Meet the participants in NYFA’s Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area 2022!

Meet the participants in NYFA’s Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area 2022!

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce the 16 leaders who are participating in the Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area program! Facilitated by Babette Baker, Principal at Paideia PM, the program provides free leadership training and community support from January to June 2022. DKON Consulting Group will provide individualized consultation sessions to incubator participants.

Made possible through the support of a consortium of funders, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, and the Cy Twombly Foundation, the Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the TriState Area is an outgrowth of NYFA’s Emerging Leaders program that has served over 150 leaders since 2013.

NYFA fosters the professional development of leaders of color and aims to encourage both the sustainability and success of their organizations and the equitability and diversity of the arts industry through programs like the Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area. NYFA believes that investments in cultural infrastructure build stronger links and shared knowledge between artists and arts administrators, which benefits the entire field.

2022 Incubator for Arts & Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area

Jeremy Dennis; President; Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc.; Shinnecock Indian Reservation, Southampton, NY

Adriana Devers-Rodriguez; 1st Vice President; Westbury Arts; Westbury, NY

Natasha Dyer; Deputy Director, Newark Trust for Education; Newark, NJ

Kolton Harris; Program Manager, Connecticut Office of the Arts; Hartford, CT

Tianding He; Founding Artistic Director; B·O·N·D International Virtual Performance Festival; Jersey City, NJ

Marcia Heard; Co-Founder and Executive Director; Ivy Hill Vailsburg Center for Arts Culture And Community Activism aka ACCA Creates!; Newark, NJ

Taneshia Nash Laird; President and CEO; Newark Symphony Hall; Newark, NJ

Madeline Lora; Program Director; Inner City Ensemble; Paterson, NJ

Shamain McAllister; Community Impact Manager; International Festival of Arts & Ideas; New Haven, CT

Sean McLeod; Artistic Director; Kaleidoscope Dance Theater Inc.; Auburn, NY

Brishen Miller; Lead Producer; Passage Theater Company; Trenton, NJ

Gregory Osborne; Artistic Director; Progressive Theater, a NJ Nonprofit Corporation; Maplewood, NJ

Kiran Rajagopalan; Interim Executive Director; Art Horizons; Englewood, NJ

Yasmeen Siddiqui; Founding Director; Minerva Projects; Pine Plains, NY

Amanda Stephen; Director; Poughkeepsie Performing Arts Academy (a unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh); Poughkeepsie, NY

Estrellx Supernova; Cosmic Energetic Orchestrator (CEO), Creative/Executive Director; The Cosmic Angels / The School of Tenderness; Nomadic (began in West New York, NJ)

This program is made possible with the support of a consortium of funders, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, and the Cy Twombly Foundation, and was designed in partnership with a group of arts and cultural leaders in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York State (outside of NYC) and participants of NYSCA/NYFA Community Leaders Program.

We want to thank: Angie Durrell, Founder & Executive Director of INTEMPO; Renee Flagler, Executive Director of Girls Inc. of Long Island; Deonté Griffin-Quick, Director of Programs and Services at NJ Theater Alliance; Armand Hall, Executive and Artistic Director of The ROCmusic Collaborative; Nydia Padilla Rodriguez, Founder & Artistic Director of Borinquen Dance Theatre, Inc.; Alison Scott-Williams, President at Studio in a School NYC; Anita Thomas, Executive Director of Carolyn Dorfman Dance; Theodore Thomas, Executive Director of New England Dance Theater; and Diego Vásquez, Communications Manager at The Real Art Ways.

This program is part of NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.