Congratulations to Talia Gibas and Jacquelyn Strycker, who are the fall 2012 Createquity Writing Fellows! You’ll be seeing posts from them starting this month and running through mid-January. Here is a little more about each.
I love a writer who’s not afraid of taking risks, and Talia Gibas is just that. You would think that, as manager for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s Arts for All program, which works to restore arts standards to the core curriculum in K-12 public schools, Talia would be ready to seize upon any piece of evidence that purports to be good news for the arts. But as the daughter of two scientists, she wants to make sure that we’re using the research we have properly, writing, “I think we waste opportunities when we make claims without paying attention to and learning from the broader education field. Sitting in our own echo chamber is silly – but undeniably comfortable.” Talia is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Harvard Graduate School of Education, previously was a program assistant at the Getty Foundation, and runs triathlons in her spare time. Her last name is pronounced with a hard G and a soft i, in case you were wondering.
Besides winning the title for the most badass action hero name in Createquity history, Jacquelyn Strycker is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between Createquity’s focus on the how the arts fit into the social sciences and the more humanities-oriented perspective that traditionally characterizes arts writing. Originally from New Jersey, Jacquie is director of operations for the MFA Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. A printmaker by training, she is also an artist herself with a studio in Brooklyn and serves as director of summer-long projects for the radical participatory public art group FIGMENT NYC.
Please join me in welcoming Jacquelyn and Talia to Createquity!