CommonGround
2006
Our
Keynote Speakers
Frances
Lucerna
Executive
Director and Founding
Principal
of El Puente Academy for
Peace and Justice in Brooklyn
Frances
Lucerna has been a pioneer
of community arts and
education for 25 years.
In 1982, Ms. Lucerna co-founded
El Puente, a community/youth
development organization
nurturing holistic leadership
for peace and social justice.
As Artistic Director,
Frances drew on her experience
as a professional dancer
to develop Brooklyn’s
most comprehensive Latino
arts and cultural center,
providing professional
training in five arts
disciplines, a performance
venue, and a home to Los
Muralistas de El Puente
and Teatro El Puente,
both widely recognized
for their focus on “arts
for social change”.
In 1993,
she broke new ground on
the frontier of national
school reform as the Founding
Principal of El Puente
Academy for Peace &
Justice. The Academy is
one of the only schools
in the country dedicated
to Human Rights, and has
been noted for its innovative
integrated approach to
curriculum and the arts.
Her many
awards include Celebrating
Success from the Children’s
Defense Fund, the Brooklyn
Council on the Arts’
Arts Advocate Award, the
1998 Heinz Award, and
El Puente’s 1999
Coming Up Taller Award
from the President’s
Commission on Arts and
Humanities.
Nick
Rabkin
Executive Director of
the Center for Arts Policy,
Columbia College Chicago
Nick Rabkin is a leader
in organizing for better
education-through-the-arts,
advocating for more public
and private investment
in it, and developing
new policies that will
sustain it. He is co-author
and co-editor of Putting
the Arts Back in the Picture:
Reframing Education in
the 21st Century (2004),
and he has written about
arts education for the
Washington Post,
Education Week,
and Educational Leadership.
He was the senior program
officer for the arts and
culture at the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation from 1991 to
2001, where he collaborated
on Champions of Change:
The Impact of the Arts
on Learning (1999).
As deputy commissioner
of cultural affairs for
the City of Chicago for
seven years he was responsible
for pursuing the city's
interest in the role of
the arts in neighborhood
development. He was a
founder and trustee for
six years of the Chicago
Arts Partnerships in Education
(CAPE).
Nilaja
Sun
Nilaja
Sun is a proud native
of the Lower East Side
of Manhattan, and an alumna
of Franklin
and Marshall College in
Lancaster, PA. She writes
and performs in her own
solo pieces and works
as an actor, teaching
artist, and director.
Her theatre credits include:
Einstein's Gift, No
Child, Antigone-In-Progress,
Pieces of the Throne,
Time and the Conways
(Epic Theatre Center);
Santos and Santos,
On the Hills of Black
America (IMUA Theatre);
Black and Blue (workshopped
by Labyrinth Theatre Company);
Insufficient Fare,
Mixtures (New World
Theatre); Four Spirits
(Hartford Stage); Blues
for a Gray Sun, Due To
the Tragic Events of...,
and the 2003 World Premiere
of Eduardo Machado's The
Cook (INTAR Theatre).
For her solo work she
has received an Aaron
Davis Hall's Fund for
New Work (Black and
Blue, 2000), as well
as a commission from the
New World Theatre (Black
and Blue and Insufficient
Fare, 2001). She
is a 2003 Princess Grace
Foundation award recipient.
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