press room

For Immediate Release

02/09/2006

Contact:
Beth Olsen
Goodman Media International for Americans for the Arts
212.576.2700 ext. 243 or bolsen@goodmanmedia.com


Eight New Board Members for Americans for the Arts

Washington DC — February 9, 2006 — Americans for the Arts announces eight additions to its 37-member Board of Directors. The group collectively includes leaders in the areas of business, cultural policy, and the arts from across the country.

“Americans for the Arts remains committed to furthering its mission to advance the arts in America,” stated Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “These excellent new additions will help us achieve our goals. We are thrilled to announce that we now have 45 dedicated and hard-working members.”

List and brief bios of new board members follow:

• Naomi M. Barry-Perez serves as the Chief of the Office of Enforcement in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Civil Rights Center. Ms. Barry-Perez previously served as a budget analyst for the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, and oversaw budgetary activities for various U.S. Department of Education programs and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.
• Nancy Boskoff has been active in arts administration, primarily in the public sector, for many years, working at the neighborhood, city, county, and state levels of government. She is currently the executive director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council.
• Betsy Bradley is the director of the Mississippi Museum of Art and the former executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission. She has served on the board of directors for the Southern Arts Federation and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
• Arthur Cohen is principal and strategy director for LaPlaca Cohen, where he supervises advertising, branding, and media strategy. Prior to co-founding LaPlaca Cohen, Mr. Cohen served as a consultant to leading cultural organizations, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Whitney Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History.
• Elizabeth Cohen is currently the vice president of restaurant and entertainment industries at American Express where she leads a team of 16 to develop major scholarships with important restaurant industry associations, runs educational programs for restaurateurs, and creates marketing programs to help restaurants build business.
• Denise Barnett Gardner is the president and founder of Insights and Opportunities, Inc., a strategy, marketing, and research consulting firm in Chicago. Throughout her 27 years of experience the last 10 have been dedicated to the areas of audience development and strategic planning for cultural institutions.
• Marc Halsema is a partner in the International Legal Services Group at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP in New York. Mr. Halsema also chairs the Art, Culture, Media, Music and Museums Practice at Edwards Angell.
• Ricardo Hernandez is the executive director of the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA). Mr. Hernandez joined the Commission staff in 1980 after working for four years as one of TCA’s Artists in Residence.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a record of more than 45 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.