Future of Arts and Arts Education
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Kulas Recital Hall
Named a 2005 MacArthur fellow, a former member of the Obama National Arts Policy Committee, President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts, and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s appointee to the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Aaron P. Dworkin has been regarded as an esteemed arts leader across party lines. As a highly distinguished social and arts entrepreneur, he is the founder and president of The Sphinx Organization, the leading national arts organization that transforms lives through the power of diversity and the arts. Dr. Dworkin serves as host and executive producer of the Dworkin Arts & Creativity Report and founded the Dworkin Foundation, where he serves as chairman of the board. His memoir titled Uncommon Rhythm: A Black, White, Jewish, Jehovah's Witness, Irish Catholic Adoptee's Journey to Leadership was released through Aquarius Press.
Dr. Dworkin has been featured in People Magazine, on NBC’s Today Show and Nightly News, CNN, named one of Newsweek’s 15 People Who Make America Great, NPR’s The Story and Performance Today, in addition to articles in GIA Reader, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Detroit News and Free Press, Washington Post, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Emerge and Jet magazines and many other media outlets. He is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Honorary Membership, Harvard University’s Vosgerchian Teaching Award, National Governors Association 2005 Distinguished Service to State Government Award, Detroit Symphony’s 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003 Michiganian of the Year, Crain’s 40 Under 40 and Who’s Who Awards, BET’s History Makers in the Making Award, AT&T Excellence in Education Award, National Black MBA’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
A passionate advocate for excellence in music education and diversity in the performing arts, Dr. Dworkin has been a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at numerous national conferences including the Aspen Ideas Conference, Independent Sector, Dance USA National Conference, the League of American Orchestras, National Association for Schools of Music, National Guild for Community School of the Arts, National Association of Music Merchants, Chautauqua Institution, National Suzuki Association, Americans for the Arts, American String Teachers Association, Ithaca College and the National Association for Negro Musicians. Dr. Dworkin served as commencement speaker at the Curtis Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Longy Conservatory, as well as twice for Bowling Green State University. In May 2013, the renowned Curtis Institute of Music awarded honorary doctorates to Dworkin and Sir Simon Rattle, longtime maestro of the Berlin Philharmonic.
He serves regularly as a panelist on influential arts committees such as Independent Sector’s Strategic Planning Advisory Group, Silk Road/Harvard Business School Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge panel (on invitation from Yo-Yo Ma), the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the MetLife Awards for Excellence in Community Engagement, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, the National Association of Arts Presenters, Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Surdna Foundation Arts Teachers Fellowship Program, as well as serving as a member of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance Dean Search Committee.
Dr. Dworkin also served as the cochair of the Arts and Cultural Education Task Force for the State of Michigan designing the required arts curriculum for Michigan schools, and was cochair of the Planning Task Force that oversaw the strategic merger of ArtServe Michigan (statewide arts advocacy organization) and MACAA (MI Assoc. of Community Arts Agencies). In addition, he serves on other strategic planning committees, including the League of American Symphony Orchestras.
Dr. Dworkin serves (or has served) on the board of directors of the League of American Orchestra, National Association of Performing Arts Presenters, National Society for the Gifted and Talented and Artserve Michigan, Knight Foundation’s Arts Advisory Board, Advisory Board of ASTA Alternative Strings Awards, Rachel Barton Pine Foundation and the Avery Fisher Artist Program, Editorial Board of Downtown New York Magazine and Independent Sector’s NGen Awards Committee.
As a spoken-word artist, Dr. Dworkin has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Damien Woetzel, Anna Deveare Smith, Cristina Pato, Lil’ Buck and other notable artists. As a violinist/spoken-word artist, Dr. Dworkin recorded and produced two CDs entitled Ebony Rhythm and Bar-Talk, in addition to writing, producing, and directing the independent film entitled Deliberation.
An accomplished electric and acoustic violinist, Dr. Dworkin earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan School of Music, graduating with high honors. In April 2014, he became the first Musical Bridges Francis Family Fellow awarded by University of Missouri-Kansas City. He also attended the Peabody Institute, the Philadelphia New School, and the Interlochen Arts Academy, studying with Vladimir Graffman, Berl Senofsky, Jascha Brodsky, John Eaken, Renata Knific, Donald Hopkins, and Stephen Shipps.
Dr. Dworkin authored the poetry collection, They Said I Wasn’t Really Black as well as the children’s book, The 1st Adventure of Chilli Pepperz. His writings have been featured in Symphony Magazine, Polyphonic.org, Andante and others. He contributed to the first English edition of Superior Bowing Technique, a treatise by legendary violinist Lucien Capet, and authored the foreword to William Grant Still’s Violin Collection. He has also arranged works for electric strings and developed Electric String 201, a college-level preparatory course in electric string performance. Dr. Dworkin founded and served as publisher and editor-in-chief of The Bard, a literary magazine with a readership of over 40,000.
Dr. Dworkin offers a uniquely strong organizational, fundraising, and administrative background combined with an unwavering passion for music and its role in society. As founder and president of the Sphinx Organization, he has built an infrastructure and led fundraising efforts totaling over $35 million, overseeing a staff and faculty of more than 40. With over $1 milion in prizes and scholarships awarded annually, the Sphinx Organization serves as the leading advocate for young people and diversity in the arts in the world.
A lifelong musician, Dr. Dworkin is an accomplished acoustic and electric violinist, a spoken-word and visual artist. As an artist, Aaron Dworkin is on the roster of Cadenza Artists. He has strong interests in politics, world history and issues of economic and social justice. In addition to various genres of music, he enjoys travel, movies and culinary arts.
Jenny Gersten most recently served as the Executive Director of Friends of the High Line, the not-for-profit organization in partnership with the NYC Parks Department in charge of building and maintaining one of the great public spaces in New York City.
For four years, until the summer of 2014, she was Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF), where Ms. Gersten also served as Associate Producer of the Festival from 1996-2004. As Artistic Director, Ms. Gersten programmed an ambitious “summer stock” season of 8 fully produced top-notch professional productions in a 9-week time span. Highlights have been the workshop production of David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim’s Here Lies Love (directed by Alex Timbers) at MASS MoCA, a revival of Fool for Love with Sam Rockwell and Nina Arianda (directed by Daniel Aukin), the World Premiere of Far From Heaven (directed by Michael Greif), the American Premiere of Ten Cents a Dance (conceived and directed by John Doyle), and the World Premiere of Katori Hall’s Whaddabloodclot!!!, and the World Premiere of The Bridges of Madison County. Ms. Gersten also oversaw a vast professional development and training program for over 200 acting apprentices, directing, design and management interns and pre-professional staff.
She served as the Associate Producer of The Public Theater in New York City for four years. There she produced six Shakespeare in the Park productions including the repertory productions of The Winter’s Tale (Michael Greif, director) and The Merchant of Venice (Daniel Sullivan, director, with Al Pacino and Lily Rabe), as well as Twelfth Night in Central Park (Daniel Sullivan, with Raul Esparza, Anne Hathaway and Audra McDonald), and The Bacchae (JoAnn Akalaitis, director). She also produced a concert version of Paul Simon and Derek Wolcott’s The Capeman. Downtown, she produced The Idiot Savant (written and directed by Richard Foreman), The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney (directed by Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara), The Book of Grace by Suzan-Lori Parks (James Macdonald, director), Yellowface by David Henry Hwang (Leigh Silverman, director), and more. She was the associate producer of the Tony Award winning revival of HAIR first in the Park and then on Broadway, London’s West End and the National Tour.
Prior to joining the Public, she was the Artistic Director of Naked Angels, a theater company founded in 1986 by a company of actors, writers, directors, designers and producers. In that time, she produced Off Broadway the World Premieres of Elizabeth Meriwether's The Mistakes Madeline Made and Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, as well as three evenings of one-act plays by established and emerging playwrights, and countless readings and workshops of new work.
Ms. Gersten was Director of Marketing and Development at The 52nd Street Project, a mentoring theater organization that brings inner-city youth from the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood together with professional theater artists to create original plays. She has served as a casting director for Billy Elliot the Musical as well as for visual artist Gregory Crewdson. She has served as a grant adjudicator for TCG, taught theater producing at NYU, and is a Tony Nominator. Ms Gersten was an archaeology and art history major at Oberlin College. She is married to the writer and lyricist Willie Reale, and has two sons, Gus and Leo. Her preferred method of transportation is bicycle.
Michael M. Kaiser founded the DeVos Institute of Arts Management in 2001.
From 2001-14, he served as President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the United States’ center for the performing arts, where he expanded the education and artistic programming, oversaw a major renovation effort of most of the Kennedy Center’s theaters, and led the country in arts management training. Mr. Kaiser previously served as Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, the largest performing arts organization in the United Kingdom. During his tenure with the Royal Opera House, that organization erased its historic accumulated deficit, completed a £214 million redevelopment of the facility, created an endowment fund, and greatly increased its level of support from the private and public sectors.
Prior to joining the Royal Opera House, Mr. Kaiser was Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT). During his three-year tenure at ABT, he erased the entire historic accumulated deficit, created a second company, greatly expanded national and international touring activity, substantially increased both contributed and earned income, and built an acclaimed series of education programs. Mr. Kaiser has also served as Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation, the world’s largest modern dance organization. During his tenure, the Ailey Company erased its accumulated deficit, expanded its school, and increased all forms of revenue. He has also served as General Manager of the Kansas City Ballet, where he erased that company’s deficit as well. Before entering the arts management field, Mr. Kaiser was a management consultant in the corporate sector.
Mr. Kaiser received his master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and his bachelor’s degree in economics magna cum laude from Brandeis University. He has been an adjunct professor of arts administration at New York University and a lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Mr. Kaiser has received numerous awards for his contributions to the arts, including the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America and honorary doctorate degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
He is the author of eight books: Curtains? The Future of the Arts in America (2015); The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations (2013); Conversation Starters: Arts Management Topics for Today (2011); Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask (2010); The Art of the Turnaround (2008); Strategic Planning in the Arts: A Practical Guide (1995); Developing Industry Strategies: A Practical Guide of Industry Analysis (1983); and Understanding the Competition: A Practical Guide of Competitive Analysis (1981).
