Cultura

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Americans for the Arts (AFTA) conducted its sixth study on the economic impact of nonprofit arts activity over the past year. Whether it is adding jobs or pumping millions of dollars through local communities, findings from Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 demonstrate the importance of this major study and the true impact of arts and culture nonprofits. Nolen Bivins and Genna Styles-Lyas of Americans for the Arts provide key insights on the many ways the arts mean business for the US.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

Nolen V. Bivens
President and CEO
Americans for the Arts

An avid supporter of the arts, General Nolen V. Bivens (USA, Ret.) joined Americans for the Arts in 2021 as President and CEO after serving for five years on its board and a career as a U.S. Army Infantry Officer for 32 years, retiring as Brigadier General.

Bivens is a passionate advocate for the benefits the arts can provide communities, service members, and Veterans in transcending and healing trauma. He has advised numerous arts groups, as well as federal, state, and local arts agencies, on these topics, utilizing his unique understanding of those in the military and their families to promote connections, advance equitable and collaborative partnerships, and help develop new arts programming for military and Veteran communities.

Bivens’ advocacy efforts to support the arts and healing brought him to testify before the U.S. Congress and State Legislatures and advise creative endeavors such as Healing Wars theatrical dance production and PBS’s Crafts in America — “Service” episode, public speaking, and published writings. He is a staunch believer that the arts’ greatest impact is at the community level, as evidenced by his role as the senior military community engagement advisor during the expansion of the Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.

For more than a decade, Bivens has also served as chair of the National Leadership Advisory Council for the National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military (NIAHM), which brings together a coalition of military, Veteran, health, and arts agencies and partners to advance the health and well-being of service members, Veterans, their families, and caregivers. Through his leadership, he has modeled his belief in the power of building a network of networks to enact change, facilitating national summits and level leadership roundtables that resulted in the publication of two white papers outlining policy, research, and practice recommendations.

Since he retired from the service, Bivens has delivered successful results for the public, private sector, and nonprofit organizations with $1B+ in annual revenue, including strategic business development and sales for the fourth-largest defense corporation, General Dynamics. He founded and started his private consulting practice, Leader Six, Inc.

Dr. Genna Styles-Lyas
AEP6 Director, Community Engagement & Equity
Americans for the Arts

As AEP6 Director, Community Engagement & Equity, Genna’s key responsibilities include liaising between community partners and national consultants; developing and implementing resources that support engagement with the research study across cultural and arts organizations, especially those serving and centering on BIPOC communities; and all other aspects of the survey including the post-study evaluation.

For over twelve years, Genna worked as a Teaching Artist for arts organizations locally and nationally. Genna has most recently served as the Education & Engagement Program Manager at Everyman Theatre. During this time Genna served as a Panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council providing arts expertise for the evaluation of the Teaching Artist Roster applications, guiding the process with a focus on the principles of equity and justice within teaching artist opportunities. Genna also served as the Director of Education and Outreach at SPdp (Staycee Pearl dance project) in Pittsburgh, PA, where she helped developed artistic standards for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards.

Genna earned her Doctorate in Education in Out of School Learning with a focus on Teaching Artists in marginalized communities from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, with a concentration on arts education, from Northcentral University. With a BFA in Acting and a minor in Musical Theater from Point Park University Genna became a member of the Actor’s Equity Association, performing regionally, nationally, and internationally. Genna is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Following Americans for the Arts’ national report on the economic contributions of arts and culture nonprofits, MK Stallings presents findings from the local study of over 200 St. Louis-based nonprofits and over 1,700 audience members of arts programs. Attendees will learn how St. Louis fits into the national picture and how area nonprofits bolster the economy.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

MK Stallings
Research and Evaluation Manager
Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

MK Stallings joined the Regional Arts Commission as the Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 6 Lead in 2022. He is an artist, sociologist, educator and leader of an arts organization. His work stems from an unexpected career in the arts and his mission of uplifting artists of color. He believes audience and artist are connected through the exhibition of art, forging community through this phenomenological experience.

Stallings got his start as an artist by creating hip hop music while in middle school, crafting beats on a Casio keyboard, playing a few keys over and over as though looped over a preset drumbeat. While he has a passion for art, he explored sociology while in college, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in the discipline.

After he completed his graduate work in sociology, he found his interests broadening to include questions about art, self and audience. His work as an arts administrator began in 1999, as he coordinated events under the name Urban Artist Alliance. In 2001, a request from a staffer at the Juvenile Detention Center to facilitate youth poetry workshops for detainees pushed Stallings to incorporate his organization as a Missouri nonprofit and engage in teaching artist work. Later, he would open UrbArts Gallery in Old North St. Louis, which houses key visual and performing arts programs of Urbstetiks, Inc.

Moving forward, Stallings will draw from his background in sociology and work in the creative sector to capture data that represents the diversity, successes and challenges that arts organizations experience in the St. Louis metropolitan area. By surveying as many of the arts and culture nonprofits as possible, the study findings will provide a clear picture of how audiences are exposed to art in the region. In addition to his work as Research and Evaluation Manager, Stallings teaches sociology for the St. Louis Community College.

PANELIST INFORMATION:

Rachel D’Souza, MPPA
Founder
Gladiator Consulting

Rachel D’Souza, MPPA is the founder of Gladiator Consulting in St. Louis, MO, a boutique firm co-creating with nonprofits across the country. As a proud member of the Community-Centric Fundraising Global Council, Rachel works to guide and resource a global initiative to reimagine the nonprofit sector through a lens of radical collaboration, racial equity, social justice, and decolonization. Rachel also serves on the board of AFP St. Louis and is excited to begin her term as Chapter President in 2024.

In addition to the Community-Centric Fundraising Resource Hub, her thought leadership has appeared in Blackbaud Institute’s 2021 npExperts publication The Great Reset, NeonOne’s 2022 report, Donors: Understanding The Future of Individual Giving, and on the Season 4 premiere of the Ethical Rainmaker podcast. She builds understanding and practice of the potential for transformation in our sector through webinars and panel conversations in partnership with sector leaders such as the Independent Sector, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the Collective Impact Forum.

Rachel is the proud mama to her two children, Cameron and Emelia, and makes her home in the Shaw Neighborhood. Rachel enjoys spending time with her kids, Peloton workouts, and Instagram. Currently, she is pursuing her second Master’s Degree at the Washington University School of Law and, upon completing her studies in 2024, hopes to build more transformative connections between the nonprofit and public sectors.

J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sándoval
Professor of Demography and Sociology
Saint Louis University

J.S. Onésimo Sándoval, a professor of demography and sociology at Saint Louis University, is actively engaged in research that combines Demography and Computational Spatial Science. His primary focus is on utilizing geospatial data science methodologies to examine socio-economic demographic patterns in American cities. Recently, he established two geospatial applied community projects: Demography 4 Democracy and Coding for Spatial Justice. These projects aim to empower community members by providing them with the tools and resources to shape the future of their neighborhoods.

Dr. Jong Bum Kwon
Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Webster University

Dr. Kwon is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology in the Department of Global, Languages, Cultures and Societies at Webster University, St. Louis, MO. He received his doctorate from New York University and is a former Fulbright Scholar and University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Kwon’s research areas include contemporary Korean society and race and racism in the United States. His work appears in such prominent journals as Positions: Asia Critique and American Ethnologist. He has published on neoliberalism and policing in South Korea; multi-racial immigrant labor organizing in Koreatown Los Angeles, CA; masculinity and the cultural politics of memory in Korean social and labor movements; global unemployment; and most recently on the Ferguson Uprising – “@Ferguson: Still Here in the Afterlives of Black Death, Defiance, and Joy.”

Dr. Kwon’s current research examines the dilemma of whiteness in St. Louis, MO, in the wake of the Ferguson Uprising, and he’s begun a study of Black youth’s aspirations and social mobility.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Kwon has been involved with racial equity projects in the St. Louis region, including with Forward through Ferguson; Focus St. Louis; and Before Ferguson, Beyond Ferguson, Mouse & Elephant, and he has given public lectures on racism and racial equity (Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Maplewood School District, Center of Creative Arts (COCA), City Garden Montessori School, Big Brothers, Big Sisters (BBBSEMO), and more).

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
WolfBrown’s John Cornwath and Kacie Willis present a compelling view of how creatives experience the region. Over 1,500 respondents from diverse backgrounds and multiple disciplines throughout St. Louis City and County allows us to understand what it means to be a creator in our region. A timely follow up to the Artists Count survey in 2013, new information from the Creatives Count survey that closed August 2023 captures how the creative sector has responded to myriad challenges over the past decade.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

John Carnwath
Associate Principal
WolfBrown

John Carnwath is an Associate Principal at WolfBrown, a leading research and consulting firm in the arts and cultural sector. John works primarily on projects related to arts funding, evaluation, and cultural policy. Most recently, John completed a field scan for the California Arts Council that combined statistical analysis with consultations in local arts communities to identify sources of inequity in the distribution of private and public arts funding across the state. John was an integral part of the WolfBrown team that developed a Qualitative Impact Framework for the Canada Council for the Arts, and he created a long-term plan to build capacity for evaluation and impact assessment among members of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. John holds a Master’s Degree from UC Santa Barbara and a PhD from Northwestern University. He lives in Alameda, California.

Kacie Willis
Manager of Audience Research Programs
WolfBrown

Kacie Willis is the Manager of Audience Research Programs at WolfBrown and is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her BS in Music Recording Technology from Hampton University and MFA in Sound Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. After participating in the 2019 Spotify Sound Up accelerator program she formed the production company Could Be Pretty Cool whose mission is to produce unique creative experiences to inspire community building through the arts. She is the creator and host of the Spotify Original podcast You Heard Me Write and has been named one of the ’40 Under 40 in Podcasting’ by Podcast Magazine. Kacie has also served as a theatrical sound designer, arts administrator and speaker for local and national arts and cultural organizations.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Vanessa Cooksey, President & CEO of the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, shares how key learnings from the AEP6 and Creatives Count studies help provide visibility into the local arts and culture ecosystem, as well as inform RAC’s approach to serving the sector as the largest public funder of the arts in St. Louis.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

Vanessa Cooksey
President & CEO
Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

As the Regional Arts Commission’s (RAC) third leader and first President and CEO, Vanessa Cooksey leads the largest public funder of the arts in St. Louis. Celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2020, RAC has been pivotal in nurturing the vibrant arts sector throughout the region, awarding more than 7,000 grants totaling over $100 million since its inception in 1985.

Vanessa has more than 25 years of business and civic leadership experience. She’s held marketing, communications and philanthropy leadership positions with a variety of companies including Mary Kay Cosmetics, The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office, Cartoon Network, Anheuser Busch, Wells Fargo and Washington University in St. Louis. Vanessa is known for her ability to build results-driven partnerships, facilitate dynamic collaborations, create high-performing teams and effectively convene diverse stakeholders.

Vanessa is a serious change-maker and has led innovative arts, education, technology and health & wellness initiatives reaching millions of children and adults over the course of her career. Always willing to serve in her community, Vanessa’s humanitarian efforts over the last three decades have helped promote and advance human welfare and social reform across the United States. Highly sought-after for her expertise in governance, organizational culture, talent development, DEI and reputation risk management, she has served and continues to serve on multiple local and national non-profit boards including the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education, Harris-Stowe State University, Vote Run Lead and Mercy Hospitals.

Vanessa earned her bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University and has studied and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia. Vanessa has received more than 50 awards for her industry and community work including the 2016 Eisenhower Fellowship and the 2018 St. Louis American Corporate Executive of the Year. Not one to take life for granted, Vanessa enjoys cycling, cooking and spending quality time with her family and friends.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Americans for the Arts (AFTA) conducted its sixth study on the economic impact of nonprofit arts activity over the past year. Whether it is adding jobs or pumping millions of dollars through local communities, findings from Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 demonstrate the importance of this major study and the true impact of arts and culture nonprofits. Nolen Bivins and Genna Styles-Lyas of Americans for the Arts provide key insights on the many ways the arts mean business for the US.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

Nolen V. Bivens
President and CEO
Americans for the Arts

An avid supporter of the arts, General Nolen V. Bivens (USA, Ret.) joined Americans for the Arts in 2021 as President and CEO after serving for five years on its board and a career as a U.S. Army Infantry Officer for 32 years, retiring as Brigadier General.

Bivens is a passionate advocate for the benefits the arts can provide communities, service members, and Veterans in transcending and healing trauma. He has advised numerous arts groups, as well as federal, state, and local arts agencies, on these topics, utilizing his unique understanding of those in the military and their families to promote connections, advance equitable and collaborative partnerships, and help develop new arts programming for military and Veteran communities.

Bivens’ advocacy efforts to support the arts and healing brought him to testify before the U.S. Congress and State Legislatures and advise creative endeavors such as Healing Wars theatrical dance production and PBS’s Crafts in America — “Service” episode, public speaking, and published writings. He is a staunch believer that the arts’ greatest impact is at the community level, as evidenced by his role as the senior military community engagement advisor during the expansion of the Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.

For more than a decade, Bivens has also served as chair of the National Leadership Advisory Council for the National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military (NIAHM), which brings together a coalition of military, Veteran, health, and arts agencies and partners to advance the health and well-being of service members, Veterans, their families, and caregivers. Through his leadership, he has modeled his belief in the power of building a network of networks to enact change, facilitating national summits and level leadership roundtables that resulted in the publication of two white papers outlining policy, research, and practice recommendations.

Since he retired from the service, Bivens has delivered successful results for the public, private sector, and nonprofit organizations with $1B+ in annual revenue, including strategic business development and sales for the fourth-largest defense corporation, General Dynamics. He founded and started his private consulting practice, Leader Six, Inc.

Dr. Genna Styles-Lyas
AEP6 Director, Community Engagement & Equity
Americans for the Arts

As AEP6 Director, Community Engagement & Equity, Genna’s key responsibilities include liaising between community partners and national consultants; developing and implementing resources that support engagement with the research study across cultural and arts organizations, especially those serving and centering on BIPOC communities; and all other aspects of the survey including the post-study evaluation.

For over twelve years, Genna worked as a Teaching Artist for arts organizations locally and nationally. Genna has most recently served as the Education & Engagement Program Manager at Everyman Theatre. During this time Genna served as a Panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council providing arts expertise for the evaluation of the Teaching Artist Roster applications, guiding the process with a focus on the principles of equity and justice within teaching artist opportunities. Genna also served as the Director of Education and Outreach at SPdp (Staycee Pearl dance project) in Pittsburgh, PA, where she helped developed artistic standards for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards.

Genna earned her Doctorate in Education in Out of School Learning with a focus on Teaching Artists in marginalized communities from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, with a concentration on arts education, from Northcentral University. With a BFA in Acting and a minor in Musical Theater from Point Park University Genna became a member of the Actor’s Equity Association, performing regionally, nationally, and internationally. Genna is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Following Americans for the Arts’ national report on the economic contributions of arts and culture nonprofits, MK Stallings presents findings from the local study of over 200 St. Louis-based nonprofits and over 1,700 audience members of arts programs. Attendees will learn how St. Louis fits into the national picture and how area nonprofits bolster the economy.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

MK Stallings
Research and Evaluation Manager
Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

MK Stallings joined the Regional Arts Commission as the Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 6 Lead in 2022. He is an artist, sociologist, educator and leader of an arts organization. His work stems from an unexpected career in the arts and his mission of uplifting artists of color. He believes audience and artist are connected through the exhibition of art, forging community through this phenomenological experience.

Stallings got his start as an artist by creating hip hop music while in middle school, crafting beats on a Casio keyboard, playing a few keys over and over as though looped over a preset drumbeat. While he has a passion for art, he explored sociology while in college, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in the discipline.

After he completed his graduate work in sociology, he found his interests broadening to include questions about art, self and audience. His work as an arts administrator began in 1999, as he coordinated events under the name Urban Artist Alliance. In 2001, a request from a staffer at the Juvenile Detention Center to facilitate youth poetry workshops for detainees pushed Stallings to incorporate his organization as a Missouri nonprofit and engage in teaching artist work. Later, he would open UrbArts Gallery in Old North St. Louis, which houses key visual and performing arts programs of Urbstetiks, Inc.

Moving forward, Stallings will draw from his background in sociology and work in the creative sector to capture data that represents the diversity, successes and challenges that arts organizations experience in the St. Louis metropolitan area. By surveying as many of the arts and culture nonprofits as possible, the study findings will provide a clear picture of how audiences are exposed to art in the region. In addition to his work as Research and Evaluation Manager, Stallings teaches sociology for the St. Louis Community College.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
WolfBrown’s John Cornwath and Kacie Willis present a compelling view of how creatives experience the region. Over 1,500 respondents from diverse backgrounds and multiple disciplines throughout St. Louis City and County allows us to understand what it means to be a creator in our region. A timely follow up to the Artists Count survey in 2013, new information from the Creatives Count survey that closed August 2023 captures how the creative sector has responded to myriad challenges over the past decade.

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

John Carnwath
Associate Principal
WolfBrown

John Carnwath is an Associate Principal at WolfBrown, a leading research and consulting firm in the arts and cultural sector. John works primarily on projects related to arts funding, evaluation, and cultural policy. Most recently, John completed a field scan for the California Arts Council that combined statistical analysis with consultations in local arts communities to identify sources of inequity in the distribution of private and public arts funding across the state. John was an integral part of the WolfBrown team that developed a Qualitative Impact Framework for the Canada Council for the Arts, and he created a long-term plan to build capacity for evaluation and impact assessment among members of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. John holds a Master’s Degree from UC Santa Barbara and a PhD from Northwestern University. He lives in Alameda, California.

Kacie Willis
Manager of Audience Research Programs
WolfBrown

Kacie Willis is the Manager of Audience Research Programs at WolfBrown and is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her BS in Music Recording Technology from Hampton University and MFA in Sound Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. After participating in the 2019 Spotify Sound Up accelerator program she formed the production company Could Be Pretty Cool whose mission is to produce unique creative experiences to inspire community building through the arts. She is the creator and host of the Spotify Original podcast You Heard Me Write and has been named one of the ’40 Under 40 in Podcasting’ by Podcast Magazine. Kacie has also served as a theatrical sound designer, arts administrator and speaker for local and national arts and cultural organizations.

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Vanessa Cooksey, President & CEO of the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, shares how key learnings from the AEP6 and Creatives Count studies help provide visibility into the local arts and culture ecosystem, as well as inform RAC’s approach to serving the sector as the largest public funder of the arts in St. Louis. 

SPEAKER INFORMATION:

Vanessa Cooksey
President & CEO
Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

As the Regional Arts Commission’s (RAC) third leader and first President and CEO, Vanessa Cooksey leads the largest public funder of the arts in St. Louis. Celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2020, RAC has been pivotal in nurturing the vibrant arts sector throughout the region, awarding more than 7,000 grants totaling over $100 million since its inception in 1985.

Vanessa has more than 25 years of business and civic leadership experience. She’s held marketing, communications and philanthropy leadership positions with a variety of companies including Mary Kay Cosmetics, The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office, Cartoon Network, Anheuser Busch, Wells Fargo and Washington University in St. Louis. Vanessa is known for her ability to build results-driven partnerships, facilitate dynamic collaborations, create high-performing teams and effectively convene diverse stakeholders.

Vanessa is a serious change-maker and has led innovative arts, education, technology and health & wellness initiatives reaching millions of children and adults over the course of her career. Always willing to serve in her community, Vanessa’s humanitarian efforts over the last three decades have helped promote and advance human welfare and social reform across the United States. Highly sought-after for her expertise in governance, organizational culture, talent development, DEI and reputation risk management, she has served and continues to serve on multiple local and national non-profit boards including the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education, Harris-Stowe State University, Vote Run Lead and Mercy Hospitals.

Vanessa earned her bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University and has studied and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia. Vanessa has received more than 50 awards for her industry and community work including the 2016 Eisenhower Fellowship and the 2018 St. Louis American Corporate Executive of the Year. Not one to take life for granted, Vanessa enjoys cycling, cooking and spending quality time with her family and friends.