2015 Creative West Cohort

Lauren Benetua She/They, Oakland, California

Lauren Benetua She/They, Oakland, California

Community Catalyst | OF/BY/FOR ALL

Lauren Benetua is an experienced community organizer and cultural leader. She has had the pleasure of working with arts and social justice organizations from across the Bay Area spanning from San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and Santa Cruz. She currently serves as a community catalyst for OF/BY/FOR ALL, equipping cultural and civic institutions around the globe to build more equitable and just futures with their communities. 

Follow: @laurenbenetua (FB, IG, Twitter). Linkedin

Affiliations: Emerging Arts Professionals, Kalingafornia Laga Weaving Circle,San Francisco Kulintang Project and People of Coloring 

Skills & Interests: 

Jessica Ceballos y Campbell She/They, Los Angeles, CA

Jessica Ceballos y Campbell She/They, Los Angeles, CA

Founder | Alternative Field

Daughter of Mexican immigrants, great granddaughter of Indigenous “American” women, Jessica Ceballos y Campbell is an accomplished literary program curator and also a writer, artist, publisher, editorial and interior designer, community and arts advocate, instigator, agitator, indefinite volunteer, forever student, and cultural wanderer. For more than 20 years, she has built a career centered on exploring the liminal intersections of art and personal narrative, and how those are affected by and inform the spaces we occupy and exist in. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, and she has published three chapbooks, Gent/Re De Place Ing (2016), End of the Road (2017), and Facilitating Spaces 101 (2018). In 2019, she opened Alternative Field, a multilingual poetry library, reading room, resource center, and literary organization at the intersection of social justice that employs poetry and literary arts to bring awareness to and exercise thought around issues that are central to our existence and our potential. 

 

Follow: www.jessicaceballos.com www.alternativefield.com @bluvlvt @alternativefield.com T. @MsOedipaMass

Affiliations: Member of CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses), PEN America, NALAC (National Association of latino Arts and Cultures), Poetry Society of America, Academy of American Poets

Skills & Interests: Organizing member of the Northeast Local chapter of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, regular programmer of literary events at Avenue 50 Studio, and co-founding producer (along with Latino Arts Network) of the Latina Writers Conference.

Mariko Chang She/Her/Hers, Honolulu, Hawai‘i

Mariko Chang She/Her/Hers, Honolulu, Hawai‘i

Major Gifts Manager | Honolulu Civil Beat

Mariko Chang is the major gifts manager at Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit journalism organization in Hawai‘i. Prior to Civil Beat, Mariko worked in the arts and culture field and held positions at the Hawai‘i Theatre Center, Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. She is a board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Chang graduated from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in fine art and Asian studies and received her graduate degree in museum studies and business from John F. Kennedy University. 

Follow: @marikolc, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariko-chang-2851b122/ 

Affiliations: Association of Fundraising Professionals (board member)

Skills & Interests: Ocean sports – swimming, surfing, and diving.

Nicole Davis, New Mexico

Nicole Davis, New Mexico

Fawn Douglas, Nevada

Fawn Douglas, Nevada

Christy NaMee Eriksen, Alaska

Christy NaMee Eriksen, Alaska

Emmanuel Eze, Idaho

Emmanuel Eze, Idaho

Ashley Hare They/them, Phoenix, AZ

Ashley Hare They/them, Phoenix, AZ

Ashley’s career has shifted and expanded from stage management and teaching artistry, to arts therapy and arts administration. Now, they work to integrate wellness, joy, community organizing, elder and ancestral knowledge, and CYD youth-led practice together. Ashley holds the position of Co-Founder and Adult Accomplice at Re:Frame Youth Arts Center, sharing leadership power with a 50% youth staff and 50% youth board. She also serves as a board member for Mass Liberation AZ, an organization working to abolish incarceration for youth and adults.

Follow: www.reframephx.org

Affiliations: Re:Frame Youth Arts Center; Mass Liberation Arizona, National Guild for Community Arts Education

Skills & Interests:

Amir Jackson He/Him/His, Ogden, Utah

Amir Jackson He/Him/His, Ogden, Utah

Founder and Director | Nurture the Creative Mind

Amir Jackson is a father, military veteran, community organizer, activist, and the founder and director of Nurture the Creative Mind, a not-for-profit that empowers and establishes self-value in youth through the vehicle of creativity. Through his work with Nurture the Creative Mind, Jackson has positively impacted more than 20,000 young people and has received more than 26 awards, including two Ogden Mayor’s Awards, the Newman Civic Fellows Award, the Red Cross Hero’s Recognition Award, and the Weber State University Salutes Award. Jackson is also a TEDx fellow, former TEDx project manager, co-founder and inaugural president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Washington State University (WSU) Chapter, current board member of the Utah Cultural Alliance, WSU alumni board, and Creative West’s Equity and Inclusion Committee. He has also been recognized by the state of Utah as a Change Leader.

Follow: www.Facebook.com/NurturetheCreativeMind; https://www.facebook.com/amir.jackson

Affiliations: Nurture the Creative Mind Founder/Director Dia De Los Muertos Ogden; Director Ogden Arts Festival; President Weber State University Alumni Association; Board Member ACLU; Board member 

Skills & Interests: Community building, record collecting, photography/videography, creative writing, boxing, shooting, axe making, wood chopping, gardening, home projects, and cooking.

Alexandria Jimenez She/Her/Hers Wheat Ridge, CO

Alexandria Jimenez She/Her/Hers Wheat Ridge, CO

Artist, Educator, Designer

Alexandria Jimenez has an expansive background collaborating with youth, artists and community members in Denver and beyond. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Metropolitan State University Denver. In the last decade she has served as the Program Director for PlatteForum and most recently Senior Manager of Youth Programming at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. She is currently a free agent, exploring an entrepreneurial path of freelance work and creative ventures. Alexandria serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Birdseed Collective, an arts based community organization in Globeville.

Follow: personal site, Instagram

Affiliations: Birdseed Collective

Skills & Interests: fine art and design, craft and DIY projects, building connections between others, baking, television, basketball, thrifting

Candace Kita She/Her/Hers, Portland, Oregon

Candace Kita She/Her/Hers, Portland, Oregon

Cultural Strategy Director | APANO

Candace Kita is a cultural worker committed to elevating the stories of people of color. She currently serves as cultural strategy director at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), where she directs grassroots arts festivals, narrative shift campaigns, and original artistic commissions by Asian and Pacific Islander artists. In her spare time, she dabbles in dance and consults as a radical astrologer at www.astroradicals.com.

Follow: www.apano.org, www.astroradicals.com, @candissimo @astroradicals

Affiliations:

Skills & Interests: Astrology, dance, visual art, and public art.

Robert Martinez, Wyoming

Robert Martinez, Wyoming

Adrian Molina, Colorado

Adrian Molina, Colorado

Chieko Phillips, Washington

Chieko Phillips, Washington

Janae De La Virgen She/Her/Hers, Denver, Colorado

Janae De La Virgen She/Her/Hers, Denver, Colorado

Office and Culture Operations Coordinator | Creative West

Janae De La Virgen is the office and culture operations coordinator at regional nonprofit arts organization Creative West, where she works across programs. A key area of focus includes her work with the Call for Entry and ZAPPlication programs through tasks and activities that aid in customer service and client retention, and coordinating special projects for the Public Art Archive program, such as the design of client communication and marketing materials and assistance with the creation and documentation of business workflows. De La Virgen also supports Creative West’s human resources and finance teams, ensuring the office functions on a day-to-day level and focusing on improvements that can be made throughout the organization. De La Virgen previously served as a team member of Independent Music on Tour (IMTour™), a grant program that matched independent musicians with nonprofit presenters in the West; the administrator for Arts for Colorado, a nonpartisan, statewide advocacy organization; a member of the Music Task Force, a collective of music industry professionals dedicated to supporting the development of Denver’s independent music scene through the Denver Music Summit; and an Artist Committee member for PlatteForum, an organization that supports contemporary artists and underserved youth. She currently serves on the Denver Music Advisory Panel, a panel that supports the development and implementation of the Denver Music Strategy and the Denver Music Advancement Fund led by Denver Arts and Venues. De La Virgen holds a bachelor’s degree in music business from the University of Colorado Denver and acts as an artist manager to musical acts in Denver.

Follow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janae-delavirgen

Affiliations: Denver Music Advisory Panel

Skills & Interests: Artist management for local musical acts.