SOCIAL IMPACT WEBINAR SERIES
"The Show Must Go On": How to revitalize the arts and creative industries in New York City post-pandemic?
with Cheryl Anhava, program officer, cultural investments at Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone; Erika Dilday, '94BUS '93JRN, CEO and executive director of Futuro Media Group; and Ty Jones, producing artistic director at Classical Theatre of Harlem; and moderated by Lane Harwell '12, program officer, creativity and free expression at Ford Foundation
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
6-7 p.m. EDT
Webinar details included in RSVP confirmation email.
The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered arts and cultural centers and cut off employment opportunities for creative workers across the globe. Yet in this time of global need, the value of creativity and expression is heightened. Many arts organizations have responded to the crisis by providing free shows, concerts, art tutorials, and performances for stay-at-home viewers. Global Citizen brought together 70 musical acts and performances on Saturday, April 18 to raise $127.9 million to benefit the World Health Organization (WHO) and local and regional responders to COVID-19.
How can creative workers and organizations continue to provide services in a time of fiscal uncertainty? Join us for a dynamic panel discussion with New York City arts leaders on how the local sector is responding and what it will take to revitalize the sector post-pandemic.
Speaker Bios:
Cheryl Anhava
Program Officer, Cultural Investments, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone
Cheryl Anhava serves as the program officer for the Cultural Investment Fund at the upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, which supports nonprofit cultural organizations and artist-driven projects in Upper Manhattan. Previously, she was the director of development at El Museo del Barrio and held similar positions in criminal justice reform and education. Cheryl holds a BS in psychology from New York University, and an MA in english literature from Brooklyn College. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Grantmakers in the Arts, where she organizes programs for more than 100 arts grant-making institutions in New York City to discuss issues related to grant making and to the visual, performing, literary, and media arts fields.
Erika Dilday '94BUS '93JRN
CEO and Executive Director, Futuro Media Group
Tasked to shaping and guiding Futuro Media’s strategic vision and long-term sustainability, Erika Dilday brings over 20 years of experience in nonprofit organizations specializing in local and national media companies.
Prior to Futuro Media, Dilday was the executive director of Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, where she oversaw community cinema and education programs and produced the award-winning documentary, In Transit. She also held strategic planning and financial management roles at the New York Times, National Geographic Television, and CBS. Dilday received a MS in broadcast journalism from Columbia Journalism School and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She also holds an undergraduate degree in fine arts from Harvard University. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and is a long-time Harlem resident. She received a 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from Columbia Journalism School and is a current recipient of a Knight Visiting Fellowship through the Nieman Foundation.
Ty Jones
Producing Artistic Director, Classical Theatre of Harlem
NAACP and OBIE Award Winner, Ty Jones, assumed Classical Theatre of Harlem’s (CTH) artistic and organizational management in 2009 after the financial crisis nearly forced the organization’s closing. Under his leadership, CTH stabilized its finances, grew its donor base, and expanded its programming and community-based initiatives. Mr. Jones envisioned and launched CTH’s Uptown Shakespeare in the Park series in 2013, initiated an uptown meets downtown collaboration program, implemented CTH’s free monthly Literary Series to support playwrights of color, and created educational programs for Harlem youth. In addition, Mr. Jones has assembled an exceptional board and staff and developed an organizational template for similar-sized arts organizations to potentially replicate for their own stability.
Artistic credits include the following: Broadway: The Great Society, ENRON, Judgement at Nuremberg, Julius Caesar, Henry IV; Classical Theatre of Harlem: The Blacks, Macbeth, Antigone, Henry V, Emancipation; Regional: American Shakespeare Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Guthrie Theatre; Film: Clifford The Big Red Dog, The Taking of Pelham 123, Redacted; TV: POWER, Blacklist, Chicago PD, Madam Secretary. He earned his MFA from the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program.
Moderator Lane Harwell '12
Program Officer, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation
Lane joined the foundation in 2018, after serving as the founding executive director of the service organization Dance/NYC for nearly eight years. Prior to Dance/NYC, he held the senior development role at the arts-wide advocacy group Alliance for the Arts. A lifelong New Yorker and a product of its creative and social justice sectors, Harwell’s history in the arts also includes training at the School of American Ballet and a performance career with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company.
Lane co-chairs the Chancellor’s Arts Committee to the Panel for Education Policy. He is an appointee to New York State’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Arts and New York City’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission and is a member of the Board of New Yorkers for Culture & Arts and leadership committees for Hunter College and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Lane is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Lane has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA in performance studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BA in philosophy from Princeton University.
Social Impact Webinar Series
This webinar series was designed to engage our social enterprise community during New York's Shelter in Place recommendation. Our intention is to continue to disseminate best practices for the social enterprise sector, as well as discuss the pressing social and environmental challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure vulnerable and marginalized community needs are still addressed. All webinars will be recorded and shared on the center's COVID-19 Relief and Response webpage, www.gsb.columbia.edu/socialenterprise/covid-response.