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Innovators

Learn from pioneering individuals working in and around the arts. Innovator sessions are presented as a part of each convention track. You can make your own Executive Track by attending a selection of Innovator Sessions each day.

Pepón Osorio, Public Art Innovator
Friday, June 20, 2008
9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

Pepón Osorio—born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1955—is best known for large-scale installations. Osorio was educated at the Universidad Inter-Americana in Puerto Rico and Herbert H. Lehman College in New York, and received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1985. Osorio’s pieces, influenced by his experience as a social worker in the Bronx, usually evolve from an interaction with the neighborhoods and people among which he is working. “My principal commitment as an artist is to return art to the community,” he has said. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art and El Museo del Barrio in New York, el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, DC.

Marianne Hughes, Leadership Innovator
Friday, June 20, 2008
2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Marianne Hughes is the Executive Director of the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), where she combines her social policy expertise, organizing skills, devotion to social justice, and deep faith in the human capacity for goodness in an effort to further IISC’s mission. Hughes’ professional commitment to social change began in 1966, during an early life-directing experience as one of AmeriCorps’ original VISTA Volunteers. Followed by years of anti-war, disarmament, and low-income grassroots organizing, Hughes developed a spiritual and political direction for herself and her work. For several years, Hughes was a senior associate at Regina Villa Associates, where she designed public interest initiatives and legislative budget campaigns and consulted groups on policy development. In 1993, she was hired by Interaction Associates to launch a nonprofit partner organization (IISC) to work in the social and public sectors and local communities. She has since taken IISC from its start-up phase and a staff of two to an organization with two offices and 50 staff and affiliates that serves hundreds of clients across the country and the world. In addition to delivering training, consulting, coaching, and facilitation services, Hughes leads the ongoing development of new services and fundraising efforts for IISC, as well as organizational thinking and learning about innovative ways to create high-impact social change.

Rob "Biko" Baker, Civic Engagement Innovator
Friday, June 20, 2008
4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.

Rob "Biko" Baker is a nationally recognized hip-hop organizer, journalist, activist, and scholar. In his home community of Milwaukee, he has organized hip-hop town hall meetings and used the power and agency of hip-hop to inform, mobilize, and motivate young people to participate in civic life. Baker has served as the deputy publicity coordinator and young voter organizer for the Brown and Black Presidential Forum, a nationally televised presidential debate that aired on MSNBC. He was also lead organizer for Slam Bush, a nationwide voter mobilization project using rap and poetry and featuring Hip Hop heavy-hitter Chuck D. In 2006, Baker developed, and continues to oversee, the League of Young Voters training program, which prepares the next generation of young activists to make long-term commitments to local organizing. Baker is a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, a frequent contributor to The Source, and serves on Wiretap's editorial board.

Meryl Levitz, Economic Development Innovator
Sunday, June 22, 2008
2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Meryl Levitz is President and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. She has pursued strategies and programs that challenge the notion of tourism as an end product and focus on tourism as a tool to build community. With her colleagues, Levitz created the uwishunu™ campaign, a website project that partners with Philadelphia’s artists and smaller, grassroots arts and culture organizations to reveal “unconventional” Philadelphia to people seeking an authentic urban experience. Featuring significant user-generated content, the site connects and responds to consumers in ways expected by the tech-savvy. Levitz will describe the genesis, development, and management of the campaign and demonstrate site content. She will be joined at the end of the session by site collaborators for an open discussion about their work.

Claudine Kinard Brown and A.B. Spellman, Preserving Diverse Cultures Innovators
Friday, June 20, 2008
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Claudine Kinard Brown is Director of the Arts and Culture Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She began her professional career as an art and drama teacher in the New York City public schools system. In 1976, she joined the staff of the Brooklyn Museum where she served for 13 years in several capacities. Brown left the Brooklyn Museum in 1990 to direct the Smithsonian Institution's initiative to create a National African American Museum. In this capacity her responsibilities included conducting a needs assessment, developing a vision statement and program plan, and opening a Center for African American History & Culture pending passage of authorizing legislation to create a museum. In 1991, she added to her responsibilities by concurrently assuming the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Museums, during which time she developed policy affecting 13 national arts and humanities museums, reviewed their long-range plans, and assisted with prioritizing institution-wide budget requests that were presented to Congress.

A.B. Spellman is an author, poet, critic, and lecturer. He has published numerous books and articles on the arts, including Art Tatum: A Critical Biography (a chapbook), The Beautiful Days (poetry), and Four Lives in the Bebop Business, now available as Four Jazz Lives (University of Michigan Press). Between 1975 and 2005, Spellman worked at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), first as the Director of the Expansion Arts Program and for the last decade of his term at the NEA as Deputy Chairman. In recognition of Spellman’s commitment and service to jazz, in 2005 the National Endowment for the Arts named one of its prestigious Jazz Masters awards the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy. Also in 2005, the Jazz Journalists Association voted to honor Spellman with its A Team award. In March 2006, he received the Benny Golson Award from Howard University for his service to jazz.

Patricia Martin, Private-Sector Innovator
Friday, June 20, 2008
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Patricia Martin is President of Chicago-based LitLamp Communications Group, the firm she founded in 1995. An author and consultant, Martin is one of the nation's foremost authorities on consumers and culture. She has worked with the Discovery Channel, Banknorth, the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Public Library, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the New York Philharmonic, Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Target, and Unisys. She holds a master's degree (with honors) from University College, Dublin, and a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University. Her book, Ren-Gen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer--and What It Means to Your Business, was published in August 2007.

Jeffrey Brown, Richard J. Deasy, Nick Rabkin, and Andrea Peterson, Arts Education Innovator
Sunday, June 22, 2008
9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

With so much talent to share, how could we choose just one? We’ll feature the genius of three matchless leaders through the clarity of one extraordinary interviewer. Jeffrey Brown, our interviewer, was named a senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in 2005. His primary responsibilities are in the areas of culture, arts, and the media. As correspondent since 1998, Mr. Brown has profiled and interviewed dozens of leading American and international writers, musicians, and other artistic figures. Richard J. Deasy is the director of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a coalition of over 100 organizations that promotes arts education for student success. Under his leadership AEP is credited with major, national advances in arts education. Mr. Deasy has been a senior state education official in Maryland and Pennsylvania and a prize-winning reporter on politics and government. Nick Rabkin is the executive director of the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago, which edits the Teaching Artist Journal and is currently working on the first multi-city study of teaching artists. He was senior program officer for arts and culture at the MacArthur Foundation and is editor of Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century. Andrea Peterson, a music teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Granite Falls, WA, is the 2007–2008 National Teacher of the Year. In ten years, she has revitalized near defunct music programs in both the elementary and high schools. When the district finances fell short, Peterson found alternative sources, surpassing the $55,000 goal for equipment.

Pam Breaux, Public Advocacy Innovator
Sunday, June 22, 2008
9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

Pam Breaux serves as Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development in the Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, under the commission of the Office of Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. As Assistant Secretary, Breaux is the chief executive officer of the agency, overseeing Louisiana’s arts, historic preservation, archaeology, and cultural economy programs. Breaux currently serves as Secretary of the Board for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Vice President of Programs for the Southern Arts Federation, and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center. She is active with the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts and was Chairman of the group, 1997–1999. Breaux has also served on the Board of Directors and was Vice President of NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts/Riverfront.