré Jones and After Migration, he employs fashion design as a vehicle to celebrate the perspectives of marginalized populations. He is a Fellow of Sundance, National Geographic, TED, Open Society Foundations, and a National Geographic Explorer.

Raúl Romero works in sound, sculpture, installation, and performance. He earned an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University School of Art and is the Director of Special Projects at the University of the Arts. Romero received awards from the Velocity Fund and the artist fellowship grant from the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures. He is a member of Vox Populi Gallery and has exhibited at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Taller Puertorriqueño, and Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.

Emily Schreiner has been working at the intersection of art, performance and education for over two decades. Recent projects include Rose: You Are Who You Eat with John Jarboe, Wig Wag with Emily Bate, and 100 People Listening: A Shared Decade with Rob Blackson. Formerly the Curator of Education and Public Programs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Emily founded and curated large-scale projects such as Art Splash, Friday Remix, and the Futures Therapy Lab.

Yolanda Wisher is the author of the poetry volume Monk Eats an Afro. Wisher was named inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1999 and third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2016. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher received the Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award in 2019 for her commitment to art for social change. In 2022, she was named a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Artist Fellow.