BOARD
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Sol Kjøk | President
A visual artist born in Norway, Sol Kjøk lives at and runs Mothership NYC, the Brooklyn arts collective she founded in 2005. After studies in Paris, Athens (GA), Vienna, Medellín and Cincinnati that earned her three graduate degrees in humanities, she obtained an MFA in painting at Parsons School of Design in New York. An avid drawer all her life, Kjøk’s work has been featured in 100+ shows worldwide. She has held artist residencies in several countries, taught at universities and art schools and lectured at museums and art centers throughout the US. Her artwork, which originates as performance, is featured in Drawing Essentials (Oxford University Press), a textbook widely used in fine arts programs in the US. A recipient of more than 50 awards and artist’s grants, Kjøk is represented in public collections such as the Cincinnati Art Museum, Teckningsmuseet, and the Osten Museum of Drawing, as well as numerous private and corporate collections throughout the world. Since 2014, she is Broadway Stages’ Artist-in-Residence, working out of the Last Frontier NYC studio below Kingsland Wildflowers.
Tony Argento
Tony Argento is the founder of Broadway Stages (est. 1983), a full-service film and television production company headquartered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. As of 2018, BWS has over 3 million square feet of integrated space throughout NYC: unique locations, production services and more than 50 soundstages, including the warehouse structure on the bank of Newton Creek that is home to NOoSPHERE Arts and Kingsland Wildflowers. Through financial, in-kind, and volunteer resources, Broadway Stages actively supports economic and social growth, education, the arts, community betterment, and environmental sustainability throughout the city. A commitment to community, local/state resourcing and environmental sustainability is a cornerstone of their business philosophy.
Ran Mullins
Ran Mullins' mission is to anticipate what’s coming, maneuver for the journey and engage organizations and individuals to do the same. Nurturing a tendency to look deeper into new ideas, people and companies, he built a career path from brand storyteller to Founder and Chief Growth Catalyst at Relequint.
In over two decades of serial entrepreneurship he has catalyzed client growth and cultivated disruption, initiated client's brand and digital transformation, steered new businesses and intensified brand understanding and innovative approaches. As CEO at Relequint, Ran oversees his Growth Catalyst Framework™, client brands, content, and new digital efforts, including the early development of a new digital publishing technology. Ran is a director at Dispatch1® and advisor at BrandCloud®. He is also a fine artist having exhibited his works nationally. He graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati with a BFA degree in Communication Design.
Ben Geboe, PhD
Ben Geboe, tiospaye wakankdiduta, is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He serves as Executive Director of the American Indian Community House in NYC advancing Native-American culture, arts and health. For his doctorate from McGill School of Social Work in Montreal, Ben interviewed Indigenous healthcare providers across Canada. Ben has many years of experience working with Indigenous community organizations in rural and urban settings in Canada and the US and participates in many Indigenous spiritual and cultural activities, including drumming. Ben published two policy briefs for the McGill Institute for the Study of International Development focusing on Indigenous reconciliation and community development. Additionally, Ben produced an Indigenous student paper focusing on Indigenous TB for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, July 2021. He is also part Norwegian-American and has enacted several Norway-US cultural exchanges with Saami communities in Finnmark, Norway.
Kelly Ashton Todd
A native of Houston, TX, Kelly Ashton Todd lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BFA in Modern Dance from Texas Christian University and a Double Minor in Biology and Environmental Science along with a Master's in Sustainability Leadership from Arizona State University. She currently performs with the award-winning, off-Broadway show Sleep No More. Kelly's choreography work has been showcased globally and commissioned by renowned architect Steven Holl and the critically-acclaimed immersive experience Meow Wolf. She has won numerous grants, including from Brooklyn Arts Council, Jerome Hill Foundation, NYSCA, Puffin Foundation, Walmart E-commerce, LEIMAY Fellowship, Human Impacts Institute Environmental Health Fellowship, and the NYFA Fellowship in Choreography. Her award-winning environmental dance film series, Under Review, has been screened at 19+ film festivals nationally and internationally. Most recently, Under Review: Katahdin was awarded the New Vision award from the International Wildlife Film Festival.
Ernesto Villalobos
“Native” New Yorker Ernesto "Ness" Villalobos was born in Veracruz Mexico in 1981. The youngest person to ever receive a Fulbright Grant from the Department of State, he obtained a Master's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and advanced degrees in violin performance from the Bayerischen Musikakademie in Germany and the Keshet Eilon Institute in Israel. Together with his brothers, Alberto and Luis, he has performed at the Latin Grammys, Carnegie Hall and Shea Stadium, opening a game for the Mets. In 2008 he recorded with three Grammy winners: The Chieftains, Lila Downs and Dan Zanes.
ADVISORY BOARD:
Fritjof Capra, PhD
A physicist and systems theorist, Capra was a founding director (1995-2020) of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He serves on the faculty of the Amana-Key executive education program in São Paulo, Brazil and is a Fellow of Schumacher College in the UK. He also serves on the Council of Earth Charter International. Capra is the author of several international bestsellers, including The Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, and The Science of Leonardo. He is coauthor of the multidisciplinary textbook, The Systems View of Life. Capra's online course, known as "Capra Course," is based on his textbook. It has an alumni network of over 2,000 in 89 countries around the world.
Georges Yazbek
Originally from Lebanon, Georges Yazbek is a two-time Emmy Award-winning producer and photographer. He holds a BA in Media Production and postgraduate diplomas in Innovation & Design and Leadership. Through his work, Georges aims to shed light on science, art, and technology as the core foundations for societal development and well-being, as well as exploring the nature of consciousness. Georges' production projects are featured on leading TV networks, such as Discovery Channel; Animal Planet; Science Channel; MTV; Travel Channel; and Al Jazeera. He is the founder of Beirut Behind the Scenes, a media production company highlighting the stories of Lebanon's creative minds. Now based in NYC, Georges also teaches at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (Alba).
Kōan Jeff Baysa, MD
Based in Los Angeles, Baysa is a medical doctor, writer and contemporary art curator with primary interests in the cultural constructs of health and aesthetics and the health of the individual in the context of the health of the planet. He is Chief Medical Officer - Medical Avatar; Co-founder - Joshua Treenial; Senior Founder - Honolulu Biennial; Director - iBiennale, and curatorial advisor for the Fresh Winds Biennale in Iceland and the Congo Biennale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Baysa has participated in medical missions in conflict zones and organizes art activism projects globally.
Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
A NYC-based, Jamaican-American interdisciplinary artist, Lyn-Kee-Chow’s work in performance and installation art draws on themes such as: nostalgia for homeland, Caribbean folklore, fantasy, feminism, globalism, spirituality, environmentalism, and migration. Lyn-Kee-Chow holds a BFA with honors from the New World School of the Arts, University of Florida, and an MFA from Hunter College, CUNY, New York. Her exhibitions include Jamaican Pulse: Art and Politics from Jamaica and the Diaspora, Royal West Academy of England, Bristol, UK (2016); a special project commission at Jamaica Biennial, The National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston (2017); Live Action 12 in Gothenburg, Sweden (2017); and Guangzhou Live 5: An International Performance Art Festival, China (2014). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Huffington Post and Hyperallergic. She has received awards from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation; New York Foundation for the Arts; Franklin Furnace Fund; Queens Council on the Arts and the Consulate General of the United States in Guangzhou.
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