Celebrating the impact of alumni, students, and faculty!
To mark George Mason University’s Arts Management 20th Anniversary, the program is hosting a panel of executive arts innovators, leaders, and artists to discuss the future of the arts management field and opportunities for sustaining resilience for the next 20 years. Program faculty, staff, and alumni will make an appearance throughout the evening to celebrate this special milestone.
Join us on Monday, April 28th from 7:00-9:00 pm, EST at George Mason’s Mason Square Campus (formerly the Arlington Campus). Then, plan to stay after for a celebratory reception. The main event will also be live-streamed, so you can join from wherever you may be around the world.
This hybrid event will take place at the Mason Square Campus Auditorium and via livestream.
Register below to confirm whether you will attend the event in person or via Zoom (link will be sent out closer to the event date).
When: Monday, April 28th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
Where: Mason Square, Auditorium, 3351 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201 and via livestream
Register now for the Keynote Event!
Register now for AMGT Alumni Brunch (alumni and faculty only)!
MEET THE SPEAKER PANEL!
Carla J. Thomas McGinnis (Moderator)
Carla Thomas works as the Assistant Director of Museum Initiatives at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She leads their garden initiative that produces curated gardens and interactive programs and collects stories that tell the living history of black foodways and agricultural practices. Carla is also a Ph.D. student in American Studies at the University of Maryland. Her academic interests include black feminisms, cultural landscapes, and public history. Carla has an MA in Arts Management (George Mason University) and a BA in Black Studies/Women’s Studies (University of Michigan). She enjoys traveling, theater, and collecting books.
Cheryl Edwards
The average adult body is approximately 70% water. Cheryl Edwards began exploring the properties of water as an element of identity in 2014 and has continued to investigate this through her art. Opening January 4th, River views Artspace hosts her most recent exhibition, The Reverence of Water and Its Relationship with Identity. In this body of work, Edwards showcases various media from silkscreen prints, ink stain canvas, 3D Ndebele Doll, digital drawings, and light boxes. Her prints were taken off collected saliva samples from two females and two males, one of each being African American and the other Caucasian. Using a microscope and light boxes to inspect the samples, she noticed similarities between the four samples and found that “each was unique or remarkably the same.” Using water as a muse and medium, raw canvases stained with ink while wet will hang alongside her prints as a visual representation of water.
Khady Kamara Nunez
As an arts manager for over 20 years, Khady Kamara Nunez has a proven record of significantly increasing earned and contributed revenue. In addition to managing strategic planning, a core focus is strengthening community relations and developing new audiences with an attention to diversity and inclusion. Previously, Khady was executive director of Second Stage Theater (Tony Award® winner, Take Me Out). Her experience includes leadership roles at Washington DC's Arena Stage where she doubled the subscription base, increased patron engagement, and contributed to the world premieres & New York transfers of Dear Evan Hansen and The Originalist.
Khady is an adjunct professor of Arts Management at George Mason University.
Mario Garcia Durham
In October 2011, Mario Garcia Durham became the fifth President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) since its founding in 1957. After nine years of successful leadership, he completed a planned departure and leadership transition in June of 2020. He is currently an independent consultant.
Prior to his leadership role with APAP, Mr. Durham was at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) where he served as Director of Artist Communities & Presenting from 2004 –2011. At the NEA, Mr. Durham contributed to programs such as the NEA Opera Honors and An Evening of Poetry, hosted by President and Mrs. Obama. He inaugurated the NEA’s Artist Communities granting program and was the initiator of Live from Your Neighborhood, a groundbreaking study of the impact of outdoor arts festivals in the U.S. After holding numerous performing arts management positions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the 1990s, he founded Yerba Buena Arts & Events, the producing organization of the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Since its inception in 2000, the festival has presented 42,000+ artists, commissioned 75+ new works and reached over 2 million+ attendees.
In 2022, he received the Fan Taylor Award, one of the Presenting Field’s highest honors, and in 2023, he received the Halsey and Alice North national award for exemplary service as a board member alumnus. A graduate of the University of Houston, Durham is passionate about a broad range of performing arts and evolving forms of performance and media arts.
Sean O'Connor
Sean is the National Gallery of Art’s Chief Development Officer and provides senior leadership, strategy, and management for all components of the Gallery’s fundraising operations, including major gifts, membership groups, and corporate and foundation relations. He serves as an advisor to the Executive Team in efforts to grow and diversify the funding base and ensure financial sustainability for the National Gallery.
Sean joined the Gallery from the National Audubon Society, where as Chief Development Officer he steered a development team of 65 people and successfully oversaw an $826 million campaign. Prior to Audubon, Sean founded the New York office of Development Guild and served as its Principal and Senior Vice President of fundraising and executive search practices. Before that, he was Partner of CCS Fundraising. The institutions that have benefitted from Sean’s counsel and leadership include ASPCA, Brookings Institution, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bronx Zoo, Storm King Art Center, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Noguchi Museum.
Register now! You DON'T want to miss this!!
Each one of our alumni is an essential part of our program's history. Their work in and around the arts continues to make us proud and builds on our shared legacy. Over the past 20 years, we have graduated over 650 alumni who are creating opportunities that positively impact communities, audiences, and artists throughout the US and internationally!
We are grateful for those AMGT alumni who are involved in our program by developing and teaching classes, guest lecturing, sharing job opportunities, and hiring alumni and current students; just a few examples of engagement with our program. Please update your contact information and let us know how you would like to stay connected with the Arts Management program.