Last fall, after we announced an open call for new editorial team members alongside the relaunch of our website, we were overwhelmed by the largest and most enthusiastic response to any opportunity we’d offered in our history. I’m pleased to share that as of earlier this month, Createquity’s editorial team has expanded by no fewer than five new recruits. These folks have all been with us unofficially since December, and after proving their mettle throughout a three-month trial period, can now formally claim their spots on the masthead. Say hello to:
Louise Geraghty is currently a Master of Public Policy student at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. She holds an internship at the University’s Arts + Public Life Initiative and the Urban Education Institute, where she assists the Community Arts Program Manager in creating a partnership between the University of Chicago Charter Schools and the APL. Interested in research and evaluation, Louise has interned at American Institutes for Research and has previously worked in fundraising at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and as a Program Associate at Artist Corps New Orleans, a startup music education nonprofit.
Katie Ingersoll works at the the Cultural Data Project (CDP), a nonprofit that seeks to empower the arts and cultural sector with high-quality data and resources in order to strengthen its vitality, performance, and public impact. Katie works to develop and deliver educational resources to help organizations make use of CDP’s tools and data. Prior to joining the CDP, Katie was a Policy Researcher at the Prometheus Radio Project, working to create opportunities for local groups to use radio to benefit their communities. She holds a Master of Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh and has worked in public and academic libraries. In her spare time, Katie is an amateur mosaic artist and circus performer in training.
Carlyn Madden is an independent consultant working with arts and culture nonprofits. With nearly a decade of experience in the public and private grantmaking spheres, Carlyn has expertise in strategy and evaluation, development planning, governance and stakeholder engagement. Prior to consulting, Carlyn worked for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the official arts agency of the District of Columbia, where she was the senior advisor for grantmaking for youth and capacity building, policy incentives, key partnerships and programs. Previously, Carlyn was the Program Associate at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the DC region’s largest private grantmaker. Carlyn has an MA in Museum Studies from the George Washington University and a BA in Art History from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. A native Washingtonian, she now lives in Berlin, Germany with her husband and very hyper Wheaten Terrier.
Fari Nzinga was born and raised in Boston, MA and graduated from Oberlin College in 2005, where she was awarded a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. Her Mellon thesis explored the lives of Black Cuban women in Havana and drew heavily from fieldwork conducted there during a study abroad semester. In 2006 she enrolled at Duke University in the Cultural Anthropology program where she would earn both her M.A. and Ph.D. Having lived in New Orleans since 2009, her dissertation explored Black-led, community-based institutions using art and culture to help achieve their social justice-oriented missions, as well as the political-economic landscape in which they operate. While conducting fieldwork in post-Katrina New Orleans she worked for a theater production company with organizational roots stretching back to the civil rights movement. In fall 2014, she began a two-year ACLS Public Fellowship position as the Public Policy Officer at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Clara Inés Schuhmacher is the Director of Operations for Make Music New York, a unique festival featuring thousands of participatory concerts in public spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City on the summer solstice. She is also Associate Producer for the New York Village Halloween Parade, the largest celebration of its kind in the United States. From 2008-2013, she was Development Manager for Institutional Giving at the American Music Center where she played a key role in supporting the organization through a merger which resulted in the creation of New Music USA. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Artistic Director of the new media festival Pixilerations under the auspices of Providence’s FirstWorks. Clara is an artist, vocalist and writer; her video & installation work with her collective vvitalny has been presented in the United States, Argentina, Israel and across Europe. She holds a BA in Ethnomusicology from Brown University, and an MA in Arts Politics from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Cover image credit: “Applause” by Thomas Quine, via Flickr Creative Commons