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Dane Arts

Dane Arts Commission Members

Cultural Affairs Commission members are appointed by the County Executive: 11 citizens serving 3-year terms and 3 County Board Supervisors serving 2-year terms.

In part, it shall be the duty of the commission to assist in the planning, coordination, and promotion of county and local programs with a historic, cultural, or festival nature. Members will oversee the provision of county services and the allocation of county money to cultural programs, encouraging the maximum service and accountability in return for tax dollars:

Am Curet 

Am Curet is a lifelong resident of the Madison area.  She pursued a 35-year career in marketing and advertising fields, most recently leading in-house creative services teams in biotechnology and consumer goods companies.  Her responsibilities included launching new products, developing company brand identity, implementing consumer events and building websites plus social media platforms.  Am holds a master’s degree in marketing from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Am (which is a nickname for Amneris, a character in the Verdi opera Aida) developed a love of theater and the greater arts from childhood.  She was most recently a board member of Forward Theater Company.  Am is thrilled to help support the Dane County arts community as a member of the Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.

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Jennifer Garrett is the assistant deputy secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, a cabinet agency. She has lived in Dane County for more than twenty years. A dedicated public servant, she also serves on the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board and the Wisconsin Women in Government Board, as well as the Purdue College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board. She lives in Monona with her husband and teenage daughter. Her son is a student at UW-Madison. She is proud to work to support the arts in Dane County.

 

 

 

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Jay Handy has his MFA from the Lesley College of Art and Design and is an alum of Harvard Business School. He co-founded SignalPoint Asset Management, where he has serves as a financial advisor and senior portfolio strategist for 15 years and counting. Having personal experience with the power of support for overcoming hardship, Handy has volunteered with organizations to benefit causes such as reducing health and economic barriers to success. Handy was the president of The Odyssey Project and the founder of the Diabetes and Sports Foundation. Tapping into his eye for the arts, Handy has served as commissioner for Madison, Wisconsin’s Urban Design Commission, and Landmarks Commission. 

Jay eventually answered the call of art he felt in his teens, and Jay Handy Ink was born in 2018. Today, his art has been added to private collections across the U.S. and included in prestigious exhibitions like the Florence Biennale. Jay has built an international career, with exhibitions in England, Greece, and India and the publication of his art in the Brazilian magazine Revista Literária Pixé. Handy’s dual expertise in business and art led to his role as a strategic advisor and board of directors member for CODAworx. Handy began innovating new ways to showcase his art, creating a method for audience participation that he unveiled at his 2022 solo exhibition, This Must Be The Place

Jay currently resides and creates in Madison, Wisconsin, and is honored to work in the arts for Dane County.

Mary Klehr

Mary Klehr (Vice Chair, Executive Committee Member) holds a joint MMSD/UW-Madison appointment as an elementary teacher educator working to prepare skilled and caring new teachers for culturally diverse public schools.  She also coordinates the MMSD Classroom Action Research Program, supporting teachers in studying instructional practice. 

Before becoming a teacher, Klehr studied with George Houston Bass at Brown University's Rites & Reason Theatre, a research-to-performance company and one of the oldest producing Black theaters in the U.S., and worked as a creative drama specialist in Boston and Madison.  At UW-Madison, she earned a masters in Educational Theater and completed a Curriculum & Instruction dissertation featuring K-12 teachers who use arts-based research methods to study classroom life.  Klehr brings a strong commitment to engaging children in the arts and highlighting connections between community, advocacy, and the arts.

Marcia Miquelon

Marcia Miquelon (Executive Committee Member) owns and directs the Mazomanie Movement Arts Center and the Wild Rumpus Circus. She is a dancer, teacher, event organizer, and circus performer.    

Marcia Miquelon is a dancer, improviser, aerialist, stilt walker, movement teacher, and project manager.  She joined Cycropia Aerial Dance (www.cycropia.org) in 1994, and performed, taught, choreographed, and directed projects with this unique artists’ collective for over 20 years.  In 2002, she opened the Mazo Movement Arts Center and co-founded the Wild Rumpus Circus. She has produced many workshops, festivals, and events featuring internationally known teaching artists, particularly in contact improvisation and aerial dance, and she has had the opportunity to work as a teacher and performer in many interesting locales, including Andara, Namibia; Boeblingen, Germany; and Doha, Qatar.

Fran Puleo Moyer

Fran Puleo Moyer (Executive Committee Member) is the Associate Director of Outreach Programs at UW-Madison, and comes to the Commission with over 20 years of experience in program planning, arts administration, event and venue management, community engagement, marketing, public relations and communications. In addition to her work in the UW System, she worked for a decade as the Community and Public Relations Manager at Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, and has held administrative positions with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Lake Forest Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has been a member of many Madison organizations and held positions on numerous committees, including the Greater Madison Public Information Officers, the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau Partnership Development Committee, the Business Forum, and PRSA, Madison. She received an MBA in marketing from DePaul University, and a BFA in music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Fran is a freelancing musician (flute/piccolo) and sings alto with the Festival Choir of Madison.

Kelly Parks Snider

Kelly Parks Snider is a visual artist, activist, and writer who explores contemporary social, political, and cultural issues through the arts. Her work is displayed in both public and private galleries. Recent exhibits and projects include Hidden in Plain View: An Exhibition of Art and Activism; Rural Women: Voice and Spirit; Project Girl; and Dialogues with Silence.

In addition to her book, Zilly: A Modern-Day Fable, Kelly has also co-authored an art-based curriculum with Jane Bartell (co-founder of Project Girl) and Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. (Professor of Education and Human Development at Colby College in Maine). She lectures nationally, serves in artist-in-residence programs, and produces workshops. Kelly lives and works on a little farm outside of Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and four children.

Roderick Ritcherson

The Ritcherson Companies is an “uncommon communications”® company. Roderick Ritcherson (Chair, Executive Committee Member), President, has over 40 years of experience in providing corporate services and over 20 years of experience providing services to non-profits.
Before forming The Ritcherson Companies in 1993, Ritcherson held positions in the creative department of Stephan and Brady, Inc. advertising agency; Home Savings Bank, as vice president and director of marketing; Development Services, Inc., a national franchising company, as vice president, marketing, and WPLH Holdings/Wisconsin Power and Light (now Alliant Energy), a $3 billion global corporation, as manager of corporate communications. Ritcherson also held the position of Special Assistant to the President and Director of Corporate Relations with UMOS, Inc.

Ritcherson has served on the boards of the following non-profits: Madison Development Corporation (past chairman of the board), Dane County Development Corporation, Friends of WHA-TV public television (past vice president), American Advertising Federation-Madison (past president), the Henry Vilas Zoological Society, The African American Ethnic Academy, and the Wisconsin Community Action Program (WISCAP).  Ritcherson currently serves as chair of the Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission (Dane Arts).

“My vision is to continue the great work done by Dane Arts and to make sure that the arts are equally accessible to all and Dane Arts funding is equally accessible by all.”

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Kelsey Yudice is an arts administrator who hopes to use her skills and passions to provide more inclusive, accessible arts opportunities to communities around Dane County and beyond. Kelsey received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a BFA in Acting and a minor in Sociology. Afterward, she worked as an actor, director, teaching artist, and producer in Chicago and the Washington D.C. area. As InterAct Story Theatre’s Associate Artist, she brought theatre and artist-in-residence programs to underserved communities around Washington D.C. teaching school curriculum through different art mediums. Eventually, she became InterAct's Outreach Associate, expanding their communication and development efforts. Kelsey recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arts and Creative Enterprise Leadership program at the Bolz Center for Arts Administration. Kelsey is currently the Wisconsin Singers Program Coordinator.

Staff

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Mark J. Fraire, Director

Mark Fraire has worked as an arts administrator for over 35 years and has been involved in supporting theater arts on every level from producer, writer, actor, comic, playwright, manager, director to funder.

From 1989-1997, Fraire created and directed the Community Education Department for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. In 1995, he was awarded the President’s Coming Up Taller Award for creating TEENworks, an innovative youth and community theater arts training program. Fraire then spent 17 years as the Grants and Community Services Specialist for the Wisconsin Arts Board, a state arts agency. In 2013, Fraire became the Grants and Fund Development Manager for the Madison Metropolitan School District and helped raise over $2 million in funds from 2013-14.     

The Dane County Executive hired Fraire in the spring of 2014 to lead Dane Arts. In addition to administering the annual two cycle grant program, funding nearly $250,000 in awards, producing the annual poster and calendar, and providing technical support for hundreds of artists and arts organizations, Fraire has created five new programs and projects supporting the work of arts organizations and individual artists from all disciplines.

In 2014, with 3 local muralists, he created the Dane Arts Mural Program (DAMA), now its own non-profit. DAMA has created over 55 community-based murals, county wide. He initiated the Dane Arts Buy Local Art Market (DABL) in 2015 and has generated over $150,000 in sales for local artists. In 2016, with local dance artist, Liz Sexe, Fraire produced Dane Arts Dance Arts (DADA), an on-going annual effort to help local dance choreographers produce independent work. 

Fraire most recently created the Dane Arts Need Grant (DANG!)— for individual working artists to help offset the loss of income due to COVID-19, including a short video on the impact of this support for artists. DANG! supported nearly 250 local artists with $500 each.  

Fraire has an MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

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Augusta Brulla, Cultural Affairs Specialist

Brulla, a Madison native, holds bachelor’s degrees in Art and Communication Science and Rhetorical Studies from UW-Madison, and earned her Master of Arts-Business at the Bolz Center for Arts Administration. She brings over ten years’ experience in art administration, installation, and community outreach. Augusta has worked with hundreds of visual artists locally and nationally as a representative of various Wisconsin art galleries in both the non-profit and corporate sector. She has been a member of the Tania Tandias Flamenco and Spanish Dance Company since 2007, regularly performing at schools and festivals throughout Wisconsin.