Patrick Shearn is an American artist based in Los Angeles, specializing in larger-than-life, immersive public art installations. The artist’s signature Skynet Art Series, earned him international renown after the debut of “Liquid Shard” enamored the city of Los Angeles. The installation transformed an underused public square in the heart of downtown into a bustling destination overnight. Shearn has since brought Skynet installations to various locations in the U.S. and abroad where viewers are invariably compelled to slow down and take time to follow the undulating movement of the artworks, which appear to hang in thin air. Shearn’s expertise in animatronics, robotics and visual effects–gleaned from a 30-year tenure in the film industry as a creature maker and visual effects supervisor–has lent traction to a prolific career as creative director for his studio Poetic Kinetics. Under Shearn’s guiding vision, Poetic Kinetics has designed, fabricated, and implemented a wide range of projects that encourage audience participation–from interactive projection mapping and pyrotechnics to enormous mobile sculptures. Notably, Poetic Kinetics’ projects both engage the immediate public through interactivity and reach viral notoriety on social media.

Marnie Sehayek is the Creative Producer for Poetic Kinetics, an award-winning design studio at the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles that specializes in large-scale art installations and experiential design with an international portfolio. Prior to this, she was a journalist and photographer for Vice Media and LA Weekly among others as well as the Director of Culture for the Los Angeles division of The Culture Trip.

Marnie has experience in non-profit arts and community organizing for the Mary Porter Session Art Gallery in Santa Cruz, CA and Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, CA. For Galería, she oversaw aspects of the 40th Anniversary exhibition curation, editorial development and fundraising operations. She served on the inaugural staff for Hub LA, a collaborative coworking community in Downtown Los Angeles with a focus on social impact, assisting community management and member engagement.

Marnie holds two Bachelors degrees, in Fine Art and Community Studies, from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she graduated magna cum laude with respective Major honors. She was also a recipient of the The William Hyde Irwin and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship eligible to art students. For her senior capstone, Marnie designed and taught the accredited undergraduate seminar course “Aesthetics and Politics,” which explored the intersection of art, culture and activism in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Dyanne Cano is the Studio Director for Poetic Kinetics, an award-winning design studio at the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles that specializes in large-scale art installations and experiential design with an international portfolio. Prior to this, they were the Studio Director at the award-winning firm Delta Wright Interior Design in Santa Monica.

As the first Director of Operations, Dyanne developed and led the business operations at Hub LA, a collaborative coworking community in Downtown Los Angeles with a focus on social impact.

Dyanne has over a decade of experience in nonprofits in Los Angeles, working for an afterschool arts program in Hollywood (LACER) and creating innovative service-learning programs for K-12 schools in the San Fernando Valley as the Director of Service-Learning at Oakwood School. They also spent three years working with LAUSD schools in South Los Angeles through one of the oldest and largest service-learning programs in the United States called The Joint Educational Project at the University of Southern California.

Dyanne holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Art History from the University of Southern California. They earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Baruch College - The City University of New York (CUNY). They were also a National Urban Fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Princeton, NJ), the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans.

Lyn Winter is the Founder and President of Lyn Winter, Inc., a Los Angeles-based international advisory agency specializing in arts and culture communications. She has more than 30 years experience working with major corporations, institutions and leaders in contemporary art, culture and media including Christie’s, Google, Gucci, Levi’s, Louis Vuitton, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she served as director of communications from 2007-2014. Born in Manchester, UK, Lyn graduated with a First Class Masters degree from the University of Cambridge. She began her career at Merrill Lynch International as an investment banker, moved on to lead advertising trade marketing for MTV Networks Europe, and served as marketing advisor to Christie’s and Christie’s Contemporary in London. She is editor of Scott Mitchell Houses (Rizzoli) and the Executive Producer of Rodeo Drive-The Podcast. She serves on the Los Angeles Advisory Council for ProjectArt.

Consuelo “Chelo” Eckhardt, President of CE Consulting has an extensive and successful track record in connecting the corporate world with the leading edge of social corporate responsibility, the worlds of the visual, performing and recording arts, experiential events, and broadband and broadcast content.

A pioneer in creating out-of-the-box innovative concepts grounded in strategic business thinking, Consuelo can turn ideas into powerful business results. She has worked with renowned cultural properties like: The Getty Museum; The San Diego Contemporary Museum of Art; The Apollo Theater in Harlem, NYC; The LA ART SHOW; Sony New Technologies and IMAX; AREA One Tour; The Grammy Museum; LA LIVE; Bellas Artes of Mexico; MOCA Los Angeles; The Rolling Stones; Carlos Santana; Ricky Martin and Sarah McLachlan who she worked with to create the unprecedented all women’s touring festival Lilith Fair.

Her experience in conceptualizing campaigns, packaging brands, and successfully selling proprietary and fully integrated marketing and promotional platforms, for extraordinary creative properties to Fortune 500 companies, makes her unique among her peers. Chelo’s roster of brand clients include: Citibank; Perrier; Stella Artois; Wells Fargo Private Bank; Coca Cola; Nestle USA; Toyota Motors USA; Hyundai Motors USA; Procter and Gamble; Volvo Motors of America; Cuervo 1800; General Motors; Chubb Insurance and others.

Paul Clemente worked in visual effects in New York City and Los Angeles for more than 15 years and was part of the team that created the ground-breaking and Academy Award-winning visual effects for The Matrix. Since 2007, Paul has worked for the Los Angeles-based music promoter Goldenvoice as the art director of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Madeline Di Nonno is the President and CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Di Nonno leads the Institute's strategic direction, fundraising, D&I programs, research, financial and operational activities. Di Nonno is an Executive Producer on the Emmy nominated, People’s Choice and Gracie award winning television series Mission Unstoppable and the Gracie award winning feature film documentary This Changes Everything. Previously, Di Nonno has served in Executive leadership positions for Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz Media, Nielsen Entertainment, Hallmark Channel, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and ABC Television Network. Di Nonno is a U.S. State Department Speaker Specialist and public speaker and moderator at global conferences, corporations, governmental organizations and festivals, such as AdWeek, Cannes Lion, Chatham House, CES, London Film Festival, New Zealand Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, The White House, UNESCO, and the United Nations. Di Nonno holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University. Di Nonno is an appointed Arts Commissioner of the Los Angeles County Arts Department; serves on the Board of Directors for the Television Academy Foundation; and Friends of the Erben Organ. Di Nonno is on the Advisory Board for the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.

Marnie has experience in non-profit arts and community organizing for the Mary Porter Session Art Gallery in Santa Cruz, CA and Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, CA. For Galería, she oversaw aspects of the 40th Anniversary exhibition curation, editorial development and fundraising operations. She served on the inaugural staff for Hub LA, a collaborative coworking community in Downtown Los Angeles with a focus on social impact, assisting community management and member engagement.

Marnie holds two Bachelors degrees, in Fine Art and Community Studies, from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she graduated magna cum laude with respective Major honors. She was also a recipient of the The William Hyde Irwin and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship eligible to art students. For her senior capstone, Marnie designed and taught the accredited undergraduate seminar course “Aesthetics and Politics,” which explored the intersection of art, culture and activism in the 20th and 21st centuries.

James Fugate is the founder and co-owner of Eso Won Books. Growing up in Detroit, Fugate graduated from the University of Michigan at Dearborn and began working in bookstores straight after university, managing the college bookstores at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and Compton College in Los Angeles, CA. In the late 1980s, he met two business partners who convinced him to work with them to create their own bookstore. In 1990, they rented a small store and officially opened Eso Won Books on Slauson Avenue. Eso Won Books, now located in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, is one of the largest Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. In its 30-year history, the bookstore has seen a parade of prominent Black authors come through its doors for book signings, such as Muhammad Ali, President Barack Obama, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Trained as an art historian, Nora Halpern joined Americans for the Arts in 2001, following four years in Oxford, England, where she served as a dissertation advisor in art history to Doctor of Philosophy candidates at the University of Oxford. Prior to living in England, Nora was based in Los Angeles, where she was curator of the Frederick R. Weisman Collections, Founding Director of the Museum at Pepperdine University, and Vice President and Director of Fine Arts for Sotheby’s, Los Angeles. Nora received both her BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study program as a Helena Rubinstein Fellow. She has written and lectured internationally on modern and contemporary art and arts policy issues, and served as an art critic for national and international publications. Nora was a member of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and received the Mayor’s Award of Merit for outstanding volunteer service in the advancement of human relations. She has served on the boards of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Santa Monica Museum of Art, ArtTable, PS Arts, and Scholastic’s Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Nora is Co-Founder of Street Scenes: Projects for DC and she was the curator of Anton’s Memory, a major retrospective exhibition of Yoko Ono. In 2020, she was part of the collective of curators for Artists Band Together, a project which produced 15 artist-designed bandanas which were sold to benefit not-for-profits which focused on expanding voter turnout for the 2020 elections.

Souris is the co-founder of Creative Cabal, a visual artist advisory and creative agency that balances commercial projects with purpose-driven work. Souris is an idea-enabler, agent, and author who catalyzes inspired collaborations between commercial clients and artists.
She has worked for over two decades with imaginative creators in the book, film, magazine, music, and videogame industries. She helped launch MOCAtv, the first dedicated art channel on YouTube’s Original Channels. Souris is the New York Times bestselling author of Outside the Lines: An Artists’ Coloring Book for Giant Imaginations, which Vanity Fair declared as 2013’s ‘it’ gift. Following up on this success, she authored Outside the Lines Too: An Inspired and Inventive Coloring Book by Creative Masterminds in 2015. Both books represent a significant curatorial effort, securing contributions from artists including Shephard Fairey, Exene Cervenka, Eames Office, Shantell Martin, Ryan McGinness, and Keith Haring’s estate. Souris serves on the board of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. She has been a member of arts and culture committees, including The Other Art Fair and Hammer K.A.M.P, and volunteers as a grant panelist for the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

Jody Levy is an artist, designer, director, educator, entrepreneur, executive and investor. Jody is the founder, creative director and Chief Executive Officer of a handful of companies dedicated to empowering people to be as healthy and happy as possible.

Levy is the Global Director and Chief Executive Officer of SUMMIT, a brand and series of companies committed to supporting the global maker economy.

Levy was the founder and chief of WTRMLN WTR is a company and brand committed to redefining how and what we drink to nourish our bodies and sustain our ecosystem. The mission of World Waters and WTRMLN WTR is to educate people about why clean healthy eating is so important for the health and sustainability of our communities.

Levy created and runs NeuroPraxis, a digital app featuring co-founder Lisa Wimberger’s proprietary NeuroScultping modules specifically for overcoming pain, PTSD, stress, and symptoms associated with Biotoxic exposure including Lyme Disease, Mold disease, viruses, parasites, and more.

Levy is the founder of LabElymental with featured lifestyle cleanse product The Milk Cleanse. The Milk Cleanse alleviates symptoms associated with biotoxic exposure. A percentage of sales goes towards the awareness and prevention of parasites, Lyme Disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

Jody Levy is a partner, advisor and investor in many category-disrupting brands and companies connected to the clean living, wellness lifestyle space that empower people to take care of themselves and optimize their happiness and purpose. This includes companies that focus on biohacking, clean energy, personalized medicine, alternative wellness, sustainable fitness, clean food and more.

Esther Park is Oolite Arts Vice President of Programming. Since arriving in Miami in 2003, Park has specialized in developing unique programming aimed at drawing new and diverse audiences. A long-time music journalist, she has also served as director of programming for the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and for MOCA. She has served as director of alumni and public programs at the National YoungArts Foundation. While there, she helped YoungArts create programming for its Biscayne Boulevard campus, turning it into a community gathering space for “Outside the Box,” an innovative outdoor performance series, and the YoungArts Salon Series, which featured intimate discussions among art world luminaries. Park has a bachelor’s degree in Radical Political Economy in Mass Media Culture from Mount Holyoke College.

Wendy Posner grew up in the art business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduating from Boston University, Posner moved to Los Angeles where she worked for a number of galleries and art consulting firms. In 2014, she acquired PFA as principal, having honed her skills there for over 20 years. In helming PFA, Posner’s priority has been to grow her company into an international art consultancy. With an ever-growing global roster of artists, publishers and galleries, Posner excels at building relationships with both established art stars and undiscovered new talent. An avid traveler, Wendy Posner has journeyed to over 20 countries where she regularly attends art fairs, makes studio visits and treks to far-flung places. Her quest for unique art and artifacts for her clients provides the inspiration that only comes from experiencing creativity in action and in person.

Zahra Rasool is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer and media entrepreneur whose journalism, storytelling and innovation centers marginalized communities and people of color. Still Here, her most recent work about incarceration and gentrification in Harlem premiered at
the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Zahra’s past experiences bear testament to her commitment to innovation and community-centered storytelling. In 2015, she founded “Gistory”, an interactive map and social platform to deliver news summaries to millennials globally. In 2016, she joined RYOT as Managing Editor and later the Huffington Post to build one of the first companies to use immersive technologies for editorial storytelling. She was recognized as a Global Media Gamechanger at the International Broadcasting Convention (2018), nominated for the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership (2019) and the American Express Nextgen Leadership Award (2020). In May 2017, Zahra created and launched AJ Contrast; part of Al Jazeera Media Network. Since 2017, Zahra and her team have been nominated for 31 media and film awards and have won 15 including an NABJ Award, an RTDNA Award, two Online Journalism Awards (OJA), two Webbys and one Shorty among others. Her documentaries have been screened at over 40 international film festivals including at Sundance, Sheffield DocFest and Berlinale.

Raymond Leon Roker is the Global Head of Editorial at Amazon Music. He is a globally-recognized industry leader and pioneering media executive who brings deep strategic and creative production expertise to top content-driven brands at the epicenter of music + culture. As a creator, executive producer, and collaborator, he is driven to tell stories that reflect culture and movements, voices, sounds, and communities. Roker believes in shining the truest light possible and providing meaningful narratives around people and products. Across a diverse mix of brand and editorial work, his career has spanned indie and major publishing launches to agency and studio ventures, and a vast array of original productions.