OPENING KEYNOTE
Thursday, June 17, 9:30-10:30am

Speaker: The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter 

THE HONORABLE LOUISE M. SLAUGHTER One of the most powerful women in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congresswoman Louise McIntosh Slaughter has achieved a significant level of leadership as the Chairwoman of the influential House Committee on Rules, making her the first woman in history to hold this position. A member of the House Democratic Leadership, she serves on the prestigious Democratic Steering & Policy Committee. She is the Democratic Chair of two very prominent congressional caucuses: the Congressional Arts Caucus and the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus. In November 2008, Rep. Slaughter was elected to her twelfth term in Congress as U.S. Representative for the 28th Congressional District of New York State. Her diverse district includes the cities of Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Her constituents know her to be a strong proponent of progressive causes and a fighter for the employment concerns and the economic development of Western New York. She has earned a reputation for her dedication to constituent service. read full biography

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PLENARY I
Thursday, June 17, 4:30-6pm

Speaker: George Stevens, Jr.
Moderator: Robert Lynch, President & CEO, Americans for the Arts

GEORGE STEVENS, JR. George Stevens, Jr. has achieved an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning almost 50 years.  He is a writer, director, producer, playwright and author. He has enriched the film and television arts as a distinguished filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the national television events he has conceived, including The Kennedy Center Honors, which took place for the 32nd time in 2009.As a writer, director and producer, Stevens has earned many accolades, including twelve Emmys, two Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting and eight awards from the Writers Guild of America.  As writer, director and co-producer of 1990’s Separate But Equal, starring Sidney Poitier, he earned an Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series, the Christopher Award and The Writers Guild of America’s Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In October 2009 President Obama named Stevens to be Co-chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In 2008 Stevens made his debut as a playwright with Thurgood, which opened at the historic Booth Theater on Broadway in April 2008.  The play had an extended run starring Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  Mr. Fishburne returns to the role in the summer of 2010 with runs at the Kennedy Center and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Stevens was executive producer of The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which also received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series.  Stevens won two Emmys for the 1994 documentary, George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin, which depicted the wartime experiences of his father – one of the most highly regarded directors of all time.  He produced an acclaimed feature length film about his father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey. Stevens is the founder of the American Film Institute and during his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued to be enjoyed by future generations.  In addition, he established the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers. In 2006, Alfred A. Knopf published Stevens’ Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age – the first book to bring together the interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series.  He is currently at work on volume two for Knopf. Stevens is in pre-production on a feature length documentary on the famed political cartoonist Herb Block.

ROBERT LYNCH Robert Lynch is the president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the national organization dedicated to advancing the arts and arts education in people's lives, schools and communities.  In 2005, he created the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and its connected political action committee to engage citizens in advocating for the arts and arts education. Under his 25 years of leadership, the services and membership of Americans for the Arts has grown to over 50 times its original size in 1985. Bob currently serves on the board of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, the Arts Extension Institute, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts Board. He is a member of the Executive Committee for United Voices for Education and is on the Advisory Council of the National Museum for Children in the Arts.

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PLENARY II
Friday, June 18, 12:45-2:00pm

Speakers: Jonathan Lowe, Senior Director of Marketing and Promotions for the Los Angeles Kings; Karen Riordan, President, Arnold Worldwide, Washington DC
Moderator: Paul Organisak, Executive Director, Pittsburgh Dance Council

	JONATHAN LOWE Jonathan Lowe is the Senior Director of Marketing and Promotions for the Los Angeles Kings. He is a strategic marketing and promotions professional with over a decade of experience in creating dynamic and innovative campaigns for sports teams, live events, music artists and consumer products. In his 7th year with sports and live event leader, AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), Jonathan has created and executed marketing campaigns for its most prized assets in Los Angeles: STAPLES Center, The Los Angeles Kings and The Home Depot Center, (a $150M venue launched in 2003 that is home to the LA Galaxy). In 2007, Jonathan shifted his role within AEG to focus solely on the Kings and currently serves as the Senior Director of Marketing and Promotions for the hockey club. Jonathan’s marketing campaigns and promotions have received regional and national recognition in media outlets including the LA Times, Daily News, Los Angeles Business Journal, Entertainment Tonight, E!News, ABC (Los Angeles), ESPN TV, FoxSports.com and SI.com. In addition, Jonathan has created marketing and promotions campaigns for The Los Angeles Lakers, Ten World Championship Boxing Events, Celine Dion’s Las Vegas Show A NEW DAY, The King Tut Exhibit at LACMA as well as national concert tours with Prince and Rod Stewart, just to name a few.
	KAREN RIORDAN Karen Riordan serves as President for Arnold Worldwide, Washington DC and when she says she loves working at Arnold Worldwide, you believe her. After all, she’s been at the firm for 14 years and counting. In her role as President of Arnold’s Washington, DC office, she oversees client relations and operations on all agency accounts. Arnold DC is the Washington office of Arnold Worldwide, a top 20 U.S. advertising and marketing agency known for its creativity and results-oriented approach. Arnold’s client roster is an impressive list of iconic, household names like McDonald’s, Titleist, Amtrak, Hershey’s, Carnival Cruise Lines, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Volvo, Jack Daniels, and Fidelity Investments. Over the course of her 25-year career in advertising, Karen has led such brands as Staples, Royal Caribbean International, The Hartford Financial Services, Volkswagen, John Hancock, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Celebrity Cruises. She is President of the DC Ad Club, and Chair of the DC ADDYs creative awards show, as well as a member of the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Karen is also on the Steering Committee of Advertising Week DC, the AAAA Board of Governors for Mid-Atlantic, and the Ad Council. She also belongs to the United States Travel Association (USTA) and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI).
	PAUL ORGANISAK Paul Organisak has spent over twenty years in the dance administration field. He currently serves as executive director of the Pittsburgh Dance Council and as vice president of programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust responsible for the multi-disciplinary programming of all Trust-owned theatres. For Dance/USA, he serves as chair of the presenters council, on the conference program committee, executive committee and board.

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PLENARY III
Saturday, June 19, 10:30am-12:00pm

Speakers: Reuben Margolin; Artist and Sculptor; Gideon Obarzanek, Artistic Director, Chunky Move; Paata Tsikurishvili, Artistic Director, Founder, Synetic Theater; Irina Tsikurishvili, Resident Choreographer, Founder, Synetic Theater 
Moderator: Caitlin Strokosch, Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities;

	REUBEN MARGOLIN Reuben Margolin was raised in Berkeley, California. A love of math and physics propelled him to Harvard, where he changed paths and got a degree in English. He then went on to study traditional painting in Italy and Russia. In 1999 Reuben became obsessed with the movement of a little green caterpillar, and set out to make wave-like sculptures. In 2004 he moved to his current studio in Emeryville and began making a series of large-scale undulating installations that attempt to combine the logic of mathematics with the sensuousness of nature. He has since made about 10 of these mechanical mobiles and shown them internationally. Reuben  also makes pedal-powered rickshaws and has collaborated on a couple large-scale pedal-powered vehicles.
	GIDEON OBZARZANEK Gideon Obarzanek became interested in dance towards the end of high school and after graduating deferred science at university to study at the Australian Ballet School. He later danced with the Queensland Ballet and the Sydney Dance Company before working as an independent performer and choreographer with various dance companies and independent projects within Australia and abroad. Gideon founded Chunky Move in 1995 and has been its Artistic Director to date. While the company mostly features his work it also commissions various other Australian choreographers and invites international choreographers to give workshops in its home city of Melbourne, Australia. Obarzanek’s works for Chunky Move have been diverse in form and content and include stage productions, installations, site-specific works and film. His works have been performed in many festivals and theatres around the world in the U.K, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Gideon’s film, Dance Like Your Old Man, co-directed with Edwina Throsby won Best Short Documentary at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival, 2008 Flickerfest International Short Film Festival and Best Film at the Cinedans Festival in Amsterdam. In collaboration with Lucy Guerin and Michael Kantor, Gideon has also received a New York Bessie award for outstanding choreography and creation for Chunky Move’s production of Tense Dave. In 2008 he received two Australian Helpmann Awards for Glow and Mortal Engine. In 2009, Mortal Engine received an Honorary Mention in the Prix Ars Electronica awards in the Hybrid Arts category.
	PAATA TSIKURISHVILI Paata Tsikurishvili, a native of the Republic of Georgia, is an innovative, award-winning international Artistic Director, director, and educator with over 20 years of experience fusing the classical elements of drama, movement, dance, mime, and music. Since 2001, Mr. Tsikurishvili’s work has drawn critical acclaim and garnered 65 Helen Hayes Award Nominations and 15 Helen Hayes Awards, including three Awards for Outstanding Resident Play. Personally, Mr. Tsikurishvili has earned 22 individual Helen Hayes Award Nominations and eight individual Helen Hayes Awards, receiving the Award for Outstanding Director in 2003, 2008 and 2009. As an educator, Mr. Tsikurishvili has trained hundreds of actors in mime and movement technique through Synetic Theater and through teaching at leading universities, such as American University, Catholic University of America, and Georgetown University. He holds an MFA in Film Directing from Tbilisi State University and a BFA in Acting from State Institute of Theater and Film, Tbilisi, Georgia.
	IRINA TSIKURISHVILI Irina Tsikurishvili graduated from the Tbilisi Chabukiani Ballet School and performed as a principal dancer and mime in numerous productions at the Georgian State Pantomime Theater. From 1993-95, she served as choreographer for the Mimodrama Theater in Saarbrücken, Germany. Ms. Tsikurishvili is a 27-time Helen Hayes Award Nominee and has won the Award seven times for her choreography on The Idiot, Faust, Hamlet…the rest is silence, The Master and Margarita, Frankenstein, Macbeth, and Carmen, and has won the Award twice for her acting in Hamlet…the rest is silence and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ms. Tsikurishvili has taught at the Catholic University of America, American University, and Georgetown University, where she recently choreographed Lysistrata (co-production with Georgetown). She continues to run intensive movement workshops to train Synetic cast members.
	CAITLIN STROKOSCH Caitlin Strokosch is Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, the association of artists' colonies and residency programs. The Alliance represents a field of more than 1,000 artists' residency programs worldwide, supporting artists in visual arts, writing, dance, music, film, design, and other disciplines by providing dedicated time and space for the development of new work. Caitlin has served the Alliance since 2002 and was appointed Executive Director in 2008. Prior to joining the Alliance, she managed several nonprofit music ensembles in Chicago, and worked for PR firm specializing in nonprofit performing arts organizations. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in music performance Columbia College in Chicago and a Master’s in musicology from Roosevelt University, where her research focused on music as a tool for building communities of resistance and social dissent.