We’re hosting a panel conversation on community engagement in the arts. Join us for "A Community Approach to Art: Supporting Communities by Engaging Artists and Youth,” and hear from various NYC arts councils and youth-serving community organizations.
Wednesday, July 27
6:00-7:30pm
Zoom
REGISTER TODAY!
Meet our speakers
Rodney Fuller is currently the Interim-Executive Director Queens Council on the Arts. He is a nationally recognized nonprofit leader and brings an entrepreneurial approach to his work with experience in both the for profit and nonprofit sectors. Leadership positions in the nonprofit sector have included Public Allies (a national organization committed to advancing social justice and equity by engaging and activating the leadership of all young people), the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, and at least ten additional nonprofits. Consulting expertise includes ‘turnaround’ strategies for struggling nonprofits and charter schools as well as executive search/transition. A natural teacher, Rodney has been an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College, Lehman College, Hunter College School of Social Work, Ramapo College New Jersey, and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University.
A charismatic speaker, Rodney has been featured in local and national media. He was selected as an outstanding African American role model and featured in a series of ads that aired on NBC television. He has appeared on Good Morning America, Good Day New York, and New York 1, and featured in the NY Times and Daily news.
Currently pursuing an Advanced Certified Personal and Executive Coach certificate through the International Coaching Federation, Rodney has an MSW degree from Hunter College and is a licensed clinical social worker/therapist. Hobbies include playing saxophone, outdoor hikes, entrepreneurship, and travel to the nearest tropical beach.
Lina M. Alfonso Gutierrez is a Brooklyn-based arts administrator from Tunja, Colombia. She currently serves as the Program Manager, Grants and Services, at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), New York, where she manages all aspects of LMCC’s grant programs for Manhattan-based artists and organizations working across all disciplines. Prior to joining LMCC, Lina served as the Program and Operations Manager at Art in General. Lina is a 2019 Innovative Cultural Advocacy (ICA) Fellow from the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) and a
2020 Advocacy Leadership Institute (ALI) Fellow from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). She has served as a panelist for the GREEN / ARTS LIVE NYC fund, City Parks Foundation (New York, 2021) and is currently a panelist and trustee of the Awesome Foundation New York City's chapter. Lina received undergraduate degrees in Visual Arts and Economics from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), and a M.A in Arts Administration from Columbia University.
Ye Qin Zhu was born in Taishan, China (1986), to farmers who met in the factories of Shenzhen city. His family immigrated to NYC in 1990. He grew up in a house with a village-style vegetable garden in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. These histories propel him. Their currents—manufacture and gardening, belonging and displacement, anarchy and citizenry, spirit and material—are split modes that fold over, burrowing and resurfacing. Through art-making, Zhu is in conversation with their movements. Zhu earned his BFA from The Cooper Union, NYC, 2010 and an MFA from Yale University, 2020.
Deborah Lendore hails from Brooklyn, New York. On June 15,2022 she graduated from Star Early College, she ranks # 5 in her graduating class. Deborah served as a student ambassador and was a member of BSAC- Borough Student Advisory Council. She was the president of the Student Council and helped to organize a successful coat drive during the Pandemic. She was also a member of her school’s track team. She organized a peer tutoring team to assist students during Covid. More recently, she hosted a fundraiser, “Renovate to Educate” and to date has sent computers, laptops and other school supplies to Grenada so other students can have an equitable education. Deborah is attending Duke University in the Fall, and plans to attend medical school and pursue a career as a trauma surgeon
Brian Cohen has been described as a mix of Captain Kangaroo and General George Patton, perhaps because he was often making up camp on the spot and then demanding that everyone follow his lead. As Beam Center grew, he came to think of himself more as somewhere between Willy Wonka and Willy Loman. When Brian was a teenager, adults invited him into spaces and projects where they offered him an assortment of ageless identities and allowed him to choose the ones he wished to embody. Brian attended Columbia University and the best thing he got there was his spouse, Maggie.
After college, Brian moved to Los Angeles and found an internship at an indie record company in El Segundo. In 1990, Brian moved back to NYC to work as the Director of Advertising for Elektra Records. On that same day, he met Daniel Kahn and the rest is Beam history. Brian is more of a taco than a sandwich, a free-form and unordered collection of aromatics, spices, and roasted meats.