Katherine Gressel is an NYC-based freelance artist, curator and writer focused on site‐specific and community art. Her popular article on public art evaluation from her 2011 Createquity Writing Fellowship led to multiple writing and speaking engagements with Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network and Public Art Dialogue, among others. Katherine has curated for Brooklyn’s Old Stone House, Brooklyn Historical Society, FIGMENT, No Longer Empty, and NARS Foundation, and is the founder of Brooklyn Utopias, an exhibition and public programming series inviting artists and community groups to respond to urban planning issues. Her curatorial work has  been recognized by The New York Times, Time Out New York, Hyperallergic, News 12 Brooklyn, and DNAInfo, and through grants from Brooklyn Arts Council and the Puffin Foundation. Katherine has painted community murals internationally and exhibited her own artwork throughout NYC, and currently runs an award-winning business, Event Painting by Katherine, creating live paintings of private events. Katherine has also held programming, grantwriting and teaching artist jobs and internships at such organizations as  Smack Mellon, Arts to Grow, Creative Time and the Brooklyn Museum. Katherine earned her BA in art from Yale and MA in arts administration from Columbia.

Michael Feldman provides strategic and engagement advice to local and international arts organizations. Based in Washington, D.C., he also serves as a board member of the Alliance for a New Music Theatre, an arts partner of the Czech Embassy for their Mutual Inspirations Festival. Michael is a former cultural attaché and diplomat whose experience bridges the arts, development, and public policy worlds. Michael was a director at PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief; a director for Europe and Central Asia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and professional staff of the Budget Committee of the U.S. Senate as part of a fellowship with the American Political Science Association. At the US State Department, Michael served in Europe and Central Africa; he oversaw assistance for the Balkans; and he negotiated policy with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the G-7/8 process, and the European Union. Michael graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Economics and speaks German, Czech, French and Italian.

Shawn Renee Lent is an international social practice dance artist, blogger, educator, and manager with experience from South Chicago to East London to Northwest Bosnia. Shawn is currently transitioning back to the States after three years living abroad. In 2012, she moved to Cairo, Egypt as a Fulbright Scholar with a project titled “Artist as Catalyst.” Following her grant, Shawn remained in Egypt as the EducationUSA Advising Coordinator with AMIDEAST and the US State Department, while also building dance programs for 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt and the U.S. Embassy Cairo. Previously, Shawn was the Arts Integration Program Specialist at Columbia College Chicago and a member of numerous nonprofit boards. Her honors include being selected for the UN Alliance of Civilizations International Fellowship, American Express Social Purpose Leadership Academy, World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, and the Universal Exposition in Milan. Shawn holds a Master of Arts Management degree with a concentration in Arts in Youth and Community Development from Columbia College Chicago, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Youth Arts Development from Goldsmith’s College, and a BFA from Millikin University, where she had the honor of being Commencement Speaker in 2014.

Cover image credit: “Applause” by Thomas Quine, via Flickr Creative Commons