|
|
STAFFWill K. Wilkins - Executive Director [email] CAFE AND CINEMA STAFFCaleb Portfolio - Café Manager Kyle Andrew Phillips - Projectionist Ana Altiery - Housekeeping BOARD Hank Schwartz - Chair - top - |
|
Will K. WilkinsExecutive DirectorWill K. Wilkins is Executive Director of Real Art Ways, one of the United States’ leading contemporary multi-disciplinary organizations, in Hartford, Connecticut. Real Art Ways supports artistic innovation, and connects artists and community. Programs include visual arts, theater, music, spoken word, and film and video. Mr. Wilkins has overseen the $1.8 million development of the Real Art Ways Arts Center, a place for art, ideas and social interaction, which includes a comfortable cinema (35mm, 16mm and video; also used for live arts), three beautifully renovated gallery spaces, a video room, the Loading Dock Lounge, and the Real Room. Among the highlights of Mr. Wilkins' tenure has been a series of commissioned artist’s projects, many in public settings and involving community participation, including projects by Mel Chin, Mark Dion, Lillian Hsu-Flanders, Ellen Driscoll, Pepón Osorio, Karin Giusti, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Carl Pope, Jr., Rachel Berwick, James Luna, Josely Carvalho, Liz Miller, Nikki S. Lee, Verandah Porche, and Group Material. Mr. Wilkins is an innovator at linking contemporary art and ideas with community. In recent years, Real Art Ways has sponsored a design competition, with neighborhood residents as jurors, for neighborhood gateways; has commissioned three major artist’s residencies with the neighborhood senior center; and has been a key participant in an inclusive neighborhood planning process, resulting in a redesign of the central commercial district. During Mr. Wilkins' tenure, Real Art Ways has been a strong supporter of artists’ rights and freedom of expression, and has received support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Ford Foundation, the Wallace Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Wilkins has served on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, the Wallace Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Ct. Commission on the Arts, and the McKnight Foundation. Prior to joining Real Art Ways in 1990, Mr. Wilkins worked at Central Park Summerstage and WBAI in New York. - top - |
|
Julia BaldiniMembership CoordinatorJulia was born and raised in Hartford county and currently resides in Hartford. She comes to Real Art Ways after 7 years working in museums and non-profits in the area including, Old-Newgate Prison & Coppermine, Old State House, Windsor Historical Society and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the Young Women's Leadership Program, a project of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. She holds a MA in Public History from Central Connecticut State University. Her interests include animals, miniature objects, 90's music, and training for triathlons. - top - |
|
Sarah BroznaCommunications CoordinatorSarah grew up in Colorado where everything is big from the mountains to the public art. She loves visual art whether creating her own or getting others excited in local happenings. She holds a BA in Art History and BFA in Sculpture from the University of Colorado at Boulder. While at school she worked for the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art as an intern and after graduation was hired as a Marketing Assistant. In addition to having a passion for the arts, Sarah has always enjoyed exploring new places and pursued her graduate degree in Ireland. She received a MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management from the University College Dublin. While in school she interned at a built environment center, P.L.A.C.E in Northern Ireland. Enjoying her time spent in Belfast she decided to stay an extra year after graduation to work for Audiences NI, and audience development agency, where she honed her skills growing and diversifying audiences for the arts. In her spare time she can be found creating new flavors of ice cream and taking comedic photos with monuments. - top - |
|
Meghan Maguire DahnDevelopment ManagerMeghan Maguire Dahn holds a Masters in English from the University of Connecticut, where she focused her studies on Postcolonial literature and visual art. While at UConn, Meghan taught freshmen composition, participating in the planning and implementation of the first year of the Freshmen English Human Rights Pilot Program. At UConn, she also directed Poetic Journeys, a program that puts poems by students and faculty on the busses in the places normally reserved for advertising. Prior to returning to graduate school Meghan worked in Membership and Development at Mystic Seaport. She is also a poet and is in the process of completing her first manuscript, which was partially inspired by an early RAW Specifics project, Passionate Attitudes, by Ellen Driscoll. When she is not incorporating 19th century medical practices into contemporary poetry, she is playing with her cat, learning to play cello, or cooking. - top - |
|
Deborah Zimmerman HerzAccounts Payable/General Office ClerkGraduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BA in Film & Television in 1991, Deb worked on many independent films in NYC as grip, electric & associate producer. She wrote and directed a 30 minute short film called The Toys of Earl Grey. In interactive multimedia, Deb created content and games for AT&T - Downtown Digital's early interactive television trials and websites. She has written and produced content at Media Circus for clients such as Sony, Scholastic, Coca-cola & Perry Ellis, as well as producing Nickelodeon's very first nick.com for Viacom. - top - |
|
Barbara HockerControllerOriginally born in Norwalk, Connecticut Barbara Hocker studied Fibers and Printmaking at Syracuse University and Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her mixed media work fuses the material sensibilities of fiber with computer manipulated photo based prints and abstract monotypes to create works on paper, panels, and sculpture. She has exhibited extensively in the Boston and Hartford areas and currently resides in Coventry, CT with her own personal Muse (otherwise known as her husband Tim) and two very spoiled cats. To support her artistic habit she has held a variety of real jobs including jewelry buyer for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum Shop, Star Wars Exhibition store manager and buyer for the Museum of Science, Boston, fabric store manager, art supply warehouse order picker, audio services technician, and bookkeeping for college bookstores, cake bakers, jewelry makers, museums, and engineers. She has 10 years retail management experience and 8 years small business management and accounting experience. - top - |
|
Nadya KoropeyCommunity Programs CoordinatorNadya Koropey graduated from the Hartford Art School in May 2009 with her BFA in Photography. She has exhibited her work in several shows in the Hartford area, with particular emphasis on her mixed media photograms and cameraless digital collages. Before Nadya was the Community Programs Coordinator, she worked as a Visual Arts Intern at Real Art Ways, creating the Slide Slam for STEP UP 09, and assisting with design projects for the show Rockstone & Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art. Nadya is a practicing artist who resides in Hartford’s West End. - top - |
|
Jean Paul LeblancBusiness ManagerJean-Paul attended Coventry High School and is a graduate of Bryant (College) University. He has been involved with Real Art Ways since about 1992, beginning as an event volunteer. Jean-Paul became an employee in the café selling movie tickets and refreshments once the movie theater shortly after it opened in 1996. After about 18 months Jean-Paul moved to the office as a bookkeeper and now serves as Business Manager. He is the RAW “phantom” employee as his working hours are usually Monday and Friday evenings as well as special events. He has participated in most aspects of Real Art Ways over the years, serving as a stage hand, set up crew member, sound assistant, cleanup crew member, café sales person, etc. He has been employed as the Director of Business/Finance at LEARN, a Regional Educational Service Center in Old Lyme, since 1994. He oversees an agency budget of approximately $22,200,000 which is comprised of more than 100 individual program budgets. Prior to his employment at LEARN, Jean-Paul was employed as an accountant at the Capital Regional Education Council in Hartford. - top - |
|
Mary Catherine McBrienExecutive AssistantMary Catherine is a West Hartford native who loves the arts, inspired by her grandmother and mother, both painters. She studied art history and French at Trinity College, where she was awarded a fellowship in studio arts upon graduating. Having spent a semester abroad in Paris as an undergraduate, she was drawn back to the city of lights to pursue her Master's degree, and wrote a thesis exploring American Pop Art and French New Realism. Before coming to Real Art Ways, Mary Catherine taught art history and French to high school students at Loomis Chaffee. She loves traveling, languages and cooking, and plays the violin in the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra. - top - |
|
John MorrisonDirector of Film ProgrammingJohn Morrison started the Amherst Film Cooperative in 1972, which showed the first continuing program of foreign films in the Connecticut Valley. He also became the Valley Advocate’s first film critic in the premiere issue of 1973. In 1976 he co-founded the Pleasant St. Theater in Northampton, the first art theater in the area; in 1986 he co-founded Pleasant Street Video, which has been called the best video store in New England; and in 1988 he co-founded Tower Theaters in South Hadley, a commercial theater initially funded by Mt. Holyoke College. He was a City Councilor for 8 years in Northampton, MA and Chair of the City Property Committee. He was a co-founder of both the New England Film Festival and the Northampton Film Festival. Since 1995, Morrison has been the Director of Film Programming for Real Art Ways. He created Real Art Ways’ International Family Film Festival, now in its 9th year, as well as many smaller festivals. Real Art Ways’ Cinema has won the “Best of Hartford” award since 1996. He moved to San Francisco in 1999 to take the position of Outreach and Education Director for the California Film Institute and as the Children’s Film programmer for CFI and the internationally acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival. He continues to direct film programs for RAW, often finding ways for CFI and Real Art Ways to do joint programs. - top - |
|
Lori-Beth MuñozVibe ManagerBorn and raised in Windsor, CT, LB has taken the circuitous route to returning to her Greater Hartford roots. She attended Emerson College in Boston as a Musical Theater major before finishing her studies in Education at the University of North Texas. In her various travels, LB has found herself as a Radio DJ in Maine, booking bands in Boston, running an alternative coffee house is Delaware, singing in a cover band on Martha’s Vineyard, and teaching drama to 5 and 6 year olds in Texas. - top - |
|
John O'DonnellVisual Arts CoordinatorJohn O'Donnell was born and raised in Montana, he lived in Washington and Oregon before moving to Connecticut to attend graduate school in 2005. After earning his MFA in Video Installation and Interactive Kinetic Sculpture from the University of Connecticut, John had a prolific career as an adjunct professor of drawing, printmaking and experimental animation and acted as the Art in Public Places fellow at the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. He joined Real Art Ways in 2011 as Visual Arts Coordinator. John is a practicing artist working in a range of media including installation, video, sculpture, performance and relational acts. In his reconfigurations of found consumer commodities and digital imagery, he examines the social and cultural implications of accelerated technologies, virtual communication and the consequential representations of gender, masculinity and physical desire. He is the founder of the TPSSF (The Puberty Survivors Support Forum) and the alleged inventor of "Installage" (installation + collage). He has exhibited at Fluxspace in Philadelphia, the Chelsea Art Museum, Museum of New Art in Detroit, the International Print Center in New York, and the Seoul Museum of Art. - top - |
|
Kyle Andrew PhillipsCafé StaffKyle Andrew Phillips is a dedicated emerging artist living in Hartford, CT. In 2008 he graduated from the Hartford Art School with multiple awards, most notably the prestigious Henrik Mayer Prize. He had his first solo show Frames of Mine at Brick Walk Fine Art in West Hartford, CT. Exhibited were twenty oil on panel still lifes painted in the trompe l' oeil style. - top - |
|
Caleb PortfolioCafé ManagerCaleb Portfolio first visited Real Art Ways in 2001 during a field trip with the Hartford Art School. He has been in love with the place ever since. He participated in the first Slide Slam, and helped create work for Harrell Flethcher's show Now It's a Party in 2003. After graduating with a BFA in photography from the Hartford Art School, Caleb started working in the café in 2005. Caleb had his first solo show at Real Art Ways in 2007, which featured his experimental black and white photographic series Rewinds. - top - |
 |
Diana RosenCinema CoordinatorDiana joined Real Art Ways in April of 2008 shortly after she saw her first film here (TEETH). It was love at first sight. - top - |
|
Arianna SchlegelProject ArchivistArianna grew up in Connecticut, and found herself returning there again and again, despite moves to places such as Poughkeepsie and Ithaca, NY; France; and Boston. She earned her BA in Computer Science, then switched gears entirely and pursued her Masters in Library & Information Science at Southern Connecticut State University, focusing her studies on digital libraries. While completing her classes, Arianna was first exposed to digital archives when she was lucky enough to work on the VOICES of September 11th project, based out of New Canaan, CT. More recently, she worked with the CCSU Burritt Library's Veterans History Project and GLBTQ collections, organizing and digitizing materials. Besides computers and books, Arianna's interests lie in knitting, baking, and movies. She currently lives in Hartford with her boyfriend and their dog. - top - |
|
John ByrnesBoard of TrusteesJohn is the President and CEO of RC Knox and Company. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Greater Hartford YMCA. He also serves on the boards of the Bushnell, the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford and Duncaster. He is a corporator of Hartford Hospital, St. Francis Hospital and the Hospital for Special Care and a member of the Hartford Rotary Club. John received his B.A. from Clark University and his J.D. from Western New England School of Law. - top - |
|
Audrey ConradBoard of TrusteesA familiar face in the crowd at RAW for more years than she cares to admit to, Audrey is a long time supporter of RAW as well as The Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective and Our True Colors where she has volunteered and made presentations. Formerly Executive Director of The Connecticut Outreach Society (a Transgender support and social group), she speaks to high school and college students about gender issues and her life experiences. Audrey was born and raised in the Chicago area. After graduating from Northeastern Illinois State University, she taught in City of Chicago public schools for five years prior to pursuing a career restoring, caring for and writing about historic railroad equipment. She compares her work to “being a zookeeper for dinosaurs”. Her spare time is divided between visiting museums and galleries, exploring industrial archeological sites, hiking and dancing. She is honored (and flattered) to be a member of the RAW Board. - top - |
|
Ileen SwerdloffBoard of TrusteesIleen is the managing partner of the West Hartford law firm of Swerdloff & Swerdloff where she practices family law with her husband/partner. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her law degree from Western New England School of Law. She is passionate about the arts. An inveterate traveler, she visits museums and galleries throughout the world. She believes a connection to the arts is as important to well being as is exercise and a healthy diet. Ileen also serves on the Board of Hartford Stage, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and Greater Hartford Legal Aid. In addition, she is an Elector at the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art.
- top - |
