Fellows

The ELNYA Fellows Program offers young arts professionals and advocates an opportunity to collaboratively shape a season of ELNYA programming and activities.  Participants will build their leadership skills while growing the ELNYA community and advancing the field of arts management.

These ten individuals have been selected as the 2011-2012 inaugural class of ELNYA Fellows:

Sarah Benvenuti

Sarah Benvenuti is currently the General Manager of Misnomer Dance Theater.  Before Misnomer, Sarah earned her M.A. in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University; was the Director of Future Tenant, an interdisciplinary art space in Pittsburgh; served as the Special Events Manager at Arena Stage; and helped grow Curious Theatre Company in Denver as their Managing Director.

Chantel Bell

Chantel Bell heads Belle Management Consulting; a Brooklyn based firm specializing in the African Diaspora cultural sector. She’s engaged programmatic and fundraising activities for a diverse group of arts organizations including the Caribbean Cultural Center, 651 Arts, and Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Chantel is currently developing a technical assistance model that addresses the needs of arts organizations of color.

James Bewley

James Bewley is currently Senior Program Officer at the Andy Warhol Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation he was the Director of Public Programs & Education at the UCLA Hammer Museum and served as Program Director at the San Francisco multi-disciplinary  arts space, New Langton Arts. He received a BFA in sculpture from RISD and an honorary degree in Theater from Brown.

Tracy Candido

Tracy Candido is an arts professional currently working at NYFA administering the Artists Fellowship Program.  She is also a creative producer, organizing socially engaged projects that have been presented at the Whitney Museum, New Museum’s Festival of Ideas and New York University.  As an educator, she has worked at the Brooklyn Museum and the International Center of Photography.   She received her Masters from NYU in Visual Culture Theory.

Simone Eccleston

Simone Eccleston is the Programming and Arts Education Manager at Harlem Stage where she coordinates the implementation of all mainstage performances, arts education initiatives and the administration of the Harlem Stage Fund for New Work program.  She is an alumnus of APAP’s 2011 Emerging Leaders Institute and a member of the curatorial team for the Exhibitions at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Rylee Eterginoso

Rylee Eterginoso is an artist, educator and administrator. She is a card-carrying Staten Islander with a penchant for community building and public art.  Rylee serves as both Assistant Director for Administration and Senior Teaching Artist at the New York State Summer School for the Arts. She recently graduated with her Master’s from the Arts and Cultural Management Program at Pratt Institute.

Ezra Ezzard

Ezra Ezzard is a graduate of Fordham University, where he was a student in the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program.  He has performed works by world-renowned choreographers, was a guest dancer in Alvin Ailey’s “Memoria,” with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater . He worked as a production assistant for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and is an alumnus of Public Allies New York. Currently, Ezra is the Adult Programs and Theater Manager at Harlem School of the Arts.

Jackie Miller

Jackie Miller currently manages national initiatives and partnerships for Reboot, a network of young creatives and an incubator of new projects aimed at reinventing Jewish culture.  She holds a BFA in theatre from Tisch and is an inaugural graduate of NYU’s masters program in Arts-Politics, dedicated to examining the relationship between art and society and the role of the artist in civic life.

Michelle Paul

Michelle Paul, Product Manager for Patron Technology, oversees the development of the company’s new products and services, primarily PatronManager® CRM, the company’s ticketing, fundraising, and e-mail system. Michelle is also the co-author of the book Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century, and has a BA in classics from Wesleyan University.

Rochelle Sonnenberg

Rochelle is excited about transiting into an arts administrative position. Her past position includes working as the Director of Business Development of Loyalty Alliance, an insurance firm.  She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies with a degree in liberal arts. A classically trained violinist, in her spare time she enjoys theater and salsa dancing.

About the Fellows Program

During their ten-month term, ELNYA Fellows are responsible for:

  • Advancing ELNYA’s Core Values
  • Working with the ELNYA Board to define a cohesive vision of programming for the year
  • Leading event planning efforts for Creative Conversations and Happy Hours
  • Manage Action Committee volunteers
  • Develop partnerships with other organizations
  • Actively contributing to and helping administer elnya.org

By the end of the term, Fellows will have:

  • Gained hands-on leadership experience
  • Grown their professional networks
  • Deepened their understanding of the challenges and effective practices in the field of arts leadership
  • Helped cultivate new ideas, dialog, and resources within the ELNYA community