Research Report: Local Arts & Culture 2010

Jerry C. Duke is the Chair of the Dance Faculty, Professor of Dance Ethnology and History, and Faculty Coordinator for Academic Program Review in the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University where he also lectures in the Anthrolopogy, Theatre, and Music Departments. He also is a Mensa Testing Coordinator for the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches folk and social dance at the University of San Francisco. Since 1978, Jerry has has been researching Appalachian Big Circle and Square Dance in the southern mountains, small-town Cajun Mardi Gras and social dance in Louisiana, Country-Western, Tex-Mex, and Texas Cajun dancing in Texas, old Scottish square and step dance in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and several villiages in Pangea (Greek Macedonia) to video the Apokries (Pre-Lenten) celebrations. For five years, Jerry was a dancer and served two years as ballet master for the AMAN Folk Ensemble (aka, AMAN International Music and Dance Company) of Los Angeles, California. Jerry choreographed the energetic, show-stopping "Clogging Suite" for AMAN with which for more than 25 years the ensemble closed their shows. Jerry has been artistic and managing director for Dobre of Eugene, Oregon; Khadra of San Francisco; and Appalachian Celebration Co. (based in SF, but toured the mid-west). He has choreographed and taught workshops in American and European dances for ensembles throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Russia, and Taiwan. His choreographies of American dances for Khadra, Westwind, Jubilee, and Łowiciania of San Francisco and Radost of Seattle have won awards and acclaim in European festivals. Jerry also produced folk dance shows for Educational TV in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. He served on the board and as president of the Congress On Research in Dance (CORD) for six years.Prior to his long career in dance, Jerry was a biology and science teacher, coach and athletic director, semi-pro football player, professional actor, reporter for radio and newspapers, and a minister for the Baptist and later the Unitarian churches. Jerry is a proponent of B-Boying and Hip Hop. One of his motties is, "Dance to Express, Not to Impress." He has a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry, Masters degree in Modern and Ballet from Florida State University (FSU), Masters in Folklore and Dance Ethnology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Ph.D. in Dance Education and Research from a branch of the University of Texas (Texas Women's University). He has a California Community College Credential in Anthropology and completed graduate study in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and University of California, Berkeley. He has a Certificate of Choreography from the Polish Institute in Opole, Poland and has attended dance and folklore workshops in Sweden, England, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. He is a native of Alabama.

Harry J. Elam, Jr. is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, the Robert and Ruth Halperin University Fellow for Undergraduate Education, Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, and Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts. Elam's scholarly work focuses on contemporary American drama, particularly African American and Chicano theater. In addition to his scholarly work, he has directed theatre professionally for more than eighteen years. Most notably, he has directed several of August Wilson’s plays, including Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, and Fences, the latter of which won eight Bay Area “Choice” Awards. Prof. Elam is the author of Taking it to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka; The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson (winner of the 2005 Errol Hill Award from the American Society of Theatre Research); and co-editor of four books, African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader (winner of the 2001 Errol Hill Award from the American Society of Theatre Research); Colored Contradictions: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Drama; The Fire This Time: African American Plays for the New Millennium; and Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Performance and Popular Culture. His articles have appeared in American Theater, American Drama, Modern Drama, Theatre Journal, Text and Performance Quarterly, as well as journals in Belgium, Israel, Poland, and Taiwan. He has also written essays published in several critical anthologies. Elam is the outgoing editor of Theatre Journal and on the editorial boards of Atlantic Studies, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and Modern Drama. In 2006, Elam was the winner of the Betty Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching from the American Theatre and Drama Society, the winner of the Excellence in Editing Award from the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, and the winner of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Theatre Research. He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in April 2006. At Stanford he has been awarded five different teaching awards: the ASSU Award for Undergraduate Teaching, Small Classes (1992); the Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1993); the Black Community Service Center Outstanding Teacher Award (1994); the Bing Teaching Fellowship for Undergraduate Teaching (1994-1997); and the Rhodes Prize for Undergraduate Teaching (1998). He has taught at Stanford since 1990, and is the former director of the Introduction to the Humanities program. Elam’s directing résumé includes Tod, the Boy Tod by Talvin Wilks for the Oakland Ensemble Company, and for TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, Jar the Floor by Cheryl West and Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage, which was nominated for nine Bay Area Circle Critics Awards and was winner of DramaLogue Awards for Best Production, Best Design, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Direction.

At Stanford since 1988, Frank teaches intermediate and advanced modern technique, choreography, and mentors graduate and undergraduate student dance projects. She organizes and advises Stanford’s student participation in the American College Dance Festival as well as other Divisional dance education and performance projects on- and off-campus. She is the Co-Director of the Dance Division's annual concert, and also organizes numerous choreographic commissions by guest artists for Stanford student dancers, for which she frequently acts as Rehearsal Director. In 2005, she played a significant role in the development of Stanford Lively Arts’ campus-wide interdisciplinary arts event “Encounter: Merce,” organizing its “Music and Dance by Chance” commissions, as well as an IHUM lecture series on Cunningham’s video dances and concert repertory. Most recently, Frank has been instrumental in developing a number of residency projects and artistic collaborations for the Dance Division, notably the recent class and repertory reconstruction project of Anna Halprin’s Myths as well as Under the skin, a collaborative performance project bringing together artists, physicians and residents from the Medical School, and community performers. She also recently taught “The Duets Project,” a performance class that examined partnering through duet repertory. In the spring of 2008, she will teach a new course, “Figure/Ground: Site-Specific Dance Performance in Outdoor Environments.” Complementing this course, she has conceived and organized Red Rover, a series of commissioned site-specific dance performances which will take place on the grounds of Stanford campus on May 28, 2008. Red Rover, a collaborative effort with Stanford Lively Arts, has been awarded support from the Stanford Initiative for Creativity and the Arts. Frank is a frequent guest teacher at Bay Area dance studios, colleges, and universities. A strong proponent of arts education, she consults and volunteers in the development of dance and live arts activities for public schools and the community. She also directs the Dance Division’s summer dance intensive for high school students through US Performing Arts. Frank is currently on the steering committee for the Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts. After completing a B.F.A in Theater (Ohio University) and an M.A. in Dance (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana), Diane Frank taught for four years in the Dance Department at the University of Maryland, where she was a founding member of the Maryland Dance Theater. She then moved to New York City to begin an eleven-year career with Douglas Dunn and Dancers, touring nationally and internationally. As a scholarship student, she was invited by Merce Cunningham to join the teaching staff of the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, where she taught for eight years. At Cunningham’s request, she taught both technique and repertory at the American Center’s Atelier Cunningham. A frequent guest teacher at the Paris Opera, she assisted Douglas Dunn in both the creation of new work for the Opera and the setting of established repertory. Frank has been the recipient of seven NEA Choreography Fellowships for collaborative choreographic projects with Deborah Riley, as well as commissions from the Jerome Foundation, DTW, Dance Bay Area, and Meet the Composer, and Arts Silicon Valley. Her work has been performed both in the United States and abroad.

Stephen Galloway is the Department Chair of Art and Art History and Associate Professor in Studio Arts-Photography at Sonoma State University. He is currently on the advisory board for Southern Exposure. Stephen has had many exhibitions and publications and received multiple awards including the Individual Artist's Grant from Marin Arts Council in 2000, the Live/Work Residency, Djerassi Resident Artists Program in 1999 and the Ilford Award for Emerging Artist, Eye Gallery, San Francisco, California in 1990. Stephen received his B.A. and M.F.A. in photography from San Francisco State University.

Sam Hernandezis the Professor of Art at Santa Clara University. Sam has exhibited in many museums and galleries, both regionally and internationally. Well known for his innovative use of wood to achieve lyrical, expressive abstractions, Hernandez uses a broad range of tools, including African adzes, Japanese saws, Native American crook knives, and high-powered sandblasters. His awards include a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Senior Fullbright Scholars Award. He has taught at Santa Clara University since 1977, and served as Chair of the Art and Art History Department from 1980-86. Sam Hernandez was born in the Bay Area and got his BA at Hayward State. In 1974 he received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and began to teach on the college level at East Texas State University. When he arrived in the South Bay area in the late 70s, and began teaching at Santa Clara University, he brought a buzz with him. His work was unlike anything else going on around here and he was young and already had a promising career on the burner. His sculpture was abstract and expressionistic, with energetic and free forms springing from wood. It had a conversation with the currents of sculpture in the much more established North Bay art community where artists like William Wiley and Robert Hudson were painting their works, playing in a light hearted vein, and exercising a wry humor. Hernandez’ career has been highlighted by such honors as an NEA Grant and Fulbright Fellowship and many years service as Chair of the Santa Clara University Art Department. Now a resident of Santa Cruz, and still teaching at SCU, Hernandez continues his exploration of the sculptural forms that have always driven him. Sam received his BA in Sculpture from California State University at Hayward in1970 and his MFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin in 1974.

Georgina Hernandez is the Executive Director for The Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. Georgina been on the boards of the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture and Los Centzontles Mexican Arts Center in the past. Georgina received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California-Los Angeles School of Theater, Film and Television.

Shannon Jackson is a Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. Her current research is in Performance Studies, American Studies Research includes 20th and 21st century art movements, social movements, and critical theory; local culture and intercultural citizenship in turn-of-the-century United States; history and theory of theatre and experimental performance; the history and theory of disciplines, the humanities, and the modern university; the study and practice of oral performance, adaptation and oral narrative. She has written several books and have had several publications. She was also the recipient of Author of the Year, Comparative Drama Association 2007, Best Book, National Communications Association 2005, Best Book, Association for Theatre in Higher Education 2005 and other awards.

Tony Kramer is the Facilities Coordinator for Stanford University's Dance Department. He was the Director of the Dance Division from 2002-2008. Tony Kramer joined the Stanford faculty in 1986 as a teacher of modern dance, jazz dance, composition, and improvisation. As the technical director of the Stanford Dance Division's productions, he has been involved in every aspect of production from the creation of dances to their final mounting on stage. Since leaving the teaching faculty as a Senior Lecturer in 2008, Tony is now involved in the operations of the Dance Division, including coordinating the Roble Gym Complex, and mounting Dance Division faculty and student productions.

Karen Nagy was appointed Assistant Vice President for the Arts in April 2008. In this newly created role, she will help lead the Stanford Arts Initiative. Karen came to Stanford in 1986 to head the Music Library and Archive of Recorded Sound. She played a key role in planning and internal project management for the renovation of the Bing Wing of Green Library, which opened in the Fall of 1999 after a ten-year closure following the Loma Prieta Earthquake. From 2001 to 2008 she was the Executive Dean for the School of Humanities and Sciences. Additionally, she has spoken and published in the area of managing change in the academic environment. Kären served on the University Management Group and she is also on the Provost's Budget Advisory Group.  She has been on the core planning team for the University Arts Initiative and in that capacity is currently leading the effort to complete an Arts Facilities Master Plan for the University.

Michele Rabkin is the Associate Director of the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley, the first UC Berkeley research unit devoted exclusively to the arts.

Senior Consultant, Susanne Revutsky, focuses primarily on evaluation and planning projects within the field of philanthropy. Susanne has more than ten years of experience working in the field of philanthropy both as a grantmaker and grantseeker. As an evaluator, she is skilled at managing all aspects of projects, with responsibilities spanning instrument development, primary and secondary data collection, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and production of research deliverables. Susanne worked with Harder+Company between 2002–2004, and rejoined the firm in the fall of 2009. Prior to returning, Susanne was a program officer for Northern California Grantmakers managing pooled funding collaboratives including the Arts Loan Fund, the Emergency Loan Fund, and the Summer Youth Project. Susanne also was a program officer for New Ventures in Philanthropy, a grantmaking initiative that promoted the growth of philanthropy nationwide housed at the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. Susanne has a Masters of Arts degree in Public Policy Studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. She received her B.A. in International Relations and History from Claremont McKenna College. She volunteers as a board member of Partners for Adoption.

After having spent many years at Stanford as a student ('63, International Relations; MA Political Science '66; PhD Political Science '73), Bruce is now in his sixth year as the Haas Center Visiting Scholar. During the year, he teaches an undergraduate course on civil society, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector and is available to consult with faculty, students, and Haas Center staff both on philanthropy and on work in the independent sector. In this time, he has also been working on a book (nearly completed), tentatively titled Between Public and Private: Philanthropy, Civil Society and the Fate of the Commons. Currently, Bruce holds a Senior Fellow position with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and is Consulting Director of the Skirball Foundation, and serves as Treasurer of the national Fulbright Association. After completing graduate work as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Bruce became the founding Chief Executive Officer of the California Council for the Humanities between 1974 and 1983 and served as Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund from 1983 to 2002. In the past, he was a member of the Council on Foundations Board of Directors and Chair of Northern California Grant makers.

Ann Wettrich is the Associate Director of Education, Center for Art and Public Life at California College of the Arts. Ann has over 25 years of experience as an arts administrator, educator, and artist. She developed the SMART Teaching Concentration Program and is planning a new teaching credential program at the college. Ann has held leadership and program development positions with San Francisco Arts Commission, City of Oakland Craft & Cultural Arts Department, Arts Education Funders Collaborative, Capp Street Project, and San Francisco Art Education Project and School of the Arts Foundation. As a consultant, Ann wrote and facilitated the development of the Arts Education Master Plan for Oakland Unified School District and has conducted needs assessment and evaluation studies in art education for Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley and Marin Community Foundation. Ann has served on numerous panels and committees for local and statewide arts organizations. She currently serves on the Alameda County Art Commission and the Steering Committee of the Alameda County Office of Education's Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership and is a member of the Art Education Initiative for teacher preparation programs in the region, headed up by University of California, Berkeley. Her artwork takes many forms and has been published and presented in the Bay Area.

Susan Whipp is a Professor and Coordinator of Dance in the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University. Highly involved with process, Susan teaches Modern Dance II, Choreography I and II, Pilates Mat, and serves as Co-Director of San Francisco State’s University Dance Theater. She has a MA and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and credits her most memorable company dance experience with the Washington DC, New York, and SF companies of Jan Van Dyke and Dancers (1980-1986).