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Background Information on Conference Speakers |
Theodore S. Berger
Executive Director
New York Foundation for the Arts
THEODORE S. BERGER has been the Executive Director
of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) since 1980. He began
his work with NYFA in 1973, developing its Artist-in-Residence program.
NYFA, with an organizational budget of 13 million dollars, is one
of the nation's major providers of grants and services to individual
artists in all artistic disciplines. The Foundation also serves
arts organizations, the educational community and the general public,
creating national as well as international initiatives. Recently,
NYFA spearheaded a special 9/11 emergency-relief initiative, the
New York Arts Recovery Fund.
Mr. Berger has served on numerous cultural and educational
boards, panels and committees, including the National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department
of Cultural Affairs, the New York–Israel Cultural Cooperation
Commission, the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the National Campaign
for Freedom of Expression, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts,
the State Education Department and the Alliance of Artists’
Communities. He currently serves as an advisor and Board member
of the Arts & Business Council, Inc., ArtsAction of the Alliance
of New York State Arts Organizations, ArtsConnection, the Association
of Hispanic Arts, the Colleagues Theater Company, The Design Trust
for Public Space, and the New York City Arts Coalition. He has written
and spoken extensively on the arts and artists for numerous national
publications and conferences. Mr. Berger was formerly Assistant
Dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School
of International Affairs at Columbia University.
Kathleen Hughes
Assistant Commissioner
New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs
Marjorie Heins
Director
Free Expression Policy Project
Marjorie Heins, is the author, most recently,
of Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship,
and the Innocence of Youth, which won the American Library Association's
Eli M. Oboler Award in 2002 for the best published work in the field
of intellectual freedom. From 1991-98, she directed the American
Civil Liberties Union's Arts Censorship Project, where she was co-counsel
in a number of Supreme Court cases, including National Endowment
for the Arts v. Finley and Reno v. ACLU (the challenge to the 1996
Communications Decency Act). She is also the author of Sex, Sin,
and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars (1993, 1998),
Cutting the Mustard: Affirmative Action and the Nature of Excellence
(1988), "Three Questions About Television Ratings," in
The V-Chip Debate (1998), and numerous other book chapters and articles
about civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual freedom. In
1998-2000, she was a fellow of the Open Society Institute, which
supported the research for Not in Front of the Children. In the
1980s she was a staff attorney at the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts,
a visiting professor at Boston College Law School, and chief of
the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's
office. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1978.
Jonathan Katz, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA)
Jonathan Katz is one of the nation’s primary
spokespersons on behalf of funding and support for the arts and
cultural activities. He has guided the National Assembly of State
Arts Agencies (NASAA) as its chief executive officer since 1985.
Through NASAA, the state arts agencies (SAAs) share knowledge and
strategic thinking, develop leadership and professionalism, maintain
information systems, and advocate the value of the arts and culture.
During the current fiscal year, SAAs will manage more than $400
million in state appropriations, federal grants and other revenues.
Dr. Katz has directed the graduate arts administration program at
the University of Illinois at Springfield, The Children’s
Museum of Denver, and the Kansas Arts Commission. A frequent speaker
and workshop leader at forums on cultural issues and trends, he
has consulted extensively on strategic planning, cultural policy
development, advocacy, management training, and financial planning
and earned income for nonprofits. He is a co-founder of the Cultural
Advocacy Group, the forum of organizations that lobby Congress on
behalf of the federal cultural agencies, and he serves on the executive
committee of the Arts Education Partnership. The Partnership is
the national arts education forum of over 100 groups, established
by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for
the Arts and co-managed by the Council of Chief State School Officers
and NASAA. NASAA plays leadership roles in other national and international
partnerships designed to increase resources for the arts and raise
understanding of their value. Among NASAA partners are the National
Governors Association, the travel and tourism industry, and the
international diplomatic community.
Svetlana Mintcheva
Arts Advocacy Project Coordinator
National Coalition Against Censorship
Svetlana Mintcheva is presently the Arts Advocacy Project
Coordinator at the National Coalition Against Censorship. She holds
a doctorate from Duke University with a dissertation on the topic
of provocative art in the United States in the late 20th century.
She has published articles and given numerous talks on postmodern
art and literature. She also writes and leads public discussions
on censorship in the arts.
Joel Wachs
President
Andy Warhol Foundation
Joel Wachs, long-time member of the Los Angeles
City Council, its past President, and recent candidate for Mayor,
joined The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as its president
in October 2001.
Following a career as a tax attorney, Wachs was
first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1971 and won re-election
to that office seven times by record margins -- most recently in
1999. During his tenure on the City Council, Joel Wachs was widely
recognized as Los Angeles’ strongest advocate for the arts,
and authored most of the city’s significant legislation designed
to support artists and arts organizations, including the establishment
of the landmark Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts. Wachs also served
as acting chairman of the National League of Cities Task Force on
the Arts, which drafted the nation’s first comprehensive municipal
policy statement on the role of the arts in our cities. He has served
a variety of arts organizations, most notably the Los Angeles Museum
of Contemporary Art where he was vice chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Judith Kaufman Weiner
Executive Director
Alliance of New York State
Arts Organizations
Judith Kaufman Weiner has been the Executive Director
of the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations since October,
1994. Under her stewardship, the Alliance dramatically increased
capacity to deliver technical assistance, professional development,
and advocacy services to the arts organizations throughout New York
State. Alliance program highlights include the E-Institute for Leadership,
a web based e-learning program in partnership with Cornell University;
the nationally recognized Rural Arts program providing organizational
support to 34 organizations serving 32 counties; an annual state
arts conference; training workshops; regional coalitions, and consulting
and networking services. The Alliance also monitors, informs and
mobilizes the state on legislative and budgetary issues affecting
the arts and takes a leadership position in the development of public
policy in the arts.
Ms. Weiner also founded and is the Executive Director
of ArtsAction for NY, a corporation for lobbying that works closely
with the Alliance. On the national scene, Ms. Weiner is the Treasurer
of the National Community Arts Network and a member of the State
Arts Advocacy League of America. Ms Weiner assumed these positions
after serving more than a decade as Executive Director of the East
End Arts Council. She has served on funding panels in New York and
Massachusetts and has been a board member of cultural and community
organizations and participated in the Leadership Institute Arts
Administrators Program, Yale University. Ms. Weiner was a member
of the faculty and an Associate in Administration at Friends World
College, was a art teacher and working painter and sculptor.
Robert Yesselman
Director
Dance/NYC
Mr Yesselman, Director of Dance/NYC, has been involved in the management of professional dance in New York City since 1971. He began as Company Manager for American Ballet Theatre’s Ballet Repertory Company and was Executive Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 15 years. He has served as Executive Director of The Joffrey Ballet, Managing Director of the Dallas Theater Center, and interim Managing Director of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Yesselman has served on panels for the Dance Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (Chair), the Ohio Arts Council, the Dallas Commission for Cultural Affairs, and on the Board of Directors of Dance/USA. He was President of the 1987 "Dancing for Life" gala at the State Theater, Lincoln Center, the first dance community response to the AIDS crisis. He is the author of studies for Dance/USA and FEDAPT, edited the NEA-Dance/USA study "Moving Around: Dance on Tour," and was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts to prepare a preliminary needs assessment and feasibility study titled "The Need for a Mid-Sized Dance Theater in New York City."
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