Jessica Solomon

Thursday Keynote: Using the Arts to Weave Communities Back Together

Jessica Solomon serves as Vice President of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. In her role she is sharpening the Foundation’s place-based grant making strategies, developing new programmatic initiatives, and deepening institutional knowledge to ensure equitable impact across Baltimore. Prior, Jessica led Art in Praxis - a cultural impact lab creating the conditions for increased capacity, creativity, and impact in cause driven organizations and cultural institutions. From 2014-2016 she served as “Chief Weaver of Social Fabric” at the US Department of Arts and Culture and in 2018 was Recognized by Baltimore Magazine as one of "30 Changemakers Shaping the Future of the City". She believes that storytelling is our best tool to increase empathy, adaptability, and spur transformation - in communities, organizations and systems.

Jessica earned a Masters of Science in Organization Development from American University, where her graduate school cohort bestowed on her the Hal Kellner Award, presented to a class member whose characteristics include being “challenging, thoughtful, humorous…[and] someone who holds a deep concern about social justice.”

Jessica is a member of RoadMap Consulting, a Salzburg Global Young Cultural Innovator, and Advisor to a host of organizations, including National Arts Strategies and Impact Hub Baltimore. She is a proud contributor to Animating Democracy’s Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change (2017) We Inspire Me: Cultivate Your Creative Crew to Work, Play, and Make by Andrea Pippins (Chronicle Books, 2018).