Over the years, Julie has owned a fine arts gallery for emerging artists, co-founded Flow art fair — a satellite to Art Basel Miami Beach — opened a consulting firm Julie Baker Projects and curated an annual music series at the Crocker Art Museum. Earlier in her career she was President of her family’s arts marketing firm in New York City and worked at Christie’s Auction house before moving to California in 1998. Julie also served for eight years as the Executive Director of The Center for the Arts, a non-profit performing arts venue and California WorldFest, an annual music and camping festival located in Grass Valley, CA. She is the recipient of the inaugural Peggy Levine Arts & Community Service Award from the Nevada County Arts Council. And the 2021 Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award from Americans for the Arts, which honors an individual at the state level whose arts advocacy efforts have dramatically affected the political landscape.
She served as an arts program officer with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation from 2018-2021 where she led grantmaking efforts in cities across the U.S. that connected people to place and to each other through arts and culture. In this role, she managed a portfolio of nearly $8M and over 40 grantees including individual artists and collectives, nonprofit organizations, and city and county arts and culture projects. During her tenure, she co-led the transition of the arts program strategy to focus solely on investments at the intersection of the arts and technology.
Prior to joining Knight, Butler Goodman received her master’s degree in emergent digital practices from the University of Denver, where she studied art, design, culture, and technology. Her artistic practice blends tech with craft and she works in a variety of mediums including video, digital fabrication, and design. Her work has been shown across the U.S. and in South Korea.
She joined the faculty of the University of Denver's college of continuing and professional studies in January 2022, where she teaches art interpretation and communications courses with a focus on digital culture. She joined the board of Leon, a nonprofit art gallery located in Denver's City Park West, in April 2022.
During his four-year tenure as Managing Director of Watts Village Theater Company, the company tripled its annual operating budget, doubled the size of its Board of Directors and was awarded a Regional Theatre Tony Award. In addition, Mack produced four annual Meet Me @Metro festivals, featuring dozens of immersive, cultural performances on and along Metro trains and stations, storefronts and public spaces throughout East and South LA. Through Meet Me @Metro, Mack established partnerships with national funders, corporations, local vendors, government municipalities and collaborating performing arts ensembles.
Mack's inaugural project as a Producer and Co-Founder was Chocolate City, an industry showcase connecting BIPOC writers and performers from institutions across Southern California to Hollywood agents, managers and casting directors. Since then, he has served on the Boards and committee leadership of several arts organizations, including the San Francisco Arts Alliance and Western Arts Alliance. Mack is currently a member of WESTAF's Greater Bay Area Arts & Cultural Advocacy Coalition and Co-Founder of Artist Magnet and Artist Magnet Justice Alliance, Oakland-based arts service organizations.
Her love for Alaska began when she moved from western Canada in 1998 with nine boxes and a work visa. She reestablished her ten-year career as an educator with the Anchorage School District and attributes her former position as Curator of Art Education at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art as a pivotal career opportunity that led her to Alaska’s State Arts Agency.
Raised to value diversity and cultural expression as essential to our existence, Noble studied French and Japanese languages and competed nationally in Tae Kwon Do. She holds two bachelor’s degrees: Arts Education from University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Honors Visual Arts from University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. She serves as an ex officio board member of the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation whose mission is to support the Alaska State Council on the Arts.
Across her roles as director at Fairbanks Arts, instructor of art appreciation courses at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a designer of youth art courses, Peña focuses on increasing the accessibility of art concepts across generations. Through community-based work and beyond, she is an advocate for advancing arts support in Alaska. She currently serves on the statewide Arts Education Advisory Committee of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, a group dedicated to weaving networks, aligning policies, and increasing involvement in Alaska arts and cultures.
Peña’s work is motivated by the goal of shifting systems– utilizing the arts as a catalyst, translator, and space for possibility. She is grateful for the opportunity to further these efforts in her hometown, which is situated on the ancestral and unceded traditional lands of the lower Tanana Dene Peoples. Jess is looking forward to continuing this work as part of WESTAF’s board of trustees.