Creative Capital

Staff

To contact a staff member at Creative Capital, click here.

Ruby Lerner, President & Executive Director

ArtIST SERVICES
Sean Elwood, Director, Programs & Initiatives
Kemi Ilesanmi, Director, Grants & Services
Merle Augustin, Grants & Services Assistant
Paul Sepuya, Grantmaking Coordinator

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Sophie Henderson, Director, External Affairs
Jenny Gill, Outreach Manager
Rebecca Herman, Manager, Institutional Giving
Hae-In Kim, External Affairs Coordinator
Meg Miles, Manager, Individual Giving & Events

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
Leslie Singer, Chief Financial Officer
Debra Henri, Finance Assistant 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Alyson Pou, Director, PDP
Krista Fabian DeCastro, PDP Workshop Manager
Marty Snyder, PDP Assistant
Amanda Berlin Knapp, PDP Administrative Manager

TECHNICAL SERVICES
Todd Griffin, Database Manager
Blithe Riley, Manager, Web-Based Initiatives

Arts Writers Grant Program
Margaret Sundell, Consulting Director
Pradeep Dalal, Director, Grants & Services
Julie Evanoff, Manager, Information & Tech
Kareem Estefan, Program Assistant

Multi-Arts Production Fund
Moira Brennan, Director
Denise DeSpirito, Program Assistant

Program Consultants
Rashida Bumbray, 2012-13 Performing Arts Consultant
Yolanda Cesta Cursach, 2012-13 Performing Arts Consultant
Lisa Cortes, 2011-12 Film/Video Consultant 
David Familian, 2012-13 Emerging Fields Consultant
Kathleen Forde, 2012-13 Emerging Fields Lead Consultant
Richard Herskowitz, 2011-12 Film/Video Consultant
Stuart Horodner, 2011-12 Visual Arts Lead Consultant 
Clara Kim, 2011-12 Visual Arts Lead Consultant 
George Lugg, 2012-12 Performing Arts Lead Consultant
Denise Markonish, 2011-12 Visual Arts Consultant 
Ethan Nosowsky, 2012-13 Literature Consultant
Mike Plante, 2011-12 Film/Video Lead Consultant 
Thanassis Rikakis, 2012-13 Emerging Fields Consultant

Administrative Consultants
Area 17, Web Design
Beeswax, Web Programmer
Michael Overn, Legal Counsel
Sam Nelson, Clever Name Here, Inc., Grantee Application/Web Consultant

Staff Biographies

Ruby Lerner, President & Executive Director
Ruby Lerner is the founding President and Executive Director of Creative Capital. Prior to Creative Capital, Lerner served as the Executive Director of the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers (AIVF) and as Publisher of the highly regarded Independent Film and Video Monthly. Having worked regionally in both the performing arts and independent media fields, she served as the Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, a coalition of Southeastern performing artists, and IMAGE Film/Video Center, both based in Atlanta. In the late 1970s, she was the Audience Development Director at the Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York's foremost nonprofit theaters. A native of North Carolina, Lerner worked in the state's visiting artist program following graduate work in theater at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her undergraduate degree is in comparative religion from Goucher College.

During nearly thirty years in the arts, Lerner has written and lectured extensively on arts issues, served on many boards, steering committees and grantmaking panels, and has consulted with hundreds of arts organizations on audience development and related areas of arts management. She has received the Catalyst Award from the National Association of Artists Organizations (2007), the BAXten Award from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2007), a Creative Leadership Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities (2005), the Artist Advocate Award from the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations (2003) and a Special Citation from Artists Space for her support of individual artists (2003). In April 2001, Lerner was the keynote speaker at the annual ArtTable luncheon. Lerner is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, the Goucher College Committee of Visitors and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Innovation Circle.

Krista Fabian DeCastro, PDP Workshop Manager
Krista Fabian DeCastro is a cultural manager specializing in festival programming, events production, artist development, cultural development, and international cultural exchange. She served as program director of Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, manager of the international programming department at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and manager of Africa Exchange, a program of 651 ARTS that supported collaborative exchanges between performing artists in the United States and Africa. She holds a BA from The New School and a MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University. She currently lives in Chicago.

Sean Elwood, Director of Programs & Initiatives
Sean Elwood is the former Curator and Collection Manager of the Seattle Arts Commission, Director of Special Projects at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts (New York) and Manager of the Art Residency Program at the Centrum Foundation (Port Townsend, WA). He founded SEEDITIONS Art Publishing Company and co-owned Fuller/Elwood Gallery (Seattle). He currently serves as a member of the board for Triple Canopy (Brooklyn) and on the advisory boards of the Lower East Side Printshop (New York) and The Watts House Project (Los Angeles). Elwood received a Max Beckmann Scholarship at Brooklyn Museum Art School and holds an MA in visual arts from Hunter College. He is an occasional curator, publisher, writer and Sunday painter.

Jenny Gill, Outreach Manager
Jenny Gill has a background in nonprofit arts administration, print- and web-based editorial work, and studio art. Prior to joining Creative Capital, she produced educational programs for the American Craft Council. Previously, she served as the Gallery Director for the University of the South (Sewanee, TN), where she coordinated numerous exhibitions and public programs, including a New Media Symposium (featuring Stephen Vitiello, Greg Pond and Althea Georgelas) and the traveling show Cutting Fine, Cutting Deep: Cut Paper Works. Jenny holds a BA in art and art history from Vanderbilt University and an MA from Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design and Culture.

Todd Griffin, Database Manager
Todd Griffin (performing as T. Griffin) is a songwriter, composer and producer working in Brooklyn, New York. Alone and with his band The Quavers he has released four critically acclaimed CDs of songs in a homespun electronic style that's been described as “porch techno.” Also a prolific film composer, he has scored 15 feature films and many short films, installations and theater projects as well as created commercial music, primarily for Apple. The list of directors he has collaborated with includes Tze Chun, Liza Johnson, Jem Cohen, Michael Almereyda, Peter Sillen, Kimberly Reed, Esther B Robinson and the theater director Anne Bogart. Griffin was a 2008 fellow at the Sundance Institute Composer's Lab. As a producer and player he has worked with musical luminaries including Vic Chesnutt, Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, DJ/Rupture and members of godspeed you! black emperor, Fugazi and The Ex.

Sophie Henderson, Director of External Affairs
Sophie Henderson joined Creative Capital in 2009 after 15 years as a consultant to museums, arts organizations and corporate sponsors of the arts with Resnicow Schroeder Associates. In her tenure at RSA, she worked with clients to help them find new and better ways to engage their audiences, encompassing strategic planning for fundraising, communications and audience development. Clients included organizations across the country, such as The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Ford Motor Company Fund, Rolex SA and American Express, among many others. A member of ArtTable and an avid potter, Sophie earned an AB in art history from Brown University and an MBA in marketing from NYU's Leonard M. Stern School of Business.

Debra Henri, Finance Assistant
Debra Henri is a theatre director and actor, having received her theatre degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. She lived in London and Los Angeles prior to moving to New York. In addition to working in Creative Capital's finance department, she also keeps the books for Pyburn Films and John Szoke Editions. She holds a Notary Public license from the State of New York.

Rebecca Herman, Manager, Institutional Giving
Rebecca Herman is a visual artist who works primarily in sculpture and video in collaboration with Mark Shoffner. Their interactive installations and site-specific sculptures have been shown at Black & White Gallery, Sculpture Center, and Exit Art in New York, and in public art festivals in McCarren Park, Brooklyn, and Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Prior to her arrival at Creative Capital, for five years she was Senior Press Officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she promoted exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. From 2000 to 2006 Rebecca worked at The Drawing Center, first as Grants Officer and then as PR & Marketing Officer. She has a BA from Macalester College and an MFA from Parsons School of Design.

Kemi Ilesanmi, Director of Grants & Services
Prior to joining Creative Capital in 2004, Kemi Ilesanmi was a contemporary visual arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for six years. While there, she organized several exhibitions, including To/From: Rivane Neuenschwander and The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art and ran the visual arts residency program, working with artists such as Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu and Christian Marclay. She serves on the advisory boards of Art Farm Nebraska and Watts House Project, Los Angeles. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Afro-American Studies from Smith College and recently completed the Coro Leadership New York program. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration at New York University.

Hae-In Kim, External Affairs Coordinator
Prior to joining Creative Capital, Hae-In Kim was the Program & Education Coordinator at openhousenewyork, a non-profit dedicated to educating the public about New York City's architecture, design and cultural heritage. Hae-In has also worked at Citizen Schools, an after school enrichment program for at-risk youth in the Bay Area, and was the Camp Director at the Sequoia YMCA through Americorps. She holds a BA in the History of Art & Architecture from Brown University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Art & Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Ann Marie Lonsdale, PDP Program Manager & Internet for Artists Workshop Manager
Ann Marie Lonsdale has been a performer, director, stage manager and administrator in Chicago's storefront theater scene, where she worked with The Hypocrites, the Vittum Theater, Roadworks Productions and the side project, as well as University Theater at The University of Chicago. Since moving to New York, she has worked as Associate Producer of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Sitelines dance and performance festival, with the Artistic Programs department at Theatre Communications Group and as a research assistant to Dr. Steven Dubin, a noted scholar of South African art and culture. She is currently working as an administrative consultant to a new theater project, Terra Firma Theatre Company. Ann Marie is a proud graduate of the University of Chicago and holds an MA in arts administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Meg Miles, Manager of Individual Giving & Events
Meg Miles holds a BA in art history from Oberlin College. Prior to joining Creative Capital, she was the Program Coordinator at openhousenewyork, where she organized public events about New York City's architecture and design. Meg also held positions at Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York and the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, OH.

Alyson Pou, PDP Director
Alyson Pou has been with Creative Capital since 1999 and has played a key role in the development of the Artist Services and Professional Development Programs. Prior to this, she was the Director of Programming and Public Relations at Creative Time Inc. from 1985 to 1997. Pou's installation/performance work has been presented in New York by Danspace Project at St. Mark's, Performance Space 122, Franklin Furnace, The New Museum, Artists Space, Threadwaxing Space, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Creative Time, Dixon Place, HERE, LMCC and the Bronx Museum. She is the recipient of a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award in the Choreographer/Creator category. Fellowships and residencies include The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The American Antiquarian Society and Voice and Vision’s Envision Retreat. She has taught performance art history and production at New York University, Cooper Union, The New School, Williams College and Smith College.

Blithe Riley, Technical Services Manager
Blithe Riley is an artist working with video, performance and installation. Her work has been shown at such venues as Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and P.S.1 MoMA in New York City, and Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Riley was a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009 and received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. In addition to her own work, she has organized and programmed video screenings since 1998. Prior to Creative Capital, she served as a media producer at the Video Data Bank in Chicago. Riley is also a workshop leader for the Professional Development Program.

Mary Six Rupert, PDP Special Projects Manager
Mary Six Rupert’s nonprofit arts experience includes directing the fiscal sponsorship program for the New York Foundation for the Arts for 11 years and working as a consultant for the NYC Arts Coalition and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She has been a panelist for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, LMCC, ART/NY and the Foundation Center. In 2007, the VLA presented Rupert with their “Special Recognition for Service to the Arts” award. As a professional dancer, Rupert performed in musicals and was a Rockette for 13 years. She has taught dance at the Juilliard School, El Centro College, Theatre An Der Wien Schule (Vienna) and more. She still teaches tap dancing classes today.

Leslie Singer, Chief Financial Officer
Leslie Singer is a Gemini. She spent the 1980s in San Francisco doing small business accounting and experimental film and video. Her films and video works have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries throughout Europe and the U.S. Since her move to New York in 1994, Singer has worked extensively in nonprofit administration and finance. She has also continued her love of video art as editor of Laura Cottingham’s Not For Sale (1998), among others. She loves Iggy Pop, Marcel Proust, organic food, denim and cats.

Marty Snyder, PDP Program Assistant
Marty Snyder is a playwright and screenwriter, currently working on his feature film directing debut, Missed Connections, starring Jon Abrahams, Mickey Sumner, Tamara Tunie, David Rasche and Waris Ahluwahlia. Past works include: The Approval, Manifest, You've Reached The White House, Styrofoam Soul (starring Norman Reedus, Jocelin Donahue and Brady Corbet), The Game of Kings, Switch Hitter and Gordo Roy. A special reading of his play Goose at the Atlantic Theater was produced by Tony Award-winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and starred Tony Award-winner Ron Holgate (1776). Before joining Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts part-time, he worked as a media and entertainment investment banker for Merrill Lynch, and founded the independent record label Gables Records. Marty holds a bachelors in economics from Columbia University

Margaret Sundell, Consulting Director, Arts Writers Grant Program
Margaret Sundell is an editor, critic and art historian. A former art editor of Time Out New York and co-founder of Documents Magazine, her work has appeared regularly in these publications as well as in Art Journal, Art Nexus and Artforum, to which she is a frequent contributor. Sundell holds a doctorate in art history from Columbia University and was a Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program. She has taught art history and critical theory at Columbia University, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Parsons New School of Design. She currently serves as caa.reviews field editor for modern and contemporary exhibition reviews (New York and International) and is completing a book-length study of Man Ray's photography entitled Man Ray's Ambivalent Avant-Garde.

Pradeep Dalal, Director of Grants & Services, Arts Writers Grant Program
Pradeep Dalal is an artist and writer. His work was recently included in exhibits at the Herter Art Gallery in Amherst and at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark. He has exhibited at the New York Public Library, Orchard, ps122 Gallery, TART in San Francisco and the Miami-Dade Public Library. Dalal's reviews and interviews have been published in ARTWURL, TeachingPhoto.com, Village Voice and EGO Magazine. He is the recipient of Tierney Fellowship and has an MFA from ICP/Bard College and a M.Arch. from MIT. He is also on the faculty at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Julie Evanoff, Information & Technical Services Manager, Arts Writers Grant Program
Julie Evanoff is a Brooklyn-based artist who works in drawing, painting, printmaking and video animation. Her recent exhibitions include Julie Evanoff: in between at The Gallery at The Art Institute of Tucson, If you see nothing say something at The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, Stories real and vividly imagined at Gallery Niklas Belenius in Stockholm, Sweden and Hallways in Brooklyn. Her animations have screened in video festivals including the 2k5 Video Festival and City Without Walls Juried Video Festival. She received her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Julie’s awards include the Geraldine Dodge Grant from The Women’s Studio Workshop and the Vermont Studio Center and the Paul Robeson Emerging Artist Award from Rutgers University.

Kareem Estefan, Program Assistant, Arts Writers Grant Program
Kareem Estefan is a poet and critic who lives in Brooklyn. His immediate family comes from Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem and Baghdad, but among these cities he has only visited Beirut; when prompted by personal or political circumstance, he imagines the figs, families, old souks and new walls in the others. He began writing as a music reviewer and later sculpted words into speculative poems and essays about the internet, noise, unknown places and performative identities. Before coming to the Arts Writers Grant Program, he interviewed conceptual poets on a WNYU radio program, Ceptuetics, and produced talk shows for National Public Radio. He especially likes to dance.

Moira Brennan, Director, Multi-Arts Production Fund
Moira Brennan studied theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Her writing about the arts and feminism has been published in The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, American Theatre and Oxygen.com, among other publications.

Denise DeSpirito, Program Assistant, Multi-Arts Production Fund
Denise DeSpirito holds a BFA in fine art from the School of Visual Arts and has shown her work in more than thirty galleries. She has received numerous awards, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, and held residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Artist Alliance Inc. in Manhattan's Lower East Side and the Contemporary Artist Center at Woodside in Troy, NY, among others.