21st Century Renaissance | Biographies
Adam Bly, Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Seed Media Group drives Seed Media Group’s overall business and content strategy. At the age of 16, Bly became the youngest researcher at the National Research Council of Canada, where he spent three years working with a team studying cell adhesion and cancer. While at NRC, Bly identified a cultural shift in the making: science is transforming business, politics, the arts and current affairs unlike ever before; today, science affects every single person on the planet and science literacy is essential to modern society. Bly set out to launch a new type of magazine that captured the ideas, issues and icons shaping this global science culture. With the receipt of the 2006 Independent Press Award for Best Science and Technology Coverage, it was noted that “the best comparison for Seed is the early years of Rolling Stone, when music was less a subject than a lens for viewing culture.” Under Bly’s leadership, the magazine received two National Magazine Award nominations in 2007, for Best Design and for General Excellence, the magazine industry’s highest honor. Seed is now the flagship division of Seed Media Group, a science media company Bly founded in 2005 to extend the magazine’s mission to other platforms and markets.
Allan Chochinov is a partner at Core77, a New York-based design network supporting the global design community through both online and offline initiatives. He serves as the editor-in-chief of Core77. com, the widely read design website, Coroflot.com design job and portfolio site, and DesignDirectory. com design firm database. Prior to Core77, his work in product design focused on the medical and diagnostic fields, as well as on consumer products and workplace systems. (Projects included work for Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Federal Express, Kodak, A.C. Nielsen, Oral-B, Crunch Fitness and others.) He teaches in the graduate department at New York’s Pratt Institute, and at the School of Visual Arts. He has been named on numerous design and utility patents
Dorothy Dunn is Director of Visitor Experience and Fellowships at the Philip Johnson Glass House, the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is responsible for all site interpretation, design programs and strategic partnerships, including “Conversations”, to position the site as a catalyst for promoting innovation and change. Dunn was the recipient of the inaugural Smithsonian Education Achievement Award in 2004 in recognition of her leadership as Education Director for Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. While at the Smithsonian, from 1989 through 2004, she launched and directed the signature programs A City of Neighborhoods: Bridging School and Community, Summer Design Institute, and Design Directions and also planned numerous international conferences including Design on the Ecological Frontier (1994), Designing for the Senses (2002), the invitational study tours Icons of Modernism: LA and Palm Springs (1999), The Architecture of Landscape and Light (2003), Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan (2004 and 2005) and the invitational retreat, Craft and Design: Hand, Mind and the Creative Process (2004). Dunn worked with AIGA, the professional association for design, to reposition the International Design Conference at Aspen, the Aspen Design Summit, the world’s oldest forum for business and design leaders. As Program Director for AIGA, Dunn produced the program content for the international conferences Gain: AIGA Design and Business Conference (2006) and Design Conference (2005). TOWARD A 21st CENTURY RENAISSANCE | BIOGRAPHIES Nowhere do the disciplines of art, architecture and engineering fuse as seamlessly as in the work of inventor
Chuck Hoberman, internationally known for his “transformable structures.” Through his products, patents and structures, Hoberman demonstrates how objects can be foldable, retractable or shape-shifting. Such capabilities lead to functional benefits: portability, instantaneous opening, and intelligent responsiveness to the built environment. Hoberman is the founder of Hoberman Associates, a multidisciplinary practice with clients ranging across sectors including consumer products, deployable shelters and space structures. The firm is collaborating with architects such as Foster + Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox, SHoP, Nikken Sekkei and others. For these projects, Hoberman is developing retractable facades, responsive shading and ventilation, operable roofs and canopies. Examples of his commissioned work include the Hoberman Arch in Salt Lake City, Utah, installed as the centerpiece for the Winter Olympic Games (2002). Other noteworthy commissions include a retractable dome for the Worlds Fair in Hanover, Germany (2000), the Expanding Hypar (1997) at the California Museum of Science and Industry, and the Expanding Sphere (1992) at the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, and the Expanding Geodesic Dome (1997) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Hoberman’s work has been exhibited several times at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2008 his commissioned installation, “Emergent Surface,” was part of the exhibit, “Design and the Elastic Mind.”
John Lenczowski is founder and president of The Institute of World Politics, an independent graduate school of national security and international affairs in Washington, D.C. The Institute is dedicated to developing leaders with a sound understanding of international realities and the ethical conduct of statecraft, based on knowledge and appreciation of the principles of the American political economy and the Western moral tradition. The Institute’s curriculum is designed for people in the foreign affairs, defense, and intelligence agencies of the U.S. Government, as well as university students, educators, business executives, journalists, and foreign diplomats. From 1981 to 1983, Lenczowski served in the U.S. State Department as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. From 1983 to 1987 he was Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council. In that capacity he served as principal adviser to President Reagan for Soviet affairs.
Julia Mandle’s work focuses on creating moments for audiences to pause and reflect on their surroundings. Her most recent projects investigate themes of urban re-vitalization and civil liberties. “Chalk Shoes to the High Line - marking paths to a park in the making” is a recent commission by Friends of the High Line, wherein Mandle worked in residency at NYC LAB School to create a performance with 40 eighth-graders. Utilizing her specially designed and caste chalk shoes, Mandle led the students to create a multi-block outdoor drawing in Chelsea to highlight the new entrances to the park. A similar project is slotted with the Drawing Center at the World Financial Center in September ‘08. “Fabrication of Blindness” is a performance/installation which was produced during her 2007 residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Inspired by a photograph of a hooded Iraqi detainee and his young son, Mandle created a sixty-foot dark cloud out of embroidered black hoods, numbered for each prisoner at Guantanamo Bay at the time. A tour of Fabrication may bring Mandle’s work to several cities nationally and internationally 2008/2009. Developing multi-disciplinary work that arrests busy passers-by is one of Mandle’s main tactics. Creating live works that seek to connect and activate our increasingly distracted and dissociated world is a core aim.
A cum laude graduate of Williams College (’63), Roger Mandle holds a MA from New York University and a PH.D in Art History from Case Western University. For the past fifteen years he has been President of the Rhode Island School of Design. As an educator, art historian, and leader of major cultural institutions, he is a nationally known figure in the field of education in the arts and humanities. After serving as the Associate Director of the Minneapolis Museum of art, he was Associate Director and then Director of the Toledo Museum of Art from 1974 to 1988. He was Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from 1988 to 1993. In addition, Mandle served as a member of the National Committee for Education Standards in the Arts, for whom he was a co-author of “Education Goals 2000: Standards in the Arts.” He was appointed by both President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush as a member of the National Counsel of the Arts, on witch he served eight years. He has been Vice Chair of the Board of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Federation of the Arts; Vic President of the American Association of Museums; a member of the Association of the Arts Museums; Director, and on the Board of National Association of Independent Colleges and University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Colleges of the Arts and Design. Mandle currently serves on the board for the alliance of the Artists Committee, and on the Board of the Newport Restoration Society, of which he is the vice-chair. He was also the chairman of the Rhode Island Independent Higher Education Association and a Vice Chair of the Providence Foundation. He has been the Trustee of the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade, Providence WaterFire, and the Advisory Board of the Perishable Theater. He is also a member of the Silk Road project and CEO’s for Cities. He is a member of the Program Committee of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council and Rhode Island Economic Development Council. He was also vice-Chair of the Advisory Board of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Study of American Civilization and Chair of the Board of Road Island Campus Compact. In 2006 he was Chair of the National Design Awards Jury. Mandle is a published scholar and teacher on the subject of aesthetics and Dutch art.
Christy MacLear is the Executive Director of the Philip Johnson Glass House. She was brought to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to develop the strategy, hire all staff and prepare the site and Visitor Center to open to the public this past June 2007. With the goal to “reshape the historic house museum model”, Christy and the staff team of the Glass House have sold out tours through 2008, launched a survey of 90+ modern homes in New Canaan, structured a “center for Modernism” to colead the National Trust’s investment in Modernist preservation, managed the NTHP board approval to purchase adjacent properties to preserve the Glass House view in perpetuity, and developed the “conversations” series to continue the legacy of new ideas through diverse leaders on-site. Christy is known for her ability to conceive of and lead large scale projects through opening and on-going operations. She was the Manager of Strategy for the Walt Disney Company’s new town project called Celebration, was the Director of the Museum Campus in Chicago where she represented 3 museum boards through the movement of Lake Shore Drive and the creation of a lakefront park, and was an independent consultant in Strategy & Visitor Experience to such clients as the Field Museum, the Cleveland Clinic and the leaders of the UAE. She has a degree in Urban Design from Stanford University and an MBA from Wharton in Real Estate Finance where she received a Barnes fellowship. She has been a professor in the graduate program of Arts Administration for the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and has served on the boards of Chicago’s Three Arts Club, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Steppingstones Museum for Children.
Chef Nils Norén is the Vice President of Culinary Arts of The French Culinary Institute (The FCI) and The Italian Culinary Academy (The ICA), at New York City’s International Culinary Center. An embodiment of the new international chef, disciplined in the classic sensibilities and driven by immense creativity, Norrin was appointed in 2006 to lead the schools’ culinary, pastry, bread and Italian programs.For the previous 10 years, he had been at Aquavit, where Marcus Samuelsson appointed Chef Nils to be Executive Chef in 2003. At Aquavit, under Marcus Samuelsson’s exemplary leadership, Chef Nils strove to solidify the restaurant’s place on the culinary map and to show the world what Swedish food and cooking techniques are all about. Prior to joining Aquavit, Chef Nils worked in Stockholm as Executive Chef at Restaurant Riche, which features a fine dining room, tapas bar and bistro; and as Chef de Cuisine at Restaurant KB, one of the country’s classic Swedish restaurants in the center of town. He also coordinated cooking classes for Restaurant Akademin. Chef Nils is a graduate of Culinary School in Gävle, Sweden.
Shahzia Sikander was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and currently lives and works in New York and Berlin. Her work spans a variety of mediums including drawing, large scale wall installations, animation and video. Sikander has successfully brought Indo-Persian miniature painting into the realm of contemporary art through subverting her training in the genre with commentaries on lived experience, art history and pop-culture. Sikander’s work is in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC. Her work was in group exhibitions including: “Drawing Now,” Museum of Modern Art; “Urgent Painting,” Musee D’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the 1997 Whitney Biennial, and the Seville and Istanbul Biennials. She recently had solo exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Australia. Her next solo show is at Ikon in Birmingham, UK and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Sikander was appointed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and is also the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2007.
Gael Towey was named Chief Creative Officer for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (MSLO) in May 2005. She oversees the company’s design and creative teams, ensuring that the company’s unique visual style is realized across all its media and merchandising business segments.Towey began working at Martha Stewart Living in 1990 as founding Art Director. She designed the inaugural issue of the magazine, creating the magazine’s distinct and iconic visual style. Over the years, the breadth of Towey’s creative direction has expanded with the rapid growth of what has become Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. She has played a key role in developing the design for all of MSLO’s magazines and merchandising programs, including the Martha Stewart Collection of home products exclusively for Macy’s, the mass market Martha Stewart Everyday product line at Kmart, the Martha Stewart Crafts line at Michaels and select independent retailers, the award-winning Martha Stewart Furniture line with Bernhardt and the company’s expanding home-decorating assortment. Prior to her role at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Towey was the design director for House and Garden magazine. Previously, she was the first art director for Clarkson N. Potter Publishers, where she oversaw the design of over 50 books a year. Towey, a graduate of Boston University, is a frequent juror for competitions, and she lectures often about the creation and evolution of the Martha Stewart brand; she is currently writing a book on the same subject.
Frank R. Wilson, M.D. is a neurologist/writer who resides in Portland, Oregon. Now retired from active clinical practice, he was a founder of the Health Program for Performing Artists at the University of California San Francisco and its medical director from 1996-2000. He was Clinical Professor of Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine until 2003. He has long been interested in the neurology of skilled hand movement, and is a widely respected authority on the neurology of acquired hand disorders. He is the author of two monographs on the hand, the second of which was nominated in 1998 for a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture; Pantheon Books. Also interested in the role of the hand in human cognitive development, he serves on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit corporation that has established and now administers over 50 alternative inner city urban high schools (The Big Picture Company). Dr. Wilson’s website is www.handoc.com.