For the Spring cycle of Think Explore Share grants, AWF gathered a dynamic group of experienced practitioners, administrators, and culture workers to review the proposals.
Christina Bourné is an accomplished nonprofit and fundraising professional with a focus in board and staff development, annual and campaign planning, diversity, equity, and inclusion implementation, and strategic planning. During her 15-year career, her unique skills have allowed her to work with longstanding and emerging leaders in arts and culture, education and youth services, and social justice in the nonprofit and corporate sector both locally and nationally. Christina considers herself a community organizer at heart and takes pride in building individual and organizational capacity through lasting change management frameworks that challenge clients and organizations to go beyond rhetoric to responsibility with equity and sustainability at the helm. Whether helping to establish a new nonprofit or assisting a longstanding organization to implement strategy for growth, she believes in the importance of a “people first” approach to every project. Christina currently serves as the Director of Development for Forward Momentum Chicago, Adjunct Consultant with Evolve Giving Group, Board Chair of Awakenings Art, and Finance Committee volunteer for the Joliet Arts Commission. She also sings professionally with her family of nine comprised of her siblings and mother—The Bournés.
Tess Haratonik (she/her) is an arts administrator, arts organizer, and artist advocate based in Chicago. She is currently the Initiatives Coordinator at United States Artists, a national arts funding organization that supports and centers individual artists through unrestricted awards and professional development. Her work focuses on collaboratively developing, administering, and nurturing a range of fellowships that support individual artists nationally, and across disciplines, including programs such as Artist Relief, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft, The Rainin Fellowship, and the USA Fellowship. Before United States Artists, she curated and organized various exhibitions and programs, working closely with artists throughout her career. She received an MA in Modern & Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism, an MA in Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL, and a BA in Art History at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR.
Whitney LaMora is a curator, producer and immersive artist based in Chicago. She is the Founder & Curator of The Martin, an artist-first full service creative space located in the West Town neighborhood which has been in operation since 2018 and boasts over 450 public events in its lifetime so far. Her work has been featured with Stay Home Gallery, Woman Made Gallery, The Franklin and the MdW Fair. She cohosts the podcast Due to the Current Situation covering the Chicago art world and her own personal practice. Whitney manages events and social media for Split-Rail, The Martin and Dorothy - all three businesses located at 2500 W Chicago. When she isn’t knee-deep in the world of events & performance, she can be found reading at home in Ukrainian Village with her fiancée and their nice and naughty pets. Follow her at @whitneycurates and @themartinchicago. whitneylamora.com
Abigail is an Associate Program Officer for the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. She supports the Director of Chicago Arts & Collections in all aspects of grantmaking and related activities for the Chicago arts portfolio. Abigail joined the foundation in 2022, after working as a leader in arts administration for over 10 years. She previously served as Managing Director for A Red Orchid Theatre, where her knowledge and experience in strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, event planning, and budget oversight helped lead the company through a huge period of growth. She also previously worked at the Theatre of Western Springs and 16th Street Theater and worked for 11 years in a management role in the hospitality industry. Abigail grew up in central Illinois and holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Ball State University. She currently serves on the board of Habakkuk Theatre (a company she helped found). In her free time, she enjoys singing with her husband Andy’s band and spending time with him, their baby girl, and their two bulldogs.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Nico Rodriguez Melo is a curator and arts administrator interested in the potential of curatorial practices, site-specific interventions and printed publications as strategies for social change. In 2011 he co-founded the nonprofit organization SUR (formerly known as 4-18) and currently serves as co-director. Rodriguez Melo has resided in the US since 2016, where he has continued to work in the intersection of artistic practices and social change at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and currently at Philadelphia-based Monument Lab.
Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel (they/she) is a dramaturg, journalist, and oral historian with roots in and around Chicago. As a queer, fat, brown femme, they endeavor to amplify and archive stories that go lost/stolen/forgotten. Their writing and research explores possibility models for a more inclusive and sustainable theatre culture and industry. Mikhaiel holds a M.A. in Performance as Public Practice from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.F.A. in Dramaturgy/Criticism from The Theatre School at DePaul University. They are the Chicago Reader’s Audience Engagement Manager and teach as part-time faculty at TTS DePaul. They have also served as a Guest Respondent for the Kennedy Center College American Theater Festival (R3 Journalism, R5 Dramaturgy). Select bylines include American Theatre, The Austin Chronicle, Sightlines, Chicago Reader, and Teen Vogue. Follow them on Twitter @yasminzacaria (dramaturgically it tracks) or learn more at www.yasminzacaria.com.
Vershawn Sanders-Ward holds an MFA in Dance from New York University and is the first recipient of BFA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago (Gates Millennium Scholar.) She is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company and is currently a candidate for Dunham Technique Certification. Vershawn is a 2019 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Awardee, a 2019 Harvard Business School Club of Chicago Scholar, a 2017 Dance/USA Leadership Fellow, a 2013 3Arts awardee, and a 2009 Choreography Award from Harlem Stage NYC. In 2015, 2018, and 2020, NewCity Magazine selected Ward as one of the “Players 50, People Who Really Perform for Chicago”. Her choreography has been presented in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard, and internationally in Toronto, Dakar and Kampala.
She is currently on faculty at Loyola University Chicago Fine and Performing Arts Department and has received choreographic commissions from Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, Knox College, AS220, and the National Theatre in Uganda. Her upcoming choreographic project set to premiere in 2023, Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal was selected for a 2021 National Dance Project Award from NEFA. As an arts advocate, she is a board member of the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago and was selected to attend the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit for Emerging Global Leaders. Vershawn has had the pleasure of gracing the cover of DEMO, Columbia College Chicago’s Alumni Magazine, and the Chicago Reader!
Deidre Searcy is a media educator and arts education expert with 20 years of experience developing in and out-of-school curriculum. She is also an experienced, media artist, instructor, and trainer who has designed and led project-based training and workshops for youth and adults. Prior to joining Education Development Center, she was Co-Director of Street-Level Youth Media where she worked to position media arts as a catalyst for change in inner-city schools. Her work with youth has garnered recognition from the National Black Programming Consortium and the National Media Education Association and she served for several years on the board of directors for the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture.
DeAnna McLeary-Sherman is the co-founder and executive director of True Star Media & Foundation, a nonprofit media company and digital agency led by youth. True Star provides training and real-world work experience for under-resourced youth that teaches them how to develop, create, and market digital content on a platform that empowers them to forge their own paths. Not only do young people produce for True Star, but students also create digital content and provide digital marketing for external clients, including Warner Bros., US Census, City of Chicago, and State Farm.
McLeary-Sherman’s business acumen has had a significant impact on True Star and its ability to transform the lives of Chicago youth. Her vision led to the organization’s transformation from a print publication to a digital platform. McLeary-Sherman is a 2019 Google Impact Grant Challenge Winner, 2017 Social Venture Partners pitch competition winner, and 2016 Vanguard Award Honoree recipient of the State of Illinois Office of Comptroller. McLeary- Sherman a native Chicagoan, holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and an MBA with a concentration in marketing and finance from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. McLeary-Sherman is a wife and mother of three girls, ages 6, 7, and 10.
zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal is an artist, educator, curator, and arts organizer whose work is most often initiated by personal and social histories related to family, queer identities, self-interiority, and belonging. Within her projects there's an overlying theme of trying to make sense of, and complicating, what and who she belongs to across time, location, and space. Ultimately, she intends for her work to encourage ways of being and feeling beyond the systems we inhabit. zakkiyyah has been included in numerous group exhibitions and has had several solo exhibitions at Mana Contemporary, Blanc Gallery, Indiana University, and South Bend Museum of Art. Her work has been presented in various forms at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, NADA, The Art Institute of Chicago, The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, DePaul University, and Harvard Graduate School of Design to name a few. She has also curated exhibitions at Chicago Art Department, Blanc gallery, and Washington Park Arts Incubator at the University of Chicago, to name a few. She was recently a 2021 Artist in Residence at Arts and Public Life at University of Chicago and a 2021 Artist in Residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. zakkiyyah is a co-founder and organizer of CBIM (Concerned Black Image Makers): a collective of Black artists, thinkers, and curators that prioritize shared experiences and concerns by lens-based artists of the Black diaspora.
Alma Wiser has been the director of Heaven Gallery for 11 years and she is also the founder/president of Equity Arts. She holds a bachelor degree in fashion design and started Heaven Gallery’s alternative retail model of a vintage shop in the gallery. Her career is focused on building equity and sustainability for the arts. As director of Heaven Gallery, she started the New Leaders Mentorship Program in addition to the BIPOC Curatorial Mentorship. In these programs, young artists learn how to run and operate an art gallery/shop and curate exhibitions. Alma has also authored a racial equity for a 60% BIPOC majority policy for both organizations and is currently creating The Chicago Model for Sustainable Culture. This model examines how land and property is negotiated in gentrified neighborhoods. Equity Arts aims to be an arts anti-displacement strategy for the City of Chicago.
Meet the Grantees