Aaron (he/him) is a film lover, archivist, and advocate for cinema as a space for community development. He also volunteers at Kinonik where he helps catalog and restore 16mm prints for presentation. Aaron has at various points been a musician, early childhood educator, arborist, photographer, venue promoter, and art house theater manager. He loves rock climbing, backpacking, and reading on his porch.

Audrey (she/her) is a lighting designer originally from Brooklyn, NY, who has been living and exploring in Portland since 2020. If you run into her outside of work, you’re likely to hear about her cat Buffy, various Star Trek series, and whatever song she has on repeat that day.

Audrey works on lighting design and production for certain performances hosted by SPACE, e-mail to get in touch with Audrey.

Cam (they/them) does a lot of different stuff, including working on SPACE’s event staff! They write zines and a blog called THE DEAL WITH A.C., are the program coordinator at the Camden International Film Festival, and produced the experimental radio zine THE ANGLERFISH. They’re an alum of the Salt Institute for Doc Studies and the Rochester Institute of Technology. They love Krautrock, swimming, and reading. Ginger is their favorite Spice Girl. 

G (they/them) is an interdisciplinary poet, painter, performer, collaborator, shapeshifter, meaning-maker, freelancer, thrift-lover, mover, shaker, and friend everlasting living & working in Southern Maine. They usually have a few projects going at once and a few books in their bag. G is the creative strategist (and enthusiast) of the Portland Poets’ Society, performing poetry live every month. G self-publishes their work on weird corners of the internet.

Greg (he/him) is a film programmer, musician, and visual artist living in Portland, Maine.  He moved to Maine in 2010 when he co-founded The Oak and the Ax(2010-2014) in Biddeford. Greg graduated with a BFA in Film from SUNY Purchase where his love of the films of Jonas Mekas almost derailed his education. He has released music with his bands o’death and Blood Warrior and more recently under his own name with the album Crazy Time (on Orindal Records). Paintings and 2D works by Greg have appeared in group shows at the Portland Museum of Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Cove Street Arts, and Able Baker. He has been an artist in residence at Surf Point Foundation and Hewnoaks. Greg became a partner of The Apohadion Theater in 2017, and is still somewhat involved over there. He loves cats and is a pescatarian. Kelly Reichardt, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Carlos Reygadas are some of his favorite contemporary filmmakers.

Please contact Greg about booking films and other media works at SPACE.

Hannah (she/they) is a maker, mover and shaker of many things. She originally moved to Portland in 2011 to attend the Maine College of Art where she got a degree in Printmaking. Ultimately the city’s lively music scene sucked her in and she has since devoted her creative energy in promoting and uplifting local and touring musicians. She currently works as the social media manager/bartender/karaoke host/booker/aesthetic guru at BPM (fka Blue) but somehow still finds time to work at SPACE as part of the event staff. Whenever she isn’t working you can find her enjoying a beverage at DTL, starting up her standup career at a random open mic, or singing an ABBA tune at a karaoke joint.

Jaina (she/her) is a passionate maker, and overall friend of the arts. Originally from New Hampshire, she has spent her entire adult life here in Portland, Maine and has no plans on leaving. Along with her role at SPACE, she enjoys sewing, is a parent of two lovely cats, an all around crafting extraordinaire, and a very new baseball fanatic!

Please contact Jaina about event logistics.

Jocelyn (she/they) is a queer artist, performer, and writer. Originally from Downeast Maine, land belonging to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Jocelyn loves to travel and has been to many different places that have stirred her soul. Jocelyn received her B.A. in Art and Humanities from the University of Southern Maine, and her M.A. in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts where she now teaches as an adjunct professor. Jocelyn wrote and performed a piece titled The Unkindest Cut which was in PortFringe 2019 and they author/manage the website Getting to Know Jane Doe. Jocelyn also serves on the South Portland City Council, representing District 1, and raises awareness and advocates for changes in policy that enhances social justice initiatives, particularly race and gender equality. She lives in South Portland with her husband Connor and their 3 fur babies Quila (doggo), and Meri and Pippen (kitties).

Please contact Jocelyn about our artist studios, volunteering, new partnerships, billing, and rental inquiries.

Joe (he/they) is an audio engineer, sound artist and repair technician. They’re originally from western Connecticut and started their audio career building custom guitar pedals at Analogman in 2014. Since moving to Maine in 2019, Joe has worked as a broadcast engineer, studio technician and AV system designer. They love field recording, feedback loops, and their 16-year-old cat Oreo.

Jordan Singh (he/they) is a singer-songwriter, educator, and teaching artist with a decade of classroom experience. They are also an alum of Spotify’s SoundUP 2022 podcast accelerator, for which they produced a children’s podcast pilot. Their music has been featured in From the Intercom and Immigrant Report.Singh currently teaches electronic music, robotics, and science of sound concepts at Waynflete school. Whenever they teach–whether they’re teaching STEM, songwriting, or fiction writing–they center their student’s emotional growth. They grew up in Modesto, California in a two-faith household–Sikhism on his mom’s side; San Francisco Giants’ baseball on his dad’s. Ask them for music recommendations, tips for running a good Dungeons and Dragons game, or recipes. 

On Julia’s first night in Portland, while visiting in 2015, she wandered into SPACE Gallery after hearing Mirah’s voice from the street and was let in for free to hear her last few songs. It’s been one of her favorite places ever since. Julia (she/her) cares about climate and community, and in the daytime manages a fellowship program for folks who want to build their careers in climate adaptation and environmental planning. Otherwise, Julia likes walking her extremely sweet dog (Plum), synthpop, indie punk, making things, and eating ice cream. 

Kelsey Halliday Johnson (she/they) has been working as SPACE’s Executive Director since 2017. For over fifteen years, Kelsey has worked as a presenter and curator with a consistent dedication for championing under-recognized artists and intersectional values.

Prior to SPACE, Kelsey worked in curatorial and advancement capacities for the James A. Michener Art Museum, Vox Populi Gallery, Locks Gallery, independent curator Marianne Bernstein, and her own independent multi-site curatorial projects; as well as gaining significant administrative experience at Blind Spot Magazine, the Penn Museum, and WPRB 103.3FM. Her curatorial work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, and was a finalist for the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Awards. Kelsey proudly started her career working art supply and photography retail for eight years.

She is a graduate of Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Wesleyan University, and has taught at a range of colleges and universities as well as Interlochen Arts Academy. Her writing has been published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, Locks Art Publications, Title Magazine, Performa, Studio Magazine from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Common Field, and Mural Arts Philadelphia, among others.

Kelsey enjoys tinkering with vintage cameras, ecological and architectural restoration projects, gardening, volunteering, and storytelling media of all kinds.

Please contact Kelsey about philanthropic giving, partnership ideas, artist grants, billing, and all other SPACE questions or concerns.

Jonathan is a musician, artist, parent, punk, friend, and lifelong Mainer. They love creating and collecting equally, with an ever growing hard drive full of beats and a basement full of toys and instruments. Jonathan has spent the last several years at Bomb Diggity Arts, collaborating with disabled artists on gallery art, short film, music, animation, puppetry, and cable access television. Prior to that they ran an adorable karaoke night, created a podcast for Archie Comics, and played in an award-winning children’s music band. Their hero is Pippi Longstocking and their favorite thing is Christmas. 

Meg Hahn is an artist and arts organizer living in Portland, ME. Her paintings have been included in exhibitions at Perimeter Gallery, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Able Baker Contemporary, BUOY, Trestle Gallery, and SOIL, among others. Meg has attended residencies at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Monhegan Artists’ Residency. She has been a co-director at Border Patrol, a curatorial collective, since 2017 and co-curated Re-Site, a site-specific public art exhibition with SPACE, in 2020. Additionally, she is shaped by her experiences working with food, being a painting studio technician, and supporting adults with intellectual disabilities. She graduated from Maine College of Art and Design with a BFA in Painting and Minor in Art History. 

Please contact Meg with any questions about your membership or corporate donations.

Nick (he/him) is a writer, journalist, editor, actor and director living in Portland, where he worked as a journalist and editor for several Maine-based publications including the Bangor Daily News, the Portland Phoenix, Dispatch magazine, DigPortland, and Down East magazine.

Nick grew up in Southern Maine and moved back after living in New York, and is an ensemble member and former executive director of Mad Horse Theatre Company. He reads, bikes, forages for mushrooms, and plays baseball when he’s not spending time with his partner and young kid.

Get in touch with Nick about press, documentation, promotions, advertising, community outreach and more at nick@space538.org.

Peter’s first night in Portland, back in October 2006, was spent at SPACE, where Wolf Eyes melted his face and destroyed his ears. He remarkably still had enough hearing to join the event staff as a sound engineer in August 2010. He joined the staff upstairs in the office as music programmer in 2014. As a drummer, he has played more than 600 shows across North America, Europe, and Asia over the the past decade, with bands such as Family Planning, Mehetable, Woodpainting, Villages of Spaces, Names Divine, Ora Cogan, Lina Tullgren, Jacob Augustine, Lisa/Liza, Lady Lamb, The Casco Bay Tummlers, and many more. He runs a small record label, Pretty Purgatory. His favorite color is purple.

Please contact Peter about booking music events or other community events.

Sierra D’Amours (they/them) has been working as a sound engineer at SPACE since 2017. During daytime hours they work as the Spawn Librarian at a mushroom spawn production company. They also are very stoked about making music, working with clay, and going on long hikes.

Amy Parker (she/her) is the Executive Design Director and co-founder at Woods Creative. Amy runs Woods’ Portland, Maine studio where she leads creative strategy, ideation, and digital design to make communication solutions, digital products, and visual languages for brands. Amy is an active participant in both the Portland (teaching at Maine College of Art & Design) and Boston design communities (The Vice President of AIGA Boston’s board) and hopes to bring more joy, meaningful connections, and beautiful design to help us all feel seen and considered. She lives with integrity, high expectations, compassion, and humor. She has been a helper at SPACE in more ways than we can count from years of volunteering at events and exhibitions and extending her branding and design-savvy to SPACE’s Marketing Committee since 2020; Amy is serving her first term on the board through spring of 2025.

Since 2016, Anthony Moffa has taught courses in environmental law at University of Maine School of Law and has overseen the Environmental and Oceans Law Certificate Program since its inception in 2019. Prior to joining the Maine Law faculty, Professor Moffa served in the General Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He continues to offer his law expertise to Maine communities and organizations, including Maine Conservation Voters, Conservation Law Foundation, and the City of South Portland. Moffa graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with degree in economics and a minor in music. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School. Anthony is serving his first term on the SPACE board through winter 2025/26.

Christian Adame (he/him) is an arts administrator with 19 years of diverse experience in museums and cultural organizations. Currently, he is the Peggy L. Osher Director of Learning and Community Collaboration at the Portland Museum of Art. As a queer, multiracial educator, he works to elevate and integrate marginalized perspectives within institutional space through collaborative programming, interpretation, and teaching. He has held positions at the California State Archives, The California Museum of Women, History, and the Arts, the Crocker Art Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum. In Arizona, he helped establish arts space Megaphone and co-founded the community collective Cut + Paste. He has received awards and fellowships from the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), The Getty Leadership Institute, The Teaching Institute in Museum Education, and the American Alliance of Museums. He earned his B.A. in Art History from the University of California, Davis. Christian is serving his first term on the SPACE Board through spring of 2025 and was elected to the Secretary role in 2023.

Chris Stiegler is the Program Chair of MFA in Studio Art at Maine College of Art & Design, an art historian, and curator who founded the projects Town Hall Meeting and The Institute for American Art. Town Hall Meeting was a collaborative effort that produced symposiums, museum tours, and lectures. Stiegler serves as museum director for The Institute for American Art, a curatorial project that situates works of art and objects of culture within a residential setting. The museum shows a single work of art at a time to foster prolonged engagement with the audience, accompanied by associated film screenings, public readings, and other events. As a teacher he has focused on historiography, criticism of the contemporary, and 20th century art history. He holds BAs in art history and printmaking from the University of Delaware and a Master of Modern Art in connoisseurship, market history, from Christie’s Education. Chris is serving his second term through spring of 2026, and was elected to the President role in 2023.

Cindy Han (she/her) is a producer for Maine Public Radio on the program Maine Calling—as well as the All Books Considered Book Club. She has been connected with SPACE since she moved to Maine in 2009. In her role as a board member of the Chinese and American Friendship Association of Maine (CAFAM) she collaborated with SPACE on our film programming. Her first foray into journalism after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism was to intern with CNN in China in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. She then worked in print journalism over the decades, as a factchecker, writer and editor, with publications ranging from the Los Angeles Times Magazine to the magazine of the National Zoo to a food trends magazine. Her broadcast work has included doing radio news in college and in Taiwan, as well as reporting for a TV public affairs program at WQED in Pittsburgh. Cindy is serving her first term on the SPACE Board through spring of 2025.

Local to Farmington, Maine, Desi Van Til studied English Literature at Princeton University, enjoyed a post-graduate cinema-intensive fellowship in Paris, then moved to Los Angeles to work as a producer. She learned the ropes assisting her mentor Greg Silverman at Revolution Studios and Warner Brothers. She went on to spend five years as VP of Development for Donna Roth and Susan Arnold at Roth/Arnold Productions where she associate-produced 13 Going on 30, and the Judd Apatow-produced comedy Drillbit Taylor. Van Til adapted and produced the short film Last Night, starring Frances McDormand, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Tumbledown was her first feature film, a love letter to her hometown, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is available on most streaming outlets. Van Til just adapted Julie Orringer’s celebrated novel The Invisible Bridge for Wiip as a limited series pilot, and is working on a Portland-based play. She currently serves as Chair of SPACE’s marketing committee and is in her third and final term on the SPACE board through spring of 2025. 

Justine Ludwig is the Executive Director of Creative Time. She has previously held positions at Dallas Contemporary and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Ludwig has curated projects with many artists including Shilpa Gupta, Jill Magid, Pedro Reyes, Laercio Redondo, Paola Pivi, and Pia Camil. Her research interests include the intersections of aesthetics and architecture, violence, and globalization. Ludwig has an MA in Global Arts from Goldsmiths University of London and a BA in Art with a concentration in Art History from Colby College. She is in her first term on the SPACE board through winter of 2024/25.

Through curatorial projects, arts writing, and community engagement, K. Samantha Sigmon (she/her) works with intersecting aspects of contemporary art and theory, cultural and folk histories, and equity and grassroots activism within the built environment. She is currently the Assistant Curator at Bates College Museum of Art and lives in Portland, ME. Samantha has a Master’s in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, a Master’s in Museum Studies from Syracuse University, and a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and English from the University of Arkansas. Previously, in her hometown of Northwest Arkansas, she was invested in community arts, running a do-it-yourself space and organizing local arts exhibitions as a freelance curator while specializing in contemporary art and architecture as Interpretation Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Recent projects include writing about entangled corporate arts funding in Northwest Arkansas alongside the work of grassroots spaces and creatives for Burnaway and Ozark Home, Beyond the Frame, a curatorial endeavor that spanned work from a history museum to a contemporary gallery in Springdale, Arkansas.

Ken Matsubara is the Chief Creative Officer and a partner at Garrand Moehlenkamp, a full-service branding agency in Portland, Maine. At GM, Ken helps brands find their North Star and guides the agency’s creative vision and output. He has spent a majority of his 27 years in the business craving the brands he has been helping to grow. From the all mighty Big Mac, to the oddly delicious Stuffed Crust Pizza, to getting the right power tool for the right job, he helps find creative ways to connect people with the brands they love. An art director by trade, he has a deep appreciation for design, photography and the visual arts and tries to find ways to seamlessly weave those into his day-to-day work. 

A graduate of Northeastern University with a degree in Business Administration, Oliver Watson represents the recent overflow of Boston’s startup tech community into Southern Maine. Born in CT and raised in the greater Boston area, Watson now works as part of a new health-tech business venture started by his brother in a former mill building in Westbrook. zFlo is a software and systems distributor primarily working with European healthcare focused companies, and Hawkin Dynamics is their new venture that develops metrics based fitness devices and software for sports medicine and physical therapy applications. Watson is a young arts collector in Portland and has actively supported and advocated for the growing community of experimental young contemporaries in the greater Portland area. Oliver is serving his second term on the SPACE Board through spring of 2025. 

Oronde Cruger (he/him) is the executive director for Speak About It, a Maine-based nonprofit organization that brings consent and sexual assault prevention education to high schools and colleges through dynamic performances and programs. Originally from Florida, Cruger is a graduate of Bowdoin College, majoring in neuroscience and pre-med. He has been involved with Speak About It since its creation at Bowdoin and worked as a program educator for two years, traveling around the country, eagerly spreading the gospel of sexy consent. Previously, he has worked as an Admissions Officer at Bowdoin, at Mercy Hospital in Portland, on SPACE’s event staff, and is the proud co-founder of Heart of Hospitality, a coalition of violence prevention groups and service industry professionals dedicated to improving the safety of venues across the state. In addition to SPACE, Cruger currently serves as a board member of the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine. View his TEDxDirigo talk on Modern Masculinity here. Cruger is currently serving in his second term on SPACE’s board through spring of 2026, and was elected to Vice President in 2023.

Pam Chévez is a multidisciplinary designer born and raised in Mexico City where she got her BFA in Graphic Design. While in Mexico City, she worked for a variety of studios where she got the chance to be involved in broadcasting, explainer videos, and video-mapping projects for clients like Nickelodeon, Sam’s Club, Kinder, The National Institute of Archeology in Mexico, and more. Today, she works as a Motion Designer for p3 Maine. She is developing her AR and VR skills as she wants to create a more interactive scene for the community in Portland. Pam has a call for adventure and this recently took her to co-found More Women+ Surf, an organization supporting inclusivity in the line-up and breaking socio-economic barriers to the sport with a focus on under-served communities. Pam is serving her first term on the SPACE Board through winter 2025/26.

Rachel Gloria Adams is a textile designer and painter living in Portland, ME. Inspired greatly by her beloved state of Maine and the beautiful chaos her two daughters bring, Adams has developed a vibrant, graphic pattern-based visual language filled with references to the natural world. An ongoing project and business venture TACHEE utilizes this imagery she developed through painting as textile prints. Rachel is currently developing a body of work that depicts her experience as a black mother and artist through a series of paintings and quilts. She is on her first term of the SPACE Board through winter 2024/2025.

Rick Bresnahan was raised in Maine, returning in 2021 to join the state’s burgeoning startup community as a Product Design Engineer at Hawkin Dynamics in Westbrook. After receiving a degree in Neuropsychology from Brown University, he became interested in how human perception informs the principles of outstanding product design, earned a Mechanical Engineering Master’s from Boston University, and has since been working in engineering design at various northeast startups. He hopes to bring his years of experience to bear on improvements to SPACE in collaboration with the interests of the wider Portland arts community. Rick is serving his first term on the SPACE Board through winter 2025/26.

Alice Spencer is a printmaker, co-founder of Peregrine Press, a printmaking cooperative in Portland, Maine, and founder of TEMPOart, a non-profit in Portland that brings temporary site-specific art installations to the city’s public spaces. She has served on the board of Maine College of Art & Design and chaired the City of Portland’s Public Art Committee. http://www.alicespencer.net/

Alison Hildreth is an artist who incorporates ideas from research in cartography, astronomy, environmental studies, history, philosophy, and literature. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Farnsworth Art Museum among others. She has been a member of the Portland Public Art Committee and is a partner in owning and running the Bakery Studio building. https://www.alisonhildreth.com/

Andy Graham is the Executive Director of Kinonik, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to preserve the analog experience of watching films on film. Their collection consists of more than 2000 reels of 16mm films, with a focus on auteur directors and classic international cinema. https://www.kinonik.org

Betsy Evans Hunt has managed the Todd Webb Archive for 25 years. She is a graduate of the Sotheby’s American Art course, and has managed and catalogued other collections, most notably as Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio manager (1981-83) and at The Addison Gallery of American Art. https://www.toddwebbarchive.com/about/about-the-archive

Bob Ludwig is a multi Grammy, Latin Grammy, Les Paul Award TEC Award winner, and owner of Gateway Mastering, a record-mastering facility in Portland, Maine. His mastering credits are extensive, and include albums for many major classic artists. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Producers and Engineer’s Wing of The Recording Academy. http://www.gatewaymastering.com/bob-ludwig/

Bree LaCasse is a life-long Portlander, and the Development Director of Community Housing of Maine. Previously she held positions as the Executive Director of Friends of Congress Square Park, Development Director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, and volunteered with the Maine for Obama Finance Committee. https://www.chomhousing.org/our-team

Carol Varney consults with a variety of foundation and nonprofit organizations with a focus on media, art, and education. She was formerly the Executive Director of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and for many years as Executive Director for Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco. Carol grew up in Central Maine and is grateful to SPACE for providing the arts and community engagement opportunities it does for audiences from throughout the state and far beyond. Carol is a graduate and Trustee of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Carol’s LinkedIn profile.

Celine Kuhn is an organizational development consultant. Before starting her consulting practice, she was the Executive Director of The Telling Room and a program manager at Maine Health. She is passionate about storytelling, social justice, and the arts. She also sits on the advisory board of Blunt Youth Radio, Indigo Arts Alliance, and serves on the Committee for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability In Yarmouth, ME.

Christopher Campbell is an architect and a designer living in Maine. His work has been featured in exhibits at The Farnsworth Museum, Maine Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and at the Portland Museum of Art, and published in a range of acclaimed magazines and books. Christopher helped steward the 534-538 Congress Street Durant Block building into the vibrant art community it is today and championed SPACE purchasing the building to preserve the artist studios in downtown Portland. He is also the co-founder of Maine Cap N’ Stem. http://campbellarchitecture.com/

Cyrus Hagge is an influential Portland developer whose vision in the 1970s to transform the scrappy, “Old Port” and revitalize the classic pre-war storefronts has undoubtedly changed the course of Portland’s history for the past five decades. He is passionate about music and art, and through his dedication to SPACE and like-minded organizations in Portland has solidified the role of cultural institutions in a thriving vital community in Maine. His significant board work has included the University of Maine Foundation, SailMaine, the Crewe Foundation, and the Portland Museum of Art, among others.

Donna McNeil is the founding Executive Director of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation. She is the former Director of the Maine Arts Commission and holds an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and a masters degree from Harvard University. She has curated numerous exhibitions, written two artists books, one which received the Excellence in Publishing Award from MWPA and served as juror and nominator on many panels including the NEA and MacArthur Awards. https://www.ellis-beauregardfoundation.org/

Emily Drain Bruce is the Vice President of Creative at L.L. Bean. She has held various roles within marketing in her 10 plus years there, an extension of her previous decade of experience leading digital marketing and e-commerce efforts within the Estée Lauder Companies in New York and at several innovative start ups. Her volunteerism with alternative nonprofit visual arts spaces has deep ties to her own creative passions and family. She majored in fine arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder with a focus on ceramic sculpture and photography. She currently serves on the board of Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Emily was SPACE’s board president from 2019-2023 and served three terms on SPACE’s board.

Jessica Tomlinson is the Director of Artists at Work at Maine College of Art. She was the longtime president of the Board of SPACE. A graduate of Hampshire College, Jessica’s past experiences include co-founding the Dead Space Gallery, serving on the board of the Maine Arts Commission and the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance, and working as the Community Coordinator for the Portland Press Herald. https://www.meca.edu/people/jessica-tomlinson/

Joe Malone is the founder and president of Malone Commercial Brokers. As a lifelong Maine resident, he followed his parents into commercial real estate over thirty years ago. He has in-depth experience and established connections in all aspects of real estate development and investment, market knowledge, and community relationships. https://www.malonecb.com/joe-malone

John Coleman is the Chairman and founder of The VIA Agency, a full service creative agency based in Portland, Maine. He holds an MBA and a BS in mechanical engineering and an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Maine College of Art & Design. He is on the board of trustees of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a volunteer at Preble Street Resource Center, and maintains an active studio practice exploring conceptual artwork. 

Mark Bessire is the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art. He received his MBA from Columbia Business School and an MA in Art History from Hunter College. Prior to the PMA, Mark worked as the director of the Bates College Museum of Art, and the ICA at Maine College of Art. https://www.portlandmuseum.org/

Phuc Tran is a writer, tattooer, classicist and educator. He was born in Sài Gòn Việt Nam. His family fled to America in 1975, and he grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Reared on a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons, John Hughes, Star Wars, Bones Brigade videos, and bootlegged cassettes of Minor Threat and TSOL, he graduated high school in 1991. Phuc majored in Classical Languages and Literature at Bard College, got his Master’s Degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and then moved to New York City in 1997. There, he apprenticed to be a tattooer while teaching Latin during the day, and has been teaching and tattooing ever since.

Following in the footsteps of E.B. White (who was neither a tattooer nor Latin teacher), Phuc and his wife left the city and moved to Maine in 2003 (she’s an honest-to-goodness Mainer) where they opened their shop, Tsunami Tattoo.

Ruby Lerner is the founding Executive Director of Creative Capital, having worked regionally in both the performing arts and independent media field. Since 2018 she has served as Advisor to the Arts Exchange Program of the Open Society Foundation, assisting in the design of a new Fellowship Program for international artists. She serves on the Advisory Board of New INC at the New Museum and is on the Board of Directors at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Eyebeam, and Light Industry. http://www.rubylerner.com/

Sean grew up as the son of a novelist in Texas, Italy, and Virginia. He earned a degree in English Literature and Theater from Princeton University, studied acting at the New York Shakespeare Festival, then spent a decade working in feature film production, where he was lucky to be mentored by some of his heroes.

In 2015, Sean directed the 2015 film Tumbledown, a film he co-wrote with Desi Van Til starring Jason Sudeikis and Rebecca Hall. Sean assistant-directed the Mark Taper Forum premiere of iWitness; a production for which he edited video sequences that won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Projection Design. Theater productions in Portland, Maine, include Sam Shepard’s True West, Nick Payne’s Constellations, Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries, Tracy Letts’ Killer Joe, and Stephen Karam’s Speech&Debate.