Contact:
Catherine Brandt
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Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, today announced the election of six professionals to the executive committee of the Unites States Urban Arts Federation. The new executive committee members include:

• Sean McGlynn, USUAF President
  Director of the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, El Paso, TX

• Kerry Adams-Hapner, USUAF Vice-President
  Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Jose Office Cultural Affairs, San Jose, CA

• Roberto Bedoya, At-Large Member
  Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, Tucson, AZ

• Vincent Kitch, At-Large Member
  Director of the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle, WA

• Felix Padron, At-Large Member
  Director of the City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, San Antonio, TX

• Gary Steuer, At-Large Member
  Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Philadelphia, PA

• Mitch Swain, At-Large Member
  CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Pittsburgh, PA

The United States Urban Arts Federation is an Americans for the Arts alliance of the chief executives of local arts agencies in the nation's 60 largest cities and meets, advocates and networks to discuss the social, educational and economic impact of the arts in their regions.

"I'm delighted to see these talented and hardworking professionals elected to the leadership of the United States Urban Arts Federation," said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. "Their support for the arts in their community is a testament and an inspiration to others as they work to ensure that the arts thrive in America."

Sean McGlynn is the Director of the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD), a position held since 2008. Under his current leadership, MCAD has achieved official State of Texas arts district designation for the downtown core, overseen award winning programs and exhibitions, substantially grown the 2 percent for public art program, reformed the cultural funding portfolio to increase opportunities for individual artists and incentivize partner-driven festivals and engaged in significant regional economic and tourism development partnership initiatives.  Additionally, McGlynn oversees operation of three municipally operated museum facilities.  He is committed to seeing the department achieve its mission to develop a world-class arts and culture community in El Paso, Texas.

Previously, McGlynn served as Director of Finance and Strategic Initiatives at the City of New York Office of Cultural Affairs where he provided leadership in funding reform that resulted in an expanded competitive grant making budget, which grew from $4 million to $25 million.

As the Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Jose, Kerry Adams-Hapner leads the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA), which champions the arts and cultural vitality for San Jose's one million ethnically diverse residents and its visitors. Under her leadership, the OCA has developed nationally recognized programs including: Americans for the Arts 2011 Public Art Program of the Year; the Art+Technology Program at the San Jose International Airport; the Creative Entrepreneur Project; New Pathways for the Arts, an innovation in arts management program; and Silicon Valley Inside/Out, an NEA funded program to team the art and technology sectors and animate downtown San Jose. In addition, she has led the development of significant cultural policy including, Cultural Connection: San Jose's Cultural Plan for 2011-2020; cultural development goals for Envision San Jose 2040, the general plan update; a monument policy; and revisions to San Jose's multimillion dollar grant program to create the Cultural Funding Portfolio: Investments in Art, Creativity, and Culture. 

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 Bedoya has worked on projects for Creative Capital Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Urban Institute. From 1996-2001 he was the Executive Director of the National Association of Artists' Organizations, a national arts service organization for individual artists and artist-centered organizations, primarily visual and interdisciplinary. A writer, Bedoya's poems, essays and reviews has appeared in numerous publications including The New Gatekeepers Emerging Challenges to Free Expression in the Arts (Columbia University Press, 2003), CMYK, EOAGH, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of the monograph U.S. Cultural Policy: Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential and The Color Line and US Cultural Policy: An Essay with Dialogue.

Vincent E. Kitch has been active in arts administration and cultural policy work at local, state, national and international levels for 20 years. In his current position as Director of the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, he is responsible for providing overall leadership and direction for arts and cultural policy. His management portfolio includes public art, grant making, advocacy, arts education, cultural tourism and cultural space development. Prior to his position in Seattle, Kitch spent seven years as the Cultural Arts Program Manager for the City of Austin, Texas. In addition, he previously held positions as the Education and Capital Programs Coordinator with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the founding director of the Ysleta High School Performing Arts Magnet Program in El Paso, Texas, and the Arts Program Coordinator for the City of El Paso Arts Resources Department.

Felix Padrón is the Executive Director of the City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs. In his role, Padrón works with non-profit arts and cultural organizations, artists, City departments, neighborhoods and the business community to anchor the arts as an economic asset in San Antonio. During his eleven years as Director, OCA has evolved into the city arts agency leading policy development, advocacy and resources to the local creative sector. In 2005, Padrón initiated The Cultural Collaborative (TCC) San Antonio's first ten-year plan to support the growth and recognition of San Antonio's creative economy. Before becoming director, he was responsible for developing the City of San Antonio first public art program and served six years implementing city wide public art projects. His success and expertise in the public art arena earned him city-wide respect.

Since 2008, Gary Steuer has headed Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, which supports and promotes arts, culture and creative industries, and develops partnerships and coordinates efforts that weave arts, culture and creativity into the economic and social fabric of the Philadelphia. Recent major accomplishments include creating the City's first arts and creative industry-targeted Community Development Block Grant capital funding initiative, completing a new study on Philadelphia's Creative Vitality and initiating a new arts and creative economy data mapping project. Before joining the Nutter administration, Steuer was the Vice President for Private-Sector Affairs at Americans for the Arts, and had the additional title of Executive Director of the Art and Business Council of Americans for the Arts and was President and CEO of the Arts & Business Council Inc. Earlier in his career he was a theatre producer, both in the commercial and nonprofit theatre and served as Capital Funding program director for the New York State Council on the Arts.

Mitch Swain came to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council in 2006 to become the first CEO of the new organization.  Previously, he was director of shared services for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, spent nine years with the Jazz Arts Group/Columbus Jazz Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, where he held the position of executive director, and was general manager of Columbus Percussion Center. He serves as Chair of Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, is a governing board member of the Cultural Data Project and serves on several other community boards and committees including the Cultural Data Project, Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership and Future Tenant.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.