Kevin Simmons
For more than a decade, Kevin Simmons has worked in Chicago and abroad as a program strategist, project designer, and consultant for diverse cultural, environmental, and philanthropic initiatives. A former AmeriCorps*VISTA member and Site Director for LIFT, he studied housing and education policy at Princeton University, Russian language and Slavic literature at the Nevsky Institute in St. Petersburg, holds a certificate in Conservation Finance from the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, and is an NAI-certified interpretive guide and naturalist. Institutions for which he has worked in development, communications, or program management capacities include the UNDP/Global Environment Facility, Audubon Society, ANAI, ArtBasel (Basel), and the BioMuseo, in collaboration Frank Gehry, Bruce Mau, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). He is a member of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and serves on the boards of Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak, Opera Omnia, is the Board Chair of Opera Cabal, and served for more than ten years on the board of Mother Jones.
Peter Taub
Peter Taub is a curator and arts manager with over 30 years of experience in developing and producing artist-centered projects. Currently working on a project basis, he was the founding director of the performing arts program at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from 1996 – 2016. He steered its development as a leading presenter of multidisciplinary dance, theater and music, and established the MCA Stage New Works Initiative to support artists with creative residencies and commissions. He cofounded the Chicago Dancemakers Forum to support artistic exploration and advancement for Chicago-based choreographers, and as executive director of Randolph Street Gallery, he led its growth into a nationally recognized artist-run center.
Izabella Redzisz
Izabella is an attorney who also holds a certificate in Art and Museum Law from the DePaul University College of Law, where her studies focused particularly on authentication and repatriation. During her time at DePaul, Izabella wrote for and edited the Journal of Art, Technology, and Intellectual Property Law. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Film studies. Izabella co-owns Nightshade Floral Design, where she is able to exercise her creative side by designing floral arrangements for events all around the Chicago area.
Janet Weiss
Janet is a highly accomplished marketing and branding executive, with over twenty years of experience developing successful campaigns and strategies for cultural, art and entertainment organizations. Janet has extensive non-profit experience, including as the Head of Marketing for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where she oversaw branding, ad creative, media planning, marketing partnerships, sponsorship, special events and digital/mobile and social media. During her tenure, Janet led an organization-wide rebranding of the Academy, launched the Academy's social and digital platforms, generated millions of dollars in new revenue streams and increased total Oscar® viewership.
Prior to joining the Academy, Janet developed a national branding and corporate sponsorship program for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and their 200+ member zoos and aquariums throughout North America.
Throughout her career, Janet has produced successful marketing campaigns for a wide range of programs and properties, across all consumer marketing channels. She is currently consulting for a number of media and entertainment clients, providing marketing strategy and business development.
A native of Chicago, Janet studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and began her career in film production before turning her attention to marketing. Janet recently relocated to her hometown, where she lives with her husband, who is a musician and composer.
Cynthia Bond
Cynthia Bond is a writer, educator, and project-based independent arts producer. She received a BA magna cum laude in English and Rhetoric, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; an MFA in Poetry and JD, Cornell University; and a Leadership Certificate in Arts Management, University of Massachusetts. She teaches at UIC School of Law, with a focus on writing and law in society. Her poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry, among other publications, and her scholarship centers on media and images of race in popular culture. Cynthia has produced and consulted on an array of projects, collaborating with visual artists, choreographers, and filmmakers. www.cynthiabond.net
Yoshinojo Fujima aka Rika Lin
Yoshinojo Fujima (aka Rika Lin) is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and Grandmaster in Fujima style Japanese classical dance. She is a “shin-nisei”, part of the postwar Japanese American diaspora. She has performed original work and as part of many collaborations at Links Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), where she premiered her full length solo Asobi: Playing within Time in 2018. Her works embody her identity and tradition through performance as well as her teaching practice in Japanese classical dance. Yoshinojo is a 2021 recipient of the Digital Dance Grantand Production Residency by Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and a 2021-2022 Fellow in Residency by High Concept Labs, for her ongoing virtual reality project “Kurokami E{m}Urge, #ChooseYourReality”. She was a John D. and Susan P. Diekman Fellowship Djerassi Resident Artist (2019), awardee of Ragdale Foundation (2019) and High Concept Labs (2018) residencies, a Links Hall Artistic Associate Curatorial Resident, 3Arts Make a Wave artist, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist (2017.)
Yoshinojo is founder and curator of the series “Beyond the Box”, launched in 2017 at Links Hall and that centers on female performers and creatives. Her own dance investigations alter the traditional pedagogy of Japanese dance with humor and subtle transgressions by way of questioning ideas of role and identity. Her collaborative project with puppet artist Tom Lee, Suji: Lines of Tradition, was featured as part of the 2019 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Links Hall 40th Anniversary LinkSirkus, as well as “Beyond the Box”. She performed in March 2020in Kyoto, Japan at UrbanGuild as part of the MushiHime Festival, just before the pandemic came into full force. She is a recent Master Apprentice Ethnic Folk Arts Grant recipient, and adapting the pedagogy of traditional Japanese Classical dance with her mentor/teacher.
For more information please www.yoshinojo.org/
Danielle Garvey
Danielle Garvey’s current professional work focuses on digital accessibility and she has worked across the education, public service, and financial services fields. In the past, she participated in community organizing efforts for affordable housing in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. In her free time, Danielle experiments with metal work.
Samuel J. Lewis, II
Sam Lewis is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and NFP Arts director. He is an actor, vocalist, and puppeteer. In 1998, Sam co-founded Elastic Arts Foundation, where he currently serves as co-founder of the Dark Matter Series and Residency Program and is Elastic Arts director of outreach. In addition, Sam is the director of engagement and artist programs with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, where he manages their Artist Corps and Back Alley Jazz programs. Sam has been married for 21 years, has three children, and lives in Skokie, IL.
Andy Slater
Andy Slater is a blind Chicago-based media artist, writer, performer, and Disability advocate/loudmouth.
Andy holds a Masters in Sound Arts and Industries from Northwestern University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a 2022 United States Artists fellow, 2022-2023 Leonardo Crip Tech Incubator fellow and a 2018 3Arts/Bodies of Work fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago
Brittany Harlin
Brittany Harlin is originally from Bolingbrook, Illinois, where she began dance in jazz at the age of six. Her original dance and music influences began in her close multigenerational family, and formational influences are the pioneers in Hip Hop and Modern dance. She studied dance at Loyola University Chicago. She is the founding artistic director of Chicago Urban Dance Collective, which is driven by Harlin’s purpose to represent the full spectrum of street dance to live music and dj’s on the concert stage.
Harlin is a former High Concept Labs Artist in Residence, in performance choreography and filmmaking. She is a 2017 recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, and the 2018 recipient of the Sybil Shearer fellowship. In addition to work for her company, her dancing and choreography has been featured at Ragdale Foundation, Links Hall, Elastic Arts, Aragon Ballroom, DRAMA Duo Music Productions, Black Ensemble Theatre, and Hip Hop International.
Her first short film, “Delinea Renda”, inspired by the work of visual artist and writer Barbara Chase Riboud, features original poetry, vocals and choreography by Harlin, music by composer Josh Luis, and engineer-producing by Peter Angorola and Melvin Rosario. The film’s development was a coveted 3Arts Project Match selection in 2018, surpassing the goal and receiving its release in 2019.
Her first length work for her company, “Breathing Through Vernacular Movement”, was premiered by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2018. Her latest full length piece for her dancers, ”Don’t Forget Your Mother,” is a choreographic memoir set to music and dedicated to mothers on Earth and ancestors beyond, and received its world premiere as part of the 2019 Pivot Arts Festival.
Harlin regards the body of work to date as a living investigation of social movement origins in the music and dance forms of Hip Hop, Modern, Funk Styles, Waacking, and House, which she combines with her growing knowledge of somatics and kinesiology. Her teaching artist pedagogy and philosophy are weighted in respecting the integrity of the vernacular movement by sharing what she’s been taught from respected community members. As an educator, she aims to bring dance to a place of complete body awareness, spiritual expression, and connection.
For more information please visit http://brittanyharlin.com/