Looking to the Future

For six years, Leila led ArtPlace America's National Creative Placemaking Fund -- a $86M national grantmaking initiative -- among key partnerships to advance equity in arts-based community development. In her role as a grantmaker, she consistently puts relationships first. She believes cultural self determination, neighborhood love, and transformative justice are key ingredients for collective liberation.

Carlton Turner works across the country as a performing artist, arts advocate, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant, and facilitator. Carlton is the founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses arts and agriculture to support rural community, cultural, and economic development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where he lives with his wife Brandi and three children.

Before becoming the Executive Director of the Shortino Foundation, Tamara served as Executive Director for the School of Arts and Culture at MHP in East San José since it was started in 2011. During Alvarado’s leadership at the School of Arts and Culture, the School and the Mexican Heritage Plaza earned a positive reputation for their commitment to their East San José communities and the excellence of their programs. The School has developed a strong financial position and enjoys the committed support of many multi-year funders. It recently completed a long-term strategic plan to carry out its vision for enriching the arts and culture of the people of San José. Prior to her service at the School, Alvarado was director of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute at 1stAct Silicon Valley before it became a program at the School of Arts and Culture, and was Executive Director of MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) in San José. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Literature from Stanford University.

Evan is the founding executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a Civic Health Club that blends innovative arts and culture with crucial civic issues. Prior to founding Warm Cookies of the Revolution, he spent 12 years as a company member of the collaborative Buntport Theater Company, who the Denver Post called “Monty Python’s anarchist grandchildren”, winning over 100 awards as playwright, director, designer, and actor. Warm Cookies of the Revolution have created over 200 unique arts-based civic programs, including the nationally recognized multi-year Participatory Budgeting project called “THIS MACHINE HAS A SOUL”. Evan was recently selected as a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow for innovative activism as well as a 2019 Livingston Fellow from Bonfils-Stanton Foundation. He was awarded the 2019 Colorado Governor’s Award for Creative Leadership and the 2018 Parr Widener Civic Leadership Award from the Denver Foundation. Evan was also named one of “15 Disrupters Changing Denver” by 5280 magazine. Evan was Denver Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in 2017 and Creative in Residence at the Denver Art Museum in 2015