Notables and Influencers
Advancement of Public Action
Liz Ahn Toupin was one of the country's first Asian American college deans. Her career at Tufts spanned a tumultuous period of societal, educational and institutional upheaval.
Former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Borough president of the New York City borough of Manhattan who formerly served as a member of the New York City Council and as director of the Office of Federal Relations in the Dinkins administration, among her other positions in a long career of public service
Author of Gender Trouble, one of the most important works of philosophy and gender theory of the postmodern era
Artist, performer, and AIDS activist whose work helped create the first effective drug protocols to combat the syndrome
Photograph © Walter Kurtz
Principal design director for Xbox who is implementing a radical vision for Microsoft
Photograph © Chloe Aftel
Leader in the development of sustainable business models, brands, and social movements
AI Now Institute Art Fellow whose biotechnology art project, Lovesick, envisions love spread like a virus.
Feminist writer whose work was a lightning rod for the debate on pornography and censorship in the United States
Photo: John Cavanaugh
First United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues and former executive director of Global Rights
Leading American philanthropist and fierce advocate for research into the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
2019 TED Fellow and organizing director of Change.org and Coworker.org, transforming the way workers in today’s economy organize.
Cardiologist and advocate for women’s health, heart disease prevention, and diversity in healthcare.
Executive director of The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, a philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of patients and their families through nurse-led innovation, and a member of the board of directors of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work fuses social justice activism with virtual reality technology
Trailblazing attorney who has spent a career working to highlight issues of gender bias in the legal profession.
Pilot who learned to fly during her freshman year at Bennington, graduated early to become a WASP in World War II, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2010
Founder of Voices UnBroken, a nonprofit dedicated to giving vulnerable young people opportunity for creative self-expression.
Composer, writer, and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theatre
Photograph © Jack Mitchell (New York Times)
Founder and former head of school of the Northwest School who has been recognized as a Changemaker by Global Washington for her current work as executive director of the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia
Founder of Bibeksheel Nepali, a populist political party founded in the wake of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake
Co-Founder and President of Resonant Energy, which brings solar energy to underserved communities. Fulbright scholar who studied biogas in China and recipient of Davis Projects for Peace Grant, with which he developed five urban biogas projects in Kathmandu.
Black Studies
Choreographer, educator, and performer of traditional and contemporary dance. Keeper of his family’s traditional Gurunsi ways.
Renowned choreographer of works performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the New York City Ballet
Trans* poet, curator, and artist. Author of I NEED MUSIC, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture Take This Stallion, and Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus.
Curator, producer, poet, choreographer, and performance artist whose works #negrophobia (nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award) and Séancers have toured throughout Europe, appearing in major festivals. Recipient of a NYFA fellowship.
Photograph © Umi Akiyoshi
Assistant Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington, where she cares for patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Harborview Medical Center.
Trailblazing attorney who has spent a career working to highlight issues of gender bias in the legal profession.
Abstract painter whose work held a prominent position in the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition
Poet and memoirist. Author of How to Say Babylon, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize in Nonfiction.
Cultural Studies and Languages
Awarded Princeton-in-Asia fellowship to work on legal reform and energy issues in the fight against climate change with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing. She now works for the NYC Compost Project
Guggenheim fellow and professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at University of Texas at Austin
New Yorker editor, translator, and the public face of the secretive, critically acclaimed Italian author Elena Ferrante
Photograph © Peter Ross (Wall Street Journal)
Fulbright fellow who studies a form of 20th-century Mexican literary journalism, crónica urbana. Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center of CUNY.
Won a Fulbright to bring worldwide audiences face-to-face with current Chinese culture-makers
Co-Founder and President of Resonant Energy, which brings solar energy to underserved communities. Fulbright scholar who studied biogas in China and recipient of Davis Projects for Peace Grant, with which he developed five urban biogas projects in Kathmandu.
Dance
Choreographer, educator, and performer of traditional and contemporary dance. Keeper of his family’s traditional Gurunsi ways.
Emmy, Tony, and Drama Desk Award-winning choreographer and director of musical theatre, film, and television whose work runs the gamut from performing in West Side Story on Broadway, directing Cindy Lauper and Rolling Stones videos, and choreographing numbers for Saturday Night Live
Lipp Family Director of Dance and senior lecturer in dance at Williams College whose choreographic work has been performed at Dance Theater Workshop, the Judson Memorial Church, Theater 4/Negro Ensemble Company, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, MASS MoCA, and venues in Nicaragua, Brazil, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Improvisational performer, choreographer, and Senior Lecturer Emerita of Dance at Middlebury College
Former performer and associate artistic director of Elizabeth Streb’s Ringside company, known for its athletic, gravity-defying choreography, whose own Bessie award-winning work has been performed at Danspace, Dance Theater Workshop, and other high-profile venues
Photograph © Lois Greenfield
Winner of the Guggenheim and Doris Duke Artist Awards for her innovative dance performance and choreography
Renowned choreographer of works performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the New York City Ballet
First Lady of the United States and a pioneering advocate for addiction treatment
Dancer, choreographer, and founder of Risa Jaroslow & Dancers, who is dedicated to including diverse communities as participants and audiences, developing teaching techniques to engage dancers of all levels and people of all ages and abilities
Leader in the field of explorative methods of dance-making whose career spans creating original roles for the Trisha Brown Dance Company in the 1980s to recent collaborative, durational performance installations that have been staged in the United States and Europe
Choreographer and award-winning filmmaker whose works have been shown nationally and internationally
Choreographer and visual artist whose recent show at The Chocolate Factory, Someone Once Called Me a Sound Man (2013), was named a Best of 2013 by Artforum magazine
Curator, producer, poet, choreographer, and performance artist whose works #negrophobia (nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award) and Séancers have toured throughout Europe, appearing in major festivals. Recipient of a NYFA fellowship.
Photograph © Umi Akiyoshi
Dancer who has performed with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, choreographed for her own company and independently, taught at universities and arts centers, and written reviews, features, and essays on dance for a variety of publications
Choreographer and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient with commissions from many prestigious institutions
Director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and founder of the Next Wave Festival, which gave artists like Merce Cunningham and Twyla Tharp audiences long before they became American icons
Choreographer, performer, teacher, and recipient of the national Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in Dance, having trained and performed under the direction of American Ballet Theater principal ballerina Karena Brock Carlyle
Former principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company and Bessie award winner
Photograph © Philip Habib
Former principal dancer and current artistic director of the Limón Dance Company
Photograph © Martha Swope
Bessie and Alpert award-winning dance-maker, improvisational performer, and collaborative artist who developed an approach to real-time editing, “attentionography,” and performance she calls Tuning Scores
Former Chair of Dance at Bard College and choreographer and dancer at the Judson Dance Theatre
Member of Trisha Brown Dance Company in the 1970s, choreographer, former editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine, and author of Through the Eyes of a Dancer
Choreographer whose work has been seen at venues including Danspace Project, REDCAT, and The Getty Center and who has danced in the companies of Trisha Brown, Terry Creach, and Stephanie Skura
2017 Guggenheim Fellow and creator of dances, video installations, and performance for The Kitchen, the Whitney Museum, and others. Recipient of a NYFA fellowship.
Member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, performing a vast repertory, originating several roles, and appearing in several of Cunningham’s works for camera including Charles Atlas’s film Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime in Dance
A former principal dancer at Twyla Tharp Dance, choreographer, and Guggenheim winner
Dancer and choreographer who worked with Andy De Groat, Bill T. Jones, David Gordon, and Wendy Perron and whose own choreography was presented at the Dance Theater Workshop and the 14th Street Dance Center in Manhattan
Bessie and Guggenheim award-winning dancer, choreographer, and videographer, and the artistic director of Cathy Weis Projects
Photograph © Richard Termine
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Choreography and Bessie Award winning Performer for Sustained Achievement known for her longstanding work with some of the leading names in modern and contemporary dance, whose choreography has been staged at venues including Center for Performance Research, Dance Theater Workshop, La Ma Ma, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Museum of Arts and Design, and New York Live Arts
Drama
Actress, poet, and writer best known for her role as “Lady Aberlin” on the children’s television classic Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and more recently in movies including Dogma, Jersey Girl, and Red State
Award-winning actor who has appeared in some of Hollywood’s most iconic films, including Catch-22, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Pointe Blank, Argo, and Little Miss Sunshine (for which he won a Golden Globe and an Oscar)
Chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures who produced The Matrix trilogy and other blockbusters
Photograph © Michael Lewis
The original Broadway Dolly in Hello, Dolly! and matchless actress, singer, dancer, and comedian with a thousand-watt smile
Artist, performer, and AIDS activist whose work helped create the first effective drug protocols to combat the syndrome
Photograph © Walter Kurtz
Ubiquitous stage and screen star who has appeared in everything from the cult classic Diner to the critically acclaimed Sopranos and now stars in the popular CBS drama Madam Secretary
Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor known best for his role as Tyrion Lannister on the hit series Game of Thrones
Screenwriter and television producer best known as the co-creator of the television series Huge
Stage, film, and television actor and director who is best known for his role in the Emmy award-winning Netflix series Orange Is the New Black
President of King Size Productions whose Hollywood producing credits include The Shawshank Redemption
Associate artistic director of The Public Theatre in New York City, former founder and producer of The Underwood Theatre, which supported new work from emerging playwrights, and former literary manager and resident dramaturg at the New York Theatre Workshop
Playwright and member of award-winning Youngblood writers group. Resident writer at the Flea Theater. Recipient of Seattle Repertory Theatre’s emerging playwright commission.
Curator, producer, poet, choreographer, and performance artist whose works #negrophobia (nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award) and Séancers have toured throughout Europe, appearing in major festivals. Recipient of a NYFA fellowship.
Photograph © Umi Akiyoshi
Longtime arts advocate and co-founder of The Chocolate Factory, an award-winning incubator of experimental performance in Queens, New York
Photograph © Cassi Alexandra
Actress best known for her longtime roles on The Wonder Years and The Bold and the Beautiful
Theatre instructor at Providence College in Providence, RI. As a playwright, has workshopped at Horizon Theatre Company and The Playwrights' Center. His play ZAMBONI received an Honorable Mention in the American Playwright Foundation’s 2017 Relentless Awards.
Leading figure in American theatre, former artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and winner of a Tony award for outstanding regional theatre
Film director, producer, actor, acting teacher, and founder of New York’s Water Theatre Company who has overseen more than 20 stage and film productions
Choreographer of the original Broadway Hair and countless stage and film productions
The screenwriting genius behind the adaption of the bestselling Twilight saga and the hit shows Dexter and Jessica Jones
Photograph © Smallz & Raskind (Getty Images)
Founder and director of the Theatre of Witness, whose performance projects have given voice to prisoners and their families, survivors and perpetrators of abuse and violence, refugees, immigrants, elders, and those who have lived through war
Founding member of the Compass Players along with Alan Alda and Alan Arkin ’55 in the 1960s, and actress best known for her roles in Goodfellas and The Sopranos
Composer, writer, and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theatre
Photograph © Jack Mitchell (New York Times)
Emmy Award-winning actress known for playing strong characters in shows such as Two and a Half Men and in her one-woman play, Ann, based on Texas governor Ann Richards
Actor, director, and screenwriter currently starring in the HBO series The Leftovers
Photograph © Smallz & Raskind (Getty Images)
Environment
Awarded Princeton-in-Asia fellowship to work on legal reform and energy issues in the fight against climate change with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing. She now works for the NYC Compost Project
Award-winning journalist, United Nations communications consultant, and author of The Oyster War
Photograph © Patrick O'Connor
Leader in the development of sustainable business models, brands, and social movements
Named an “exceptional young scientist” for his work on the effect of climate change on invasive plant species
Environmental artist and Guggenheim winner whose work combines art, ecology, landscaping, and infrastructure
Journalist and bestselling author who has raised the American consciousness of how food gets to our plates
Professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and senior investigator at Harvard Forest who studies plants’ response to climate change, invasive species, and other ecological threats
Professor of ecology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and director of the award-winning North Carolina Botanical Garden
Literature
Actress, poet, and writer best known for her role as “Lady Aberlin” on the children’s television classic Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and more recently in movies including Dogma, Jersey Girl, and Red State
Former Editor-in-Chief of Ladies' Home Journal and current Senior Vice President of AARP
Award-winning journalist, United Nations communications consultant, and author of The Oyster War
Photograph © Patrick O'Connor
Author of Gender Trouble, one of the most important works of philosophy and gender theory of the postmodern era
Author of Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg, and model for Camille in Kerouac’s Beat classic
Artist, performer, and AIDS activist whose work helped create the first effective drug protocols to combat the syndrome
Photograph © Walter Kurtz
Trans* poet, curator, and artist. Author of I NEED MUSIC, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture Take This Stallion, and Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus.
Published his first novel, Less Than Zero, while at Bennington, and went on to critical acclaim for books like American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction
Photograph © Jeff Burton
Bestselling author of Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman, former executive vice president of CNN, and before that a key player in the creation of the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and the 1966 Civil Rights Act during the Johnson Administration
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of the poet Louise Bogan and the painters Jackson Pollock and Esteben Vicente whose writings on literature and art have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Art in America, The Nation, and ARTnews
Deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, former editor of the European edition of TIME magazine, and author of I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World
New Yorker editor, translator, and the public face of the secretive, critically acclaimed Italian author Elena Ferrante
Photograph © Peter Ross (Wall Street Journal)
Practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and author of the critically acclaimed book of short stories, Scary Old Sex
Photograph © Dan Callister
Rare-book dealer who brokered the sale of important archives such as the papers of Norman Mailer and Don DeLillo and the Watergate notebooks of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Photograph © Mark Mahaney
Introduced the world to Julia Child, James Beard, and Madhur Jaffrey as senior editor and vice president of Alfred A. Knopf
Photograph © Landon Nordeman
Curator, producer, poet, choreographer, and performance artist whose works #negrophobia (nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award) and Séancers have toured throughout Europe, appearing in major festivals. Recipient of a NYFA fellowship.
Photograph © Umi Akiyoshi
Poet, author of That Blue Repair, and chair of the liberal arts department at the Curtis Institute of Music
Writer whose work in many genres have won him spots on bestseller lists, a National Book Critics Award, and a coveted MacArthur “Genius Grant”
Photograph © Fred Benenson
Scholar, writer, and biographer whose book Margaret Fuller: A New American Life won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize
Executive editor and regular contributor for Wine Spectator magazine
Investigative reporter, writer, and contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and other national outlets
Guggenheim award-winning poet, writer, and author of several New York Times bestsellers, including Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith
Journalist and bestselling author who has raised the American consciousness of how food gets to our plates
Award-winning novelist and biographer of Georgia O’Keeffe
Photograph © Christopher Bierlein
Poet and essayist, and winner of the Guggenheim and a Whiting Writers’ Award
Photograph © Matt Valentine
Founder of Voices UnBroken, a nonprofit dedicated to giving vulnerable young people opportunity for creative self-expression.
Reginald Shepherd '88 was an American poet and teacher. His latest publication, The Selected Shepherd: Poems, appeared in 2024.
Founding member of the Compass Players along with Alan Alda and Alan Arkin ’55 in the 1960s, and actress best known for her roles in Goodfellas and The Sopranos
Poet and memoirist. Author of How to Say Babylon, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize in Nonfiction.
Writer for GQ, McSweeney’s, Jezebel, Vulture, and New York Magazine and the television series Sirens and Gracie and Frankie, who was declared one of the “funniest women on Twitter” by The Huffington Post
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch and one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2014
Photograph © Beowulf Sheehan
Acclaimed poet, co-founder with Allen Ginsberg of the celebrated Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, recipient of the American Book Award’s Lifetime Achievement and a Guggenheim fellowship, and chancellor of the Academy of American Poets
Former dance editor of The Village Voice whose writings about dance, theatre, and books have appeared in New York’s Metro and the Philadelphia Inquirer
Music
Lead singer of the Grammy-nominated Spin Doctors, best known for their album Pocketful of Kryptonite
Photograph © Paul La Raia
Poet, author of That Blue Repair, and chair of the liberal arts department at the Curtis Institute of Music
Cofounder of Matador Records, the indie record label behind Liz Phair, Sleater-Kinney, and other music icons
Singer-songwriter and YouTube sensation whose “Song a Day” project has made him a media darling
Executive director of The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, a philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of patients and their families through nurse-led innovation, and a member of the board of directors of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Jazz vocalist, improviser, composer, and originator of Embodied VoiceWork, a vocal improvisation method of music therapy which she teaches at The Experimental Theater Wing at New York University
Tony award-winning orchestrator for some of Broadway’s most innovative musicals, including Assassins and Next to Normal, and for films including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tangled, and Chicago
Composer, writer, and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theatre
Photograph © Jack Mitchell (New York Times)
Experimental composer and influential music theorist
Photograph © Rick McGinnis
Grammy-winning American composer hailed by The New Yorker as “one of the most successful woman composers of all time”
Opera singer who performed principal roles in many of the world’s leading opera houses, award-winning novelist, and producer and director of critically acclaimed theatrical productions
Science and Mathematics
Former president of the New England Pediatric Society, fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and winner of the 2001 Franklin Rogers Award for her contributions to pediatric causes by the New Hampshire Pediatric Society
Staff software engineer at Raptive, where he is utilizing AI to build tools to help online creators grow their businesses to the next level. While a student at Bennington College, he won two Vermont Hackathons, developing apps to take on issues of student engagement and food access.
Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus and former chair of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and past president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Principal design director for Xbox who is implementing a radical vision for Microsoft
Photograph © Chloe Aftel
AI Now Institute Art Fellow whose biotechnology art project, Lovesick, envisions love spread like a virus.
Named an “exceptional young scientist” for his work on the effect of climate change on invasive plant species
Developer at Boston-based market intelligence platform Crayon and scholar whose work focuses on behavior adoption— modeling the emergence of opinions with groups of people.
Physicist on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, and later a committed Maoist
Assistant Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington, where she cares for patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Harborview Medical Center.
Carlos Mendez-Dorantes, PhD is a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on addressing the contribution of repetitive DNA elements—the genomic dark matter—to cancer biology and therapeutic responses. He obtained his PhD from City of Hope.
Cardiologist and advocate for women’s health, heart disease prevention, and diversity in healthcare.
Computational biologist, artist, and programmer dubbed a “digital rock star” by The New Yorker. CEO and Founder of General Health Inc.
Director of the IDEAS Lab at UCLA and winner of a NASA competition to design habitation on Mars
Associate vice chancellor for technology management and corporate relations at UC Davis, with a background in Fortune-500, publicly traded, entrepreneurial, and startup companies
Pilot who learned to fly during her freshman year at Bennington, graduated early to become a WASP in World War II, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2010
Deputy director and principal research scientist at American Institutes for Research who has worked at the intersection of public health, prevention, and education
Composer, programmer, and host of the PBS web series Idea Channel
Photograph © Carolyn Cole
Neurobiologist named one of America’s “Innovative New Scientists” by the National Institute of Mental Health
CEO of Bocoup, a company that creates open tools and workflows used in the global marketplace
Society, Culture, Thought
Liz Ahn Toupin was one of the country's first Asian American college deans. Her career at Tufts spanned a tumultuous period of societal, educational and institutional upheaval.
Founder of Protravel International and Travel Weekly Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
TECxTimesSquare board member and expert on “improvised careers”—nonlinear, multi-modal paths that help people succeed in the global borderless workplace—whose own résumé ranges from session musician to IBM executive
Author of Gender Trouble, one of the most important works of philosophy and gender theory of the postmodern era
Feminist writer whose work was a lightning rod for the debate on pornography and censorship in the United States
Photo: John Cavanaugh
Bestselling author of Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman, former executive vice president of CNN, and before that a key player in the creation of the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and the 1966 Civil Rights Act during the Johnson Administration
Practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and author of the critically acclaimed book of short stories, Scary Old Sex
Photograph © Dan Callister
First United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues and former executive director of Global Rights
Executive editor and regular contributor for Wine Spectator magazine
President of Marlboro College and a central figure in the Clinton White House in the 1990s
Trailblazing attorney who has spent a career working to highlight issues of gender bias in the legal profession.
Public health activist tackling reproductive health issues in Tanzania and Mozambique for leading NGOs
Founder of Voices UnBroken, a nonprofit dedicated to giving vulnerable young people opportunity for creative self-expression.
President of First Beverage Financial and leading investment banker who has honed his expertise in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and strategic partnerships in top positions at Peter J. Solomon & Company, Lazard, and Goldman Sachs
Founder of the Lab School, a groundbreaking program for children with learning disabilities, and a leading expert in special education
Founder and former head of school of the Northwest School who has been recognized as a Changemaker by Global Washington for her current work as executive director of the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia
Founder of Bibeksheel Nepali, a populist political party founded in the wake of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake
Visual Arts
Photographer for Newsweek, Reuters, and, for eight years, at the White House as the President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton’s official documentary photographer
Founder of the award-winning firm Alter Studio architects, and Wm. S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence inductee. Leading educator and critic, and associate director of the Center of American Architecture and Design at the University of Texas at Austin
Executive director of Prospect New Orleans and former deputy director of curatorial programming at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1958-2017
Executive director of The Bronx Museum of the Arts and co-commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale
Photograph © Heuichul Kim
Founder and artistic director of Prospect New Orleans, senior curator at the New Museum in New York from 1995 to 2006, and an independent curator whose work has brought to the spotlight some of the most inventive contemporary artists of the 1990s and 2000s
Artist whose paintings, drawings, and altered x-rays engage with American and European abstraction
Photograph © Paula Gillen
Artist whose politically charged works are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and others
Photograph © Constance Kheel
Textile designer and artist who is assistant designer at Mara Hoffman, who has developed textiles for Pierre Frey, Liberty of London, and other brands
Award-winning architect whose firm, Desai Chia Architecture, was rated among the top 100 design firms by House Beautiful
AI Now Institute Art Fellow whose biotechnology art project, Lovesick, envisions love spread like a virus.
Principal designer for renowned architectural firm Michael Graves & Associates whose whimsical designs for fantasy pianos were published as a book, The Art of the Piano, in 2000
Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology, member of the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, and winner of the Rome Prize in Architecture
Executive vice president and chairman of the Americas division of Sotheby’s, an international art auction house, and former president of Christie’s Los Angeles
Pioneer of color field painting and one of the most influential artists of the past half-century
Photographer named one of the Best and Brightest by Esquire in 2003, whose work is in the collection of MoMA and has appeared in exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao
Photograph © Bernd Arnold
Associate Director of The Museum of Modern Art and curator of countless groundbreaking shows
Photograph © Peter Ross
Multimedia artist who creates sculpture, installation, performance, and video art that engages questions of race and gender, and director of the Rhinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art
Environmental artist and Guggenheim winner whose work combines art, ecology, landscaping, and infrastructure
Museum director who has held top positions at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the Katonah Museum of Art, the American Federation of Arts, and, currently, at the Mystic Arts Center
Founder of one of the top U.S. art galleries, top-flight contemporary artists from Jasper Johns to Nan Goldin
Architect, urban design champion, and executive director of the citizen’s group, Municipal Art Society of New York City
Jonah Gabriel is the Founder and Creative Director of Real Good, an award-winning creative studio that creates digital and social content for brands such as Amazon, Cash App, Paramount, and BMW.
Abstract painter whose work held a prominent position in the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition
Director of the IDEAS Lab at UCLA and winner of a NASA competition to design habitation on Mars
Poet, art critic, former senior editor at Art in America, and recipient of the Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government
Bessie and Guggenheim award-winning dancer, choreographer, and videographer, and the artistic director of Cathy Weis Projects
Photograph © Richard Termine