Seattle Arts Commission

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Interim Managing Editor of South Seattle Emerald, Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publication REDEFINE, and co-chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences. In 2022, Vee released the short film, Reckless Spirits, which is a metaphysical, multilingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project. They're presently a pursuing a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. 

Vanessa Villalobos is a performing artist, choreographer, producer and non-profit consultant from Lima, Peru with Indigenous, African and Spanish ancestry. She presented hundreds of original works and danced with companies in New York, Seattle, and more. She has degrees in Theatre and Dance from the University of Washington and earned her MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University.  She co-founded creative company VANICH Multimedia (NY) and is the founder of BALORICO.dance (WA). She is a seasoned Teaching Artist having worked in many public and private schools in Seattle and New York. Trained in contemporary, ballet, jazz and Ballroom Theatre Arts, she is a certified American Ballroom Rhythm & Smooth instructor. Film credits include MadHot Ballroom and Walt Disney's Enchanted where she was a principal dancer. Her dedication to racial equity is expressed through her community work with 501Commons, the Covid-19 Response Alliance, La Sala, the Dance Educators Association of Washington and Seattle University's Center for the Study of Justice in Society. Vanessa's cross-industry expertise has brought forth opportunities to help influence funding decisions on behalf of the Washington State Arts Commission, 4 Culture and the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Born in 1960, Rick Araluce has been a life long artist. At an early age Mr. Araluce began creating drawings, paintings, hand-fashioned objects, miniature scenarios, plastic models-creations depicting whatever piqued his interest at the time. He put his efforts into being a painter originally, though began to create and evolve his artwork towards a more sculptural realm, and in the 1990s began making detailed miniatures a primary focus of his work. This he continues to this day. Along the way, Araluce began to work in a larger form, ultimately creating complex immersive installations which incorporated multiple media, including lighting, sound, motion, and computer automation. These have been some of Mr. Araluce's most noteworthy endeavors. He has among other artistic pursuits created book and album illustration, art-directed and created work for a number of animated music videos, and has had his artwork featured in a handful of commercial films. For 20 years, Araluce was a Lead Scenic Artist with Seattle Opera, until the Opera's closure of its scene shop, though he continues this work as a Master Scenic Artist employed by Arts Tech Group, a scenery and event fabrication company where he oversees and runs multiple facets of the artistic side of production. He is essentially self-taught, having chosen to forgo university and art school. Nonetheless, Mr. Araluce has secured some significant achievements, including a Pollock/Krasner in 2009, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Award in 2010 and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. As an individual coming from a low-resource background, Mr. Araluce has acquired a degree of understanding and empathy for the challenges of those coming from less privileged and non-traditional backgrounds who have chosen the artist's path. 

Jessica Caudle (she/they) firmly believes in the power of arts and culture to transform and uplift community. As a student she practiced music, theater, & visual arts, and has volunteered with various arts and culture organizations. As a recent-ish transplant from North Carolina, Jessica is excited for this opportunity to directly engage with the City of Seattle and the various arts communities in the area. Jessica graduated from the University of Washington's Masters of Social Work program in 2021 and has seen first hand how transformational the arts can be in personal healing and growth.

 

Kayla DeMonte is the Managing Director at Citizen University, a Seattle-based non-profit working to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the US. Prior to this role, she was Director of Programs & Partnerships at the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce and began her career at One Reel, where she managed festival sponsorships, partnerships, and special projects for Bumbershoot and the Family 4th. In addition to her years on staff at One Reel, Kayla has done work with a variety of major festivals and events such as Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, and Northwest Folklife, and has been an event consultant for Seattle's Mayor’s Arts Awards for the past several years. Kayla has served in volunteer leadership roles with ArtsFund, The Vera Project, and Leadership Tomorrow and is a proud graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Sophia Fang is a queer, Chinese-American artist who builds vibrancy in Seattle and Pittsburgh. Blending vibrant swatches of color and complex details, her watercolors combine whimsy and community joy to celebrate small businesses, immigrant placemaking, and food diasporas.

Sophia is passionate about beautifying public spaces in her hometown and the Rust Belt. As an emerging artist, she has received public art commissions from the City of Redmond, City of Tukwila, City of Auburn, City of Shoreline, City of Edmonds, City of Pittsburgh, and Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation. Sophia was also an Artist-in-Residence at Inscape Arts, an Awesome Foundation grant winner, a Pittsburgh 30 Under 30, and the 2021 winner of the ATHENA Young Professional Award for leadership excellence in mentoring women and girls to succeed. Passionate about empowering local entrepreneurs, makers, and creators, Sophia is the Head of Marketing at Honeycomb Credit, a former Board Member at Prototype PGH, and a Venture For America alumni fellow.

"The arts reflect, provoke, question, and connect human beings and the human experience. For a just society to exist, we must ensure access to the arts are available, representative, and part of the thread that binds the fabric of our society together".  With a background in non-profit management, strategic planning and communications, Holly's professional background spans both for-and non-profit institutions. She has created strategic marketing and product solutions for Microsoft, The City of Seattle, The Seattle International Film Festival, and other entertainment and education institutions.  A passionate advocate for social justice, in 2003, Holly co-founded Voter Action, a national non-profit organization with the aim to secure accurate election systems, especially for underserved communities.  Voter Action led a national effort to develop reliable and fair voting practices which helped improve access and standards across the country. Having studied film at San Francisco State University, she has worked in film and is a strong believer in the power of story telling to elevate often unheard voices.  Since 2013, Holly has been the Executive Director of Path with Art, an organization on the forefront of connecting the arts to low income adults living in or recovering from trauma. She has been engaged with the steering committee of With One Voice, an organization supporting International Arts and Homelessness organizations and practitioners across the globe. 

Yeggy is a Seattle visual artist whose public art murals and mosaics adorn parks, banks, residences, restaurants, and museums. His work has been widely exhibited throughout Africa, Europe and the United States. Yeggy's vision is to provoke questions about natural cycles, provide a sense of place and to reflect on the movement of time. Currently, Yeggy is the Art Program Director at DNDA, a nonprofit community organization. He is active in the communities organizing art programs and activities for Seattle youth.

Fondly known as Fresh Professor, James Miles, worked as an artist and educator in New York City for 20 years prior to moving to Seattle in 2016. Before joining the faculty of Seattle University as Assistant Professor, James served as the Chief Executive Officer of MENTOR Washington and the Executive Director of Arts Corps, prior to that. Originally from Chicago, Miles has worked internationally as an artist and educator, who was inspired to foment change after seeing so many children that looked like him, get disregarded and treated like criminals by our educational systems.

In New York City, he was the Director of Education at Urban Arts Partnership, where he created the Fresh Education
program that used original hip hop music and theatre to boost academic success in middle school ELA and Social Studies classrooms. The arts infused and standards aligned Curriculum Guide that he designed has been used around the world, and has inspired many educators and adults to shift how they teach, work with, and speak to youth of all ages.

James has facilitated workshops and designed curriculum for the New Victory Theater, Roundabout Theatre, Disney
Theatrical Group, Village Theatre, Arts Impact, Denver Center, Impact Schools, and others. Previously a professor at NYU, James taught a myriad of classes, ranging from Acting and Directing to EdTech and Special Education. A graduate of Morehouse College and Brandeis University, James has presented at SXSW EDU, NYU’s IMPACT Festival, New York Creative Tech Week, EdTechXEurope, Google Educator Bootcamp, UAEM North America, UAEM Europe, National Guild, ITAC, and provided professional development to teachers across the world. His work has been featured by Pie News, New Profit, Complex Magazine, National Guild, Seattle Times, KOMO, NPR, CBS, NBC, US Department of Education, and ASCD.

James is a consultant with Continua Consulting, and is the co-founder of LeadersDontLead.com, a leadership coaching
agency, and is currently working on the 50th anniversary of Bumbershoot. James is a former accountant, model, and actor.
James is on the Board of the Frye Art Museum, MoPOP, on the Advisory Board for SXSW EDU, and is a mayoral appointee to the Seattle Arts Commission.

Danielle (she/her) is a writer, researcher, and strategist currently working at Microsoft in sustainable product design. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University. Her graduate thesis focused on artists as laborers, creative placemaking, and the role of public policy in shaping social safety nets for artists, informed by collaborative experiences with Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. She has presented her work to the Association of Arts Administration Educators and at the Seattle Film Summit as a Creative Economy Contest finalist, pitching a policy proposal of dedicated community land trusts for working artists. Danielle served as a grant panelist with the Washington State Arts Commission to allocate CARES grants deep in the crisis of 2020, as well as with the National Endowment of the Arts for their annual Dance grant cycle, with a renewed focus on equity and social justice in federal grantmaking. She has also served as District Advocate for Inspire Washington, advocating for the arts directly with state legislators. Her writing has been published in the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies (essays) and the South Seattle Emerald (poetry). She forever hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Leslie Anderson is a Cuban American curator and museum administrator fostering cross-cultural conversations. Since 2019, she has been the Director of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programs at the National Nordic Museum. She leads the Museum’s efforts to provide meaningful and inclusive educational experiences, oversees the care and interpretation of 80,000 objects, and chairs the DEAI Advisory Committee. At the NNM, Leslie has organized major loan exhibitions with the Finnish National Gallery and Sweden’s Nationalmuseum and spearheaded the virtualization of educational content, delivering programs to an audience across 70 countries and 6 continents. Over the course of her career, Leslie has curated 20+ exhibitions and acquired 1,000+ works of art for collections in her purview. She won the national Award for Excellence in Exhibitions from the Association of Art Museum Curators (2018) and the Utah Museums Association Award for Excellence in Exhibitions (2020). Leslie held appointments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Denmark, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Utah Museum of Fine Arts. For six years, she taught art history courses at Brooklyn College, Parsons School of Design, and Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design. Leslie was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Copenhagen, an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow, and a Kress Interpretive Fellow. She has published on European and American art in numerous academic journals and recently served as a contributing author to the AAMC’s Best Practices Guide for Artist Demographic Data Coordination.

Leslie volunteers to support the arts and her alma mater. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Arts, the 4Culture Heritage Advisory Committee, the Seattle Gator Club Board, and the University of Florida Association of Hispanic Alumni Expansion Committee.

Ricky Graboski’s personal and professional history are intertwined with America’s underground DIY scene. He currently serves as Executive Director of The Vera Project, an all-ages music venue, arts incubator, and community center in Seattle. Before Vera, Ricky coordinated grassroots initiatives in Detroit, worked in musician engagement in New York, and ran a national community organizing training center based in Houston. During that time, he also played in terrible punk bands and volunteered at influential DIY spaces Death by Audio and Shea Stadium in Brooklyn. At Vera, Ricky has dedicated his time to advocating for the DIY scene and community-centered cultural spaces, building all-ages programming at the intersection of art and activism.