Anika Kwinana is an artist and arts manager who is passionate about the role of the arts in supporting community development.  Her work has included directing music and arts programming for a diverse, 5,000-member religious organization in South Africa, where she mentored and led 100+ volunteer artists; produced, wrote and performed on two live CD-DVD projects; and, oversaw concerts, conferences and facility rentals. 

She also managed, facilitated and fundraised for several community-based youth, HIV-AIDS, and women’s empowerment organizations in the country.  In the U.S, Anika has designed and implemented STEM and arts-related college and career fairs, with an emphasis on concept development; event management; committee oversight; program design and implementation; and, partnership-building.  She is currently Manager, National Partnerships in the Education Division at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she co-leads the Any Given Child Initiative, supporting 27 communities, nationally, to expand equitable access to quality arts education for public school students.  Anika is a Commissioner for the Arlington County Commission for the Arts where she chairs the Community Arts Advisory Committee. She is also an executive board member (Treasurer) for the Arts Administrators of Color Network. Anika holds an M.A. in Arts Management from George Mason University and an M.A. Public Anthropology from American University.  Her most recent work with Americans for the Arts was a co-presented workshop at the 2019 Convention, “How to Make and Use a Theory of Change” and moderated an ArtsU webinar, “Advancing the Diversity of Your Board.”

Twitter: @anikakwinana  

Rachel Engh is a researcher/planner at Metris Arts Consulting (@metrisarts). Located in Easton, PA, Metris provides research, planning, and evaluation services to reveal arts’ impacts and help communities equitably improve their cultural vitality. Before joining Metris in 2015, Rachel worked for the City of Minneapolis in the office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. She has spoken about Metris’ work for conferences and webinars and has contributed articles to Public Art Review, Createquity, and Americans’ for the Arts’ ARTSblog. When she’s not at Metris, Rachel enjoys sending postcards to family and friends, spending time along the Delaware River, and watching her cat, Harriet, chase crumpled up pieces of paper. Rachel holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a B.A. in Sociology from Grinnell College. She can be contacted at engh@metrisarts.com. 

Website: www.metrisarts.com