AAAE is excited to announce the 11 fellows and 11 host organizations of the Arts Administrators Pipeline Fellowship. The winners were selected from 215 applications after a rigorous review by an independent panel, following an evaluation rubric, available for review at these links: Fellow Rubric & Host Organization Rubric. The program was made possible by the California Arts Council (CAC).
We are pleased to share that there are AAAE members among the fellows and the host organizations. Among the finalists and the winners, there are former students of our institutional member at Winthrop University. Congratulations!
Christina Charlene Quintana Olague | matched with CCAE Theatricals
Christina Charlene Quintana Olague is an artist organizer born and raised in the Central Valley. Over the past 10 years they’ve competed in local, regional, and international poetry slams for the sense of community. They have a Bachelor’s degree in Evolutionary Biology and continue exploring themes of what it means to be human in ongoing crisis. They were a Round One Finalist in the 18th Street Arts Complex Creative Corps. They’re mission is to empower people in advocating for themselves, their communities, and their non-human relatives.
Crystal Sepúlveda | matched with Museum of Latin American Art
Crystal Sepúlveda is a movement-based performing artist respectfully living on Cahuilla, Luiseño, Serrano, and Tongva unceded land. Her movement research explores the intersections of site-responsive choreographic experimentation, diasporic/boricua identities, and decolonial embodied practices within durational performance. Sepúlveda maintains an ongoing performance practice in improvisation and works collaboratively and across disciplines to compose sound, movement, and video projects for live performance and installation. Her choreographic work and collaborative projects have been presented at Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Highways Performance Space, Human Resources LA, The Women’s Center for Creative Work (Los Angeles); Center of Music and Audio Technologies (Berkeley); dança em foco Festival International (Rio de Janeiro, BR); Lake Studios Berlin (Berlin, Germany); Centre Dürrenmatt (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and at Musée des beaux-arts (Le Locle, Switzerland). As an educator, Sepúlveda has held faculty positions at various higher education institutions teaching interdisciplinary approaches to choreography and has served as artistic director for undergraduate dance productions. Crystalsepulveda.com
Daniel Duque-Estrada | matched with Magic Theatre
Daniel Duque-Estrada is a theatre educator, administrator, performer, and proud Bay Area native. As a professional stage actor, he has worked on stages all around the country, including company memberships at the Dallas Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Trinity Repertory Company. As an AAAE Fellow, he is thrilled to begin the next chapter of his career working side by side with the Magic Theatre and the inspirational leadership of Sean San Jose. He holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep.
Freddy Gutierrez | matched with Youth Speaks
Freddy “Manos” Gutierrez, California poet, papa, and teaching artist. Freddy has facilitated writing and performance art spaces with people in incarceration from the Bay to the UK for over 10 years. He specializes in using metaphor alongside personal narrative to shape social commentary as catalysts for storytelling and seeks to foster agency of voice in those he creates with. He’s been published by Los Angeles Poet Society Press, The Puerto Rico Review, The Acentos Review, the Nomadic Press, and University of Houston’s Arte Publico Press; and was featured as LoWriter of the Week selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.
Jax Neal | matched with The Desert Biennial
Jax Neal is a multi-disciplinary performance artist working at the intersections of performance art, theater, dance, poetry, ceremony, and endurance ritual. A former National Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador, and Houston Met Dance Choreography Fellow, Neal uses language and body as technologies of intimacy: to remove exterior masks and examine the American paradox. Having worked at artistic and intellectual institutions like the Wisconsin Union Theater, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the Humboldt-Forum in Berlin, Germany, Neal looks at performance art and performing arts as imaginative, speculative prototypes for how we might enact, interrogate, and renegotiate the terms of our own humanity. He believes that the strangeness of witnessing life performed in real time awakens us to our own everyday performances, so that we demand more of both life’s actors and life’s authors.
Lana Lee Quint | matched with William James Association
Lana Quint is a dedicated professional with a unique blend of expertise and interest in art history, psychology, and arts administration. With degrees in Art History and Arts Administration, Lana holds an undeniable passion for the arts.
Lana has developed a versatile skill set and commitment to the arts, cultural, and educational sectors through her time at arts institutions spanning Nevada, Virginia, and California. A staunch advocate for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives, Lana brings a special focus on engaging the community through culturally relevant actions and initiatives. Her research and practical involvement in fostering connections between museums and their communities exemplify her dedication to making cultural institutions more inclusive.
Currently serving as the Executive Assistant to the President and CEO at MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Innovation + Exploration, Lana excels in supporting high-level executives while contributing to the advancement of engaging, educational experiences for young minds.
Lana’s multifaceted background, coupled with her dedication to museum leadership, underscores her invaluable contributions to the intersection of art, science, and education.
Alum of AAAE Institutional Member, Winthrop University!
Luna HighJohn-Bey | matched with Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Luna HighJohn-Bey, a curator and historian, originally from Anacostia, Washington DC, is currently based in Santa Cruz, CA. Luna’s work is deeply rooted in the exploration and preservation of ancestral memory. As the lead researcher for the London Nelson Legacy Initiative, she has played a key role in shaping initiatives that redefine the structural foundations of the research and culture sector.
With a strong focus on public art spaces, Luna has become a unifying force, known for skillfully crafting communal altars that celebrate the African diaspora and provide solace to those facing personal challenges. Her installations transcend visual celebration, transforming into nurturing spaces fostering connection and healing. Luna has been a pivotal figure in the Santa Cruz arts community, bringing people together, bridging cultural divides, and creating a sense of unity through her art.
As an emerging arts administrator, Luna envisions her role as a catalyst in the evolving narrative of creative practice, fostering healing and restorative justice through art. With a commitment to the preservation of ancestral memory, Luna aims to create more inclusive spaces for indigenous spiritualists to curate healing environments within the art world. Looking ahead, she is eager to continue exploring the intersection of art, community, and healing, aspiring to expand her public altar practice to other cities and communities while advocating for social justice and cultural preservation.
Maria “Lou” Jimenez | matched with World Trust
Maria de Lourdes Jimenez, who prefers to go by “Lou,” is a San Jose native and has cultivated a sense of belonging in her community since 2015. She is an advocate, scholar, artist, curator, and community organizer all in one. She has been working to catalyze inclusion through inter-cultural and co-created art, organizing art shows, and advocating for artists’ rights. She is passionate about building a sustainable and resilient art scene in the city of San Jose, especially for marginalized communities. She graduated from San Jose State University in May 2023 with an Art History/Visual Communications major and an Urban Studies minor. Her interests and focus are researching cultural synergies and semiotic fields that contribute to the cultural economy of an urban landscape.
Rio Rene Yañez | matched with Gray Area
Rio Yañez (he/him) is a Bay Area-based visual artist and curator. From the moment he was conceived in an artist’s studio, Yañez’ fate as an artist and curator was sealed. As an artist he has exhibited his work from San Francisco to Tokyo and created artwork installations for Jean Paul Gaultier’s touring exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. As a curator of over 25 exhibits he was a frequent collaborator with his late father, Rene Yañez, and the pair developed exhibits and programming together for 13 years. Yañez’ carries on his father’s tradition of curating the annual Dia de los Muertos exhibit at SOMArts alongside his collaborator Bridgett Rex. Yañez is also a founding member of The Great Tortilla Conspiracy, the world’s first and most dangerous tortilla art collective.
Sandrina Preudhomme | matched with Autry Museum of the American West
Sandrina Preudhomme is a proud recipient of the Arts Administrative Pipeline Fellowship. As a selected fellow, she has decided to work alongside the Autry Museum of the American West, due to the organization’s values and mission. Both the Autry Museum of the American West and Sandrina Preudhomme share values rooted in “inclusion, education, respect, collaboration, connection and innovation.” Which allows for a natural execution of the organization’s mission of “bringing together stories of all peoples of the American West connecting the past with the present to inspire our shared future.”
Sandrina Preudhomme’s passion for art, education and equity led her to this fellowship opportunity. Prior to accepting the fellowship she worked as a k-12 art teacher, volunteered at nonprofit organizations and created art. She has obtained a Masters of Arts Administration from Winthrop University, a teaching credential from Guilford County Schools Accreditation Program and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Columbia College. Some of her proudest moments consist of being awarded GCS-Act teacher of the year and having her artwork featured in local newspapers and galleries. However, despite her many accomplishments, Sandrina Preudhomme continues to pursue her lifelong dream of running an arts organization. For Sandrina Preudhomme, the Arts Administrative Pipeline Fellowship bridges the gap between her education, passion and dreams.
Alum of AAAE Institutional Member, Winthrop University!
Victor Gonzalez | matched with Latino Center of Art and Culture
Victor Gonzalez is a multimedia engineer. Victor’s emphasis includes music, animation, and cinematography. Victor is currently a PUENTE social science teacher at Desert Mirage HighSchool in the Coachella Valley. Victor guides students through the youth-led participatory action research. Formerly, he was a project manager for Alianza Coachella Valley, a collaboration of residents and organizations working together to bring together local community members, nonprofits, and government officials to create a more prosperous, vibrant, and thriving region. Victor has led productions including, The HUE Music and Arts Festival. Victor attended UC Santa Cruz, earning a dual Bachelor’s in Politics and Feminist Studies in 2014. Victor has earned a master’s degree in Education from the University of Redlands that he is currently using for his current profession as an educator. storyteller, and frequency shifter.