2010 WESTAF Cohort

As the inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM (2012-2014), Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion, and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at the University of New Mexico. His poetry has been published in on the Albuquerque Convention Center, on the outside of a library, in inner-city buses and in numerous anthologies across the globe. Bellamy was recognized as an honorable mention for the University of New Mexico Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize for his work as a community organizer and journalist in 2007, and was awarded the Emerging Creative Bravos Award by Creative Albuquerque in 2013. In 2014, Bellamy was named a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Food Justice Residency at Santa Fe Art Institute. Bellamy has been named “Best Poet” in the Weekly Alibi’s annual Best of Burque poll every year since 2010. His first book, SWEAR (West End Press/UNM Press) won the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing from the Working Class Studies Association. He is the co-creator of the multimedia Hip Hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the country. He facilitates youth writing workshops for schools, jails, churches, prisons and community organizations in New Mexico and beyond. Currently, Bellamy is completing multidisciplinary arts projects (manuscripts) from his travels to Turkey and Nepal last summer. Bellamy has had his work featured on AlterNet, Truthout, CounterPunch and the nationally syndicated Tavis Smiley Radio Show. He is the on-air television host for New Mexico PBS’s ¡COLORES! Program. Bellamy holds an M.A. in Communications from the University of New Mexico, is the proud father of a 7 year-old miracle and is the founding president of Beyond Poetry LLC.  

Since becoming the executive director and chief curator of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) in 2010, David Dadone has led the Museum to embrace a commitment to participatory, experiential exhibitions that dynamically engage visitors with contemporary art. He has also overseen significant expansion of BMoCA’s community outreach through the creation of several successful art education programs. BMoCA presents innovative works produced by regional, national, and international artists and curates off-site exhibitions at the University of Colorado Boulder. During Dadone’s tenure, the organization has been recognized for providing “unique, cutting-edge and multidisciplinary contemporary art to the community and leadership in community collaboration.” Dadone’s community leadership includes his appointment as a commissioner to the Jefferson County Cultural Council, the board of Colorado Humanities and the  Downtown Boulder Partnership. He regularly serves as a grant review panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Boulder County Community Foundation. Past community service includes CAST3 for the Reauthorization of Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), founding of Boulder Arts Week, board membership of Invisible Museum, and his service on the Public Arts Committee for the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. Dadone holds a master’s degree in leadership from University of Colorado Denver, attended the Getty Leadership Institute for Museum Leaders at the Claremont University in Claremont, California, and received degrees in art theory/criticism from Metropolitan State University of Denver and business/accounting from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Affiliations: Colorado Humanities Board, Downtown Boulder Partners Board, Jefferson County Cultural Council (Chair)

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Ginger Ewing is an arts educator, advocate, and administrator living in Spokane, Washington. She began her career as the curator for cultural literacy at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC), where she developed and administered many successful programs, including a professional development program for regional high school students interested in becoming exhibit interpreters, a K-20 American Indian educational program, and a monthly after-hours program meant to draw in new museum goers. At the MAC, Ewing also helped to curate many exhibitions and was trained in Visual Thinking Strategies, a teaching methodology centered around art. Ewing is currently a co-founder and the executive director of the arts nonprofit Terrain, which builds community and economic opportunity for artists in the Inland Northwest. In addition to putting on large-scale events, Terrain also runs a gallery space, a performing arts space, a retail storefront, an arts-driven beautification program, and a professional development program for creative entrepreneurs. Ewing sits on three statewide boards (Keep Music Live, All in Washington, and the Washington State Arts Commission), as well as the Spokane Arts Commission, and a Joint Arts Committee helping to select public artwork going into Spokane’s regional parks. She also loves dogs, especially pugs.

Follow: terrainspokane.com,  fromherespokane.com, @terrainspokane.com @fromherespokane.com

Affiliations: Washington State Arts Commission, Spokane Arts Commission, Keep Music Live

Skills & Interests: The intersections between social justice, equity, and art; and using art for large-scale activism and intervention.

Marques Hanalei Marzan is a Hawaiian fiber artist born and raised in Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu. He is highly experienced in his field and has learned and trained under noted experts in Hawai‘i. Marzan continues to broaden his knowledge base of indigenous Pacific perspectives on his extensive travels, and has represented Hawai‘i in numerous gatherings of indigenous artists. He is also trained in the practice of Hawaiian chant, taught to him by his teacher, John Keola Lake, which is often used in formal functions and ceremonies. Marzan serves as cultural advisor at the Bishop Museum, where he provides opportunities for the community to learn from the treasures of its past. He shares his understanding and passion for the fiber arts through public presentations, demonstrations, and workshops that restore, in modern culture, the living presence of rare Hawaiian forms, materials, and designs. Along with his understanding of Hawaiian culture and ritual practices, Marzan draws upon this foundation of knowledge to bridge the traditions of the past with the innovations of the present, creating a dialogue within his work that speaks to the evolutionary continuity of culture.

Follow: www.marquesmarzan.com 

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J. Gibran Villalobos is an administrator, curator, and art historian. In 2016, he was elected to attend the Advocacy Leadership Institute where he was invited to the White House Office of Public Engagement, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to speak to key issues affecting Latinos in Chicago. He served as the 2017 resident curator at the Chicago Cultural Center where he launched an inaugural summit of Latino artists and administrators across the United States. For this project, he received the Act Up Awards from the Chicago Community Trust, and a Propeller Grant. He has held the posts of Cultural Liaison for the Chicago Park District in the department of Culture, Arts, and Nature, and Public Programs and Partnerships Manager for the Chicago Architecture Biennial. He currently serves on the Auxiliary Board for the National Museum of Mexican Art and on the executive board of The Association of American Culture (TAAC). He is faculty lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy and currently works the Partnerships and Engagement Liaison for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.