CODAsummit: Art, Technology and Place
October 16-18, 2024 Cincinnati, OH
Speakers
Our list of distinguished speakers is constantly expanding. Check back as we add more exciting speakers to our lineup!
Keynote Speakers
Jason Klimoski
StudioKCA Design Philosophy: Using Light and Material to tell a story, shape a narrative, and define a space.
Since starting StudioKCA, our goal has been to create thoughtful and thought-provoking work that brings individuals together to learn about and exchange ideas and information, with the hope that they'll leave with a sense of wonder in the world around them and be inspired to positively impact it.
We find that in what we design and build, every material is connected, nothing is uninteresting, almost anything can be repurposed, and light is one of the most powerful materials to consider, helping us define a space with the possibility of illuminating a new perspective or phenomena and our relationship to it. We've worked to build objects and spaces that reveal the stories of their respective sites and user groups, while opening a dialogue about real world issues and events. We don't limit our pursuit to a certain typology or scale - working on projects as small as a table lamp, as complicated as a prototype for a mobile infrastructure unit, and as large as a 14-story residential development. Instead, we look for opportunities to create something meaningful, whether for an individual (like a young lawyer's first apartment near Union Square in New York City), or a community (like a gathering place beneath a canopy built out of the unique stellar map above their town). This approach has led us down a forking path into all sorts of different fields of study and exploration, blending art and architecture, history and science, sustainability and conservation, and the natural world and its phenomena. It's allowed us to meet and collaborate with some interesting individuals as well - from NASA Scientists and Exoplanet explorers, to Marine Biologists and Professional Surfers. We've been able create spaces and objects that celebrate the beauty and audacity of scientists landing a satellite on a comet 400,000,000 miles away, visualize the global crisis of plastic waste created in our cities, and engage a global audience in the size and severity of pollution in our shared waterways.
Large or small, shaped by natural forms, our imaginations, or the context of a site, our work strives to tell meaningful stories about people, the world, and universe we inhabit, utilize materials in unconventional and interesting ways, and employ lighting to transform our perception and experience of the spaces we create.
Jason Klimoski
Partner/Co-founder, STUDIOKCA
Charmaine Minniefield
Firmly rooted in womanist social theory and ancestral veneration, the work of Charmaine Minniefield draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora to explore African and African-American history, memory, and ritual as an intentional pushback against erasure. Her creative practice is community-based as her research and resulting bodies of work often draw from public archives. Minniefield served as the Stuart A. Rose Library artist-in-residence at Emory University during the academic year 2019-2020 which contributed to her collaboration with Flux Projects, where she presented her work Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives in Atlanta’s historically segregated cemetery to honor the over 800 unmarked graves discovered in the African-American burial grounds. In 2021 Minniefield was awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant to present her Praise House Project at three different locations in the metro Atlanta area to celebrate the African-American history of each community. Her exhibition titled, "Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story" was presented by the Michael C. Carlos Museum in 2022. Minniefield currently serves as an inaugural Constellations Fellow with the Center for Cultural Power. She splits her time in residence between Atlanta and the Gambia, where she continues to study the origins of her cultural identity and indigenous traditions by tracing the Ring Shout.
Charmaine Minniefield
Artist, Activist, Producer, The Praise House Project
Ben Rubin
Brooklyn-based media artist Ben Rubin transforms data into expressive forms ranging from sculptural installations to theatrical performances. His permanent installations for The New York Times Building, the Public Theater, and the University of Texas, among others, have garnered numerous awards. Rubin’s work has been exhibited at the Whitney, MoMA, the Victoria and Albert. and other museums and performance venues around the world. Ben has also been engaged as a designer by clients including IBM, HP, the United Nations, the Smithsonian, and publications including The Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American. He has taught in the Bard College MFA program, Parsons, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and the Yale School of Art, where he was appointed critic in graphic design in 2004. Rubin holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Semiotics from Brown University (1987) and a Masters of Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab (1989).
Ben Rubin
EAR Studio
Radha Chaddah
Radha Chaddah is a Toronto based visual artist and scientist. Born in Owen Sound, Ontario she studied Film and Art History at Queen’s University (BAH), and Human Biology at the University of Toronto, where she received a Master of Science for her research on stem cells. Radha makes art about invisible realities using light as her primary medium. Her work examines the interconnectedness of our material reality from the micro to the macro. In her studio she designs large scale projected light installations for public exhibition. She prepares samples and shoots much of this imagery in laboratories at the University of Toronto. There, Radha uses the tools of research science to grow cells using embedded fluorescent light-emitting molecules. She examines these cells and myriad other fragments of nature using a variety of imaging systems from light based laser confocal fluorescent microscopes to non-light based ultra high magnification scanning electron systems. Her photographs and light installations have been exhibited across Canada and internationally. She has lectured on her artistic practice and cell biology at the Aga Khan Museum, the University of Toronto, the Ontario College of Art and Design University and the Textile Museum of Canada. Radha is the founder of Under 5 Studio, which brings together traditional and new media artists to produce work for public exhibition.
Radha Chaddah
Under 5 Studio
Changing the World: Commissioners for the Creative Revolution Panel
Kerry Adams-Hapner
As the Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Jose since 2008, Kerry Adams Hapner leads the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA), and serves as Assistant Director of the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs. San Jose is the 10th largest U.S. city, largest city in Northern California, and one of the most diverse cities on the planet with as a minority-majority city with no one demographic group representing a majority of the population. In 2021, she championed the rebranding of the Office of Economic Development to the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs in recognition of the critical importance of the arts and culture sector in our community and economic recovery from the COVID19 pandemic; this was in recognition of not only the arts’ economic benefits but for its benefits in recovering from social isolation and cross-cultural understanding as our country reckons with a history of racial inequality. Cultural equity is central to her team’s work, contributing to their policy and strategies. Her portfolio includes public art, creative placemaking, special events, cultural funding, creative entrepreneurship, convention and cultural facility operations and maintenance, conventions and visitor bureau, and the creative economy. Her office promotes and supports all aspects of the creative community: nonprofit art organizations, artists, event organizers, creative entrepreneurs, for profit arts-based businesses, and collectives. She leads significant cultural policy and programs including: Cultural Connection: San Jose’s Cultural Plan; cultural development goals for the Envision San Jose 2040 general plan; and Playa to Paseo, a partnership with Burning Man Project.
Kerry Adams-Hapner
Cultural Affairs Director for the City of San Jose
Felicia Filer
Felicia Filer is the public art director for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. She directs the commission and fulfillment of over 230 permanent municipal public art projects throughout the city. Additionally, she directs the administration and management of the city’s public and private one percent for art programs, the city art collection, murals program, the former Community Redevelopment Agency’s art program, and city design review services. She is currently co-directing the administration and management of the Memorial to the Victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre project and is directing the citywide Covid-19 Memorial community engagement and evaluation process. She co-created and launched the city’s first online virtual public art exhibition Reimagine Public Art Volumes.1 & 2 as part of a new Covid-19 Emergency Relief Program that provided temporary financial support to over 330 individual artists across the city. In Summer 2016 Filer co-produced the city’s inaugural Public Art Triennial, CURRENT: LA Water, and in Fall 2019 the second edition CURRENT: LA Food, each one commissioning 15 original, temporary public art installations and over 150 public programs and events at 15 outdoor locations.
Felicia Filer
Public Art Director, Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles
Necole Irvin
Necole S. Irvin leads the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA) in the country’s fourth largest and most diverse city since May 2021.
She is a philanthropic professional with legal, art, public health, cultural, policy and international experience working to advance the quality of communities and the advancement of long-term sustainable change. Her extensive experience as a strong leader and strategic thinker was the driver to her municipal public service implementing the City’s Arts and Cultural Plan as the first Cultural Tourism Officer.
Prior to joining the City of Houston, Necole served as a Program Officer with several private foundations working in health, racial, social, and economic equity across the South. She served as a government relations director with an international health association and with the U.S. Peace Corps as a health educator and member of the guinea worm eradication team in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Necole received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate and Masters in Public Health from Tulane University.
Necole Irvin
Director, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Houston
Anton Morton
Anton R.T. Morton builds multicultural interdisciplinary collaborative creative teams to address the needs of site-specific projects, stewards public art and fine art service provisions for organizations around the globe and consults on creative projects ranging from expected to extraordinary. His efforts have directly impacted communities through museum exhibitions, public art installations, art’s programming and design integration in major infrastructure projects. Anton is the Principal and a Co-Founder of Kasum Manifold (KM). Established in 2014, KM sits at the crossroads of the creative industry operating as a creative studio, commissioning agency and arts service provider.
Anton R.T. Morton
Principal, KASUM MANIFOLD
Kim Cook
Kim is a changemaker and strategist working on the frontier of collaborations that extend Burning Man culture into the world. Drawing on a deep and varied well of experience in creative placemaking, performing arts, and nonprofit finance, Kim successfully builds urban, regional, national, and international projects that increase mutual understanding, advance civic well being, elevate cultural engagement, and further the aesthetic design elements of communities.
Kim Cook
Director, Creative Initiatives, Burning Man Project
Curating the Uncuratable Presentation
Mark Domino
Mark Domino is a digital innovator with experience in cutting-edge projects at the intersection of tech and real estate. He is the founder of Spireworks, an app-based platform illuminating iconic buildings in New York City for philanthropic causes, brands, and civic engagement including One World Trade Center, One Bryant Park, One Five One West 42nd Street, and Sven in Long Island City, Queens. Currently the Director of Digital at The Durst Organization, Mark advises on strategic innovation and investment strategies. His teaching background at institutions including Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University complements his understanding of complex systems in dynamic environments. Mark’s visionary approach and passion for technology have made him an influential figure in hybridizing digital and physical experiences.
Mark Domino
Founder, Spireworks
Jim Campbell
Campbell’s work has been exhibited internationally and throughout North America in institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The International Center for Photography, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia. His electronic art work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the de Young Museum, San Francisco and the Berkeley Art Museum. In 2012, he was the recipient of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s 13th Annual Bay Area Treasure Award. Previous honors include a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Award in Multimedia, three Langlois Foundation Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship Award. He has two Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mathematics and Engineering from MIT and as an engineer holds nearly twenty patents in the field of video image processing. His 2018 piece ‘Day for Night’ is a permanent LED installation that comprises the top nine floors of the 61-story Salesforce Tower in San Francisco.
Jim Campbell
Artist and Engineer
Emma Stebel
Emma Strebel is an artist living and working primarily in San Francisco. She graduated from Aalborg University in 2020 with a MSc in Lighting Design and from NYU in 2015 with a BFA and concentration in Sculpture. She spent the 2015-2016 academic year as a Visual Arts Global Academic Fellow teaching Sculpture and Drawing at NYU Abu Dhabi. Emma has attended Artist Residencies at Djerassi (USA), Nature, Art and Habitat Residency (Italy), HEIMA (Iceland) and Holly and the Neighbors (USA). She is now an art teacher at California College of the Art and the Urban School and the Imagery Collaborator to Jim Campbell where she creates and curates imagery for the Salesforce Tower “Day for Night” public artwork. She has shown her work in the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Iceland, Denmark and Italy.
Emma Stebel
Imagery Collaborator, White Light Studio Inc.
Therese Lahaie
Light installation artist and open water swimmer Therese Lahaie keeps track of the tides and seabirds as she swims in the San Francisco Bay. Lahaie studied Fine Art at Emmanuel College, glass technology at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and art history at Richmond College, London, England. Her training led her to custom lighting design and an expertise in LED architectural lighting technology that informs her fascination with the medium of light. Lahaie’s light sculptures and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. They are in public and private collections, including One World Trade Center Podium, New York City, NY, the SalesForce Tower Art, performances in San Francisco, CA, and works in the permanent collections of the Corning Contemporary Museum of Glass (NY), the Glassmuseet Ebeltoft (Denmark), Crocker Art Museum, (CA), and the Di Rosa Collection, (CA), the Cafesjian Art Trust, (MN), Worcester Art Museum, (MA), and a public art installation, Crossing Signal Mosaic, (CA). Her work has been reviewed in publications that include the New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Leonardo Magazine, and Architectural Record magazine. Lahaie lives and works in the Emeryville Artist Cooperative in Emeryville, CA, a small city supportive of its artist population.
Therese Lahaie
Light Installation Artist
New Tools: Generative AI Panel
Nathan Lachenmyer
Nathan Lachenmyer is a human-computer interaction researcher whose work investigates the changing relationship between humans and emerging technologies, and how technology can be used as a tool to communicate and inspire people. He studied Physics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before turning his career towards focusing on human-computer interaction.
In 2019 he co-founded Sitara Systems, a technology and design laboratory that works with artists, museums, and brands to communicate their messaging and expertise to the public through interactive experiences. The studio uses a research-based approach to experience design, using methods in design research, human-computer interaction, and even social sciences to create impactful experiences.
Nathan Lachenmyer
Partner, Sitara Systems
Zander Brimijoin
Zander Brimijoin is Creative Director and Co Founder of Red Paper Heart, an award winning interactive art studio in Brooklyn. For the last over 25 years he has explored the boundary between digital and physical experiences. He has overseen creative on 150 interactive installations in 48 cities for HBO, Sonos, Ford, and Google, at venues like Madison Square Garden, MOMI, SXSW, the White House, an abandoned train station and even a bedroom closet. Zander likes to combine art, technology and bears to create playful experiences that make people run, swing, and find unexpected joy in life.
Zander Brimijoin
Co Founder, Red Paper Heart
Juan Pablo de la Vega Castañeda
Juan Pablo de la Vega Castañeda (Mexico City, 1986) is an artist, mathematician, photographer and baker. His practice has a transdisciplinary origin which lies between science and art, permanently questioning the concepts of value and referential frameworks in both worlds.
His work interrogates how digital media apprehend reality and become mediators of the human experience, exploring concepts such as machine vision and investigating an ontology of the digital image. Furthermore, his work analyses the tensions between human perception and a computational reading of the image, using colour to draw and translate the distinctions between both systems. Moreover, he is interested in knowledge creation and transference derived from artificial intelligence techniques, in particular deep learning algorithms, and their impact in the social, cultural and economic spheres.
Juan Pablo de la Vega Castaneda
Visual Artist
Josie Williams
Josie Williams is a creative technologist, and founder of Algorithmic Equity, an interactive digital platform that empowers any New Yorker to report, record, or respond to law enforcement behavior. She graduated with a Computer Science degree in 2019 and has presented her research on bias in chronic kidney disease prediction modeling at NeurIPS's Fair Health in ML workshop in Vancouver and NYC Media Lab’s Summit in 2019. In 2020, she participated in Afrotectopia’s Imagineer Fellowship and joined the NEW INC Creative Science track. She was also the Black Public Media NCU 2021 Fellow and an Artist-in Residence at Ernst & Young’s Metaverse Lab from 2021-2023, which supported her project, Ancestral Archives. Ancestral Archives is a collection of chatbots inspired by the writing of four historically-significant BIPOC leaders: Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, and Zora Neale-Hurston. She presented Ancestral Archives at SXSW March 2023. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA at Stony Brook University where she is participating in a research fellowship with Stephanie Dinkins at the Future Histories Studio. Her primary interests revolve around artificial intelligence, data equity, cultivating Black radical imagination, and creating sentient-centered AI.
Josie Williams
Creative Technology, Digital Artist
How We Did It
Daniel Iregui
For the past 13 years, Iregular has been conceiving and producing interactive artworks that have so far been exhibited in more than 75 cities around the world. In this 45-minute talk, Daniel Iregui, founder of Iregular, will share with you results from years of continuously evolutive public space research gathered from the countless projects and installations disseminated across borders. He will also reveal the technical breakthroughs that Iregular uncovered over time, the studio’s approach to innovation with regards to achieving a common artistic vision, and as many lessons and tips as time will allow so that you won't have to go through the same hurdles that the studio had to surpass since its inception. No deep technical knowledge is required to attend; all you need is an open mind capable of absorbing an abundance of compelling information.
Daniel Iregui
Founder & Creative Director, Iregular
David Schwarz
David Schwarz is an award-winning creative leader and founding partner of HUSH, an experience design firm based out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. David has spent his career designing brand experiences that integrate content, interactivity, architecture, and technology for some of the largest companies in the world. After graduating from Art Center College of Design, he worked for a number of notable creative studios, interactive agencies, and design firms in Los Angeles and New York. Since founding HUSH 16 years ago, he has developed numerous projects across sport, luxury, beauty, technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, financial, and entertainment categories, most notably for: Meta, Barclays, Uber, Google, Nike, Sonos, United Therapeutics, among many other leading brands.
In recent months, under his leadership, the HUSH team has shifted focus at the studio to better understand how we can apply sustainability principles to our everyday work. Over the past year, David has shepherded numerous projects that integrate more thoughtfulness to sustainable design in our studio. One example of this is a strategic framework that was developed to guide our digital/technological experience design and ensures a design approach that considers material choices, project lifecycles, and energy budgets, allowing us to continue to leverage digital technology as key elements in our work, but in a way that maximizes a net positive value creatively and sustainably.
David has been featured in publications across the design and architecture media, including Creativity, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Communication Arts, Cool Hunting, FWA, Design Nerds Anonymous, among others. He’s spoken at conferences for AIGA, ASAI Conference, The One Show, SEGD, NeoCon, SXSW, AdWeek, Cannes Lions, FITC, Seattle Interactive Conference, the Columbia School of Architecture, RE:DESIGN, Digital Dumbo, among others. He is also a mentor at New, Inc., the New Museum’s incubator program for art, technology, and design.
David Schwarz
Founder, HUSH
Rob Ley
Rob Ley Studio explores technology as a means of examining the unique conditions and patterns of public space. His studio’s history of experimental work includes installations at the Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York), the Taubman Museum of Art, the Materials & Applications Gallery (Los Angeles), as well as commissions for many public and private organizations including the Martin Luther King Hospital (Los Angeles), the Eskenazi Hospital (Indianapolis), the O’Hare Airport (Chicago), the Oregon Zoo (Portland), and the Seattle Fire Department. Ley has been awarded several notable awards and grants including the American's for the Arts - Public Art Network Year in Review award, a Graham Foundation grant, multiple AIA research grants, and an IDEC Special Projects grant. Recently, Ley was presented with the Best Storefront Design award by the Municipal Art Society of New York for Reef at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Rob Ley currently teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios and seminars at the University of Southern California (USC). Ley has lectured and exhibited internationally on the topics of public art, design, technology and innovation for the public sphere at institutions including the Cooper Union (New York), the American Institute Vienna (Vienna, Austria), Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (Los Angeles), and Virginia Tech School of Architecture (Blacksburg, VA. Rob holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Rob Ley
Artist, Rob Ley Studio
All of the Senses Panel
Debra Simon
An award-winning public arts curator and producer, Debra has more than 30 years of experience in visual and performing arts curation, commissioning and programming for civic organizations and the real estate industry. Most recently, Debra created the strategic plan for a public art program at Amtrak New York Penn Station, the busiest transit hub in the western hemisphere. Currently, she curates and produces Art at Amtrak for several stations.
As the VP at the Downtown Alliance, she created the Music at Castle Clinton concerts, Dine Around Downtown, and co-founded the River to River Festival. As the Director of Times Square Arts, Debra oversaw Midnight Moment, the world’s largest digital art exhibition on electronic billboards, and the annual Valentine Heart design competition, among other projects for the over 300,000 daily visitors to Times Square. As Artistic Director at Brookfield Properties, Debra led a national arts program that planned and executed multi-disciplinary programming, presenting over 500 free events annually in New York, Denver, Los Angeles and Houston.
Debra Simon
Founder & President, Debra Simon Art Consulting
George Berlin
George’s immersive spectaculars leap from the playful principles guiding all his work- weaving light, color, imagery, sensation, and sound together into a dimensional tapestry that brings spaces to life. His light sculptures- imbued with iconic symbols of love, energy, and power- are born to dazzle and delight with kinetic movement and possibility.
George is an award-winning director with a standout style enjoyed around the world- celebrating home and togetherness with an epic love story projected in Sydney, igniting Art on theMart with the fiery passion of Frida Kahlo, lighting up Colorado Springs with a permanent projection mural, performing his visuals with a live orchestra in Chicago and debuting a global series of stories on learning to love the Earth are just a few of the ways he delights audiences.
He’s competed against the best in the world at the Winners League of Projection Mapping in Romania, won “Audience Favorite” Award at Seattle’s inaugural Borealis Festival of Light, and wowed millions at BLINK Cincinnati, the largest light festival in America.
George Berlin
Immersive Experiences Designer, George Berlin Studios
Annie Mitchell
Driven by research in neuroscience and ecopsychology, the artist looks to science to help her create immersive experiences that provoke a visceral reaction in her audience. Light, sound and environment discreetly work together to slow the perception of time passing and visitors often report that they feel completely free of tension and anxiety during and following the experiences.
Annie Mitchell
Light and Sound Experience Artist
James Tapscott
Australian-based land and light artist, James Tapscott has evolved a multi-disciplinary practice combining natural phenomena and light to create new experiences of the familiar. His site-responsive and experiential works are designed to create a heightened awareness of nature and its connection to the self, encouraging us to embrace a state of coexistence with the natural environment. His use of ephemeral materials, particularly water, mist, and light enable a creative partnership between artist and site – the artwork often isn’t fully realized until both collaborators have finished telling their story.
His works have been installed extensively throughout Asia as well as Europe and the USA, recently winning the landscape category of the 2022 CODAawards for his work, Arc ZERO: Eclipse in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
James Tapscott
Director / Lead Artist - Studio JT
Featured Speakers
Kris Collins
Kris thoroughly enjoyed speaking at CODAsummit 2022, and returns this year with his work friends! He serves as a Managing Director of Cultural projects for MGAC, an international Owner’s Representative and Project Management firm with ten offices in North America and UK.
Since 2006, Kris has been working as a project manager for commissioned public artworks, working directly for artists to advocate for business interests related to public art projects. He uses his experience in the design and construction industry to make a bridge between project developers and the artists they wish to engage. Clients include Hank Willis Thomas, Nekisha Durrett, Kendall Buster, Mia Pearlman, Brian Tolle, Odili Donald Odita, Michael Jones McKean and others. Kris has over 34 years of professional experience leading the management and delivery of complex building projects. His portfolio includes a mix of complicated commissioned sculptures, museum/entertainment projects, TV network broadcast projects, historic preservation work, build-to-suit projects and base building construction. Kris is a registered architect, a member of the American Institute of Architects, American Alliance of Museums and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Kris Collins
Managing Director of Cultural projects, MGAC
Sam Giarratani
About Negative Space (www.negativespace.rocks)
Sam Giarratani, Public Art Producer, Project Manager, Social Justice Catalyst, and Founder of Negative Space
Passionate about collaborating with socially-engaged artists, architects, organizers, communities, and organizations, Negative Space helps them to produce contemporary and multidisciplinary public art that advances their social justice missions. We unite a spectrum of disciplines under principles of inclusivity, empathy, transparency, and accessibility.
After years working as a public art coordinator for Hank Willis Thomas, Sam started the production management company Negative Space in response to the pandemic’s dramatic effects on the ways we interact and a growing need for more public art. Taken from a principle in drawing and design, Negative Space seeks to work in the space behind the scenes, helping artists and organizations who are socially-engaged to produce contemporary public artworks that strive to advance social justice. Negative Space offers project management with principles of inclusivity, empathy, transparency and accessibility. Negative Space serves artist clients Nekisha Durrett, Ann Lewis, Coby Kennedy, and Hank Willis Thomas, and has collaborated with Incarceration Nations Network, Pioneer Works, Mass Design Group, and municipalities and public art programs from across the country.
Sam Giarratani
Public Art Manager, Songha & Company
Amy Goldrich, Esq.
Amy J. Goldrich is a lawyer who represents artists, creative businesses, and collectors, with a focus on counseling and transactions in the contemporary art world. She has extensive experience in public and private commissioned artworks, including The Embrace (2023) at Boston Common. She is admitted to practice in both New York and California.
Interviewed and quoted on art matters in Artnet News, The New York Times, Art & Antiques, and MarketWatch, among others, Amy has also published in the field. Her article, "Is a Right of First Refusal an Offer You Can't Refuse?" appeared in Spencer's Art Law Journal on Artnet and has since been cited in a number of scholarly works.
Amy is an active member of the Board of the National Academy of Design, the Executive Committee for the Black Arts Council at the Museum of Modern Art; the Skowhegan Council, and Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ and New York, NY.
She earned her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and an LL.M. in Trade Regulation from New York University School of Law
Amy Goldrich, Esq.
Public Art Attorney
Lieven Bertels
Lieven Bertels leads the Immersive Experience market segment team at global image technology innovator Barco (EBR: BAR), after over 20 years as a creative and executive director in various media and cultural organizations in Europe, Australia and the US.
Before joining Barco, Lieven was the inaugural director of The Momentary, a new multi-disciplinary arts center he helped build in NW Arkansas at the invitation of the Walton family (Walmart)
From 2012 to 2016 Lieven stood at the helm of Sydney Festival, Australia’s leading arts festival. From 2004 to 2011 he was the artistic coordinator at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. From 2001 to 2004 he was the inaugural artistic director of the newly built Concertgebouw arts venue in Bruges, Belgium.
He studied Musicology at the University of Leuven (Belgium) and received an MA in Composition specializing in A/V production at the University of Durham (UK). He trained with BBC Scotland and Decca Records Ltd., returning to Belgium to become lecturer and later head of the Audio Dept. at the Brussels Film academy RITCS, and to work as a radio producer at the Belgian national broadcaster VRT.
Lieven Bertels served as a board member of the International Society for the Performing Arts (New York) and received the honor of being made a Knight in the Belgian Order of the Crown by King Albert II in 2013.
Lieven Bertels
Segment Marketing Lead – Immersive Experience, Barco
Justin Brookhart
Justin Brookhart (he/him/his) is the Executive Director of BLINK Cincinnati and the Senior Vice President of Cultural Economy at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. Justin is responsible for leading the nation’s largest immersive art event, taking over 30+ city blocks in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to exhibit large-scale murals, lighted-art installations, and projection mapping onto Cincinnati’s historic architecture.
Justin moved to Cincinnati from Austin, TX, where he combined his strong business acumen with a passion for supporting the creative arts. As the Managing Director for Mondo, an e-commerce brand that produces limited-edition collectibles, he partnered with world-class designers and illustrators to grow an international community of collectors. After leaving Mondo, Justin served as the Chief Operating Officer for Renegade Craft, a group that works with artistic entrepreneurs to produce a nationwide tour of events that support the creative economy.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Film Arts from the University of New Orleans and a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Justin Brookhart
Executive Director, BLINK Cincinnati
CODAsummit Menu
CODAsummit is presented by CODAworx, the global online community that celebrates design projects featuring commissioned artworks.