Speakers & Artists

Brad Montague (he/him) is a New York Times best-selling author/illustrator of books for kids and former kids. A highly sought-after speaker and performer whose encouragement brings hope and humanity to a wide variety of communities - Brad is the creator of the hit web series Kid President, the global social-good movement Socktober, the bestselling picture book The Circles All Around Us, and the creativity-packed Fantastic Bureau of Imagination.

His commitment to childlike wonder and joyful rebellion has led to collaborations with The Disney Channel, Jim Henson Company, Pokemon, The Metropolitan Opera, Hallmark, Rivian, and the United Nations—just to name a few. He lives in Tennessee with his wife and collaborator, Kristi Montague, and their two children.

The newest picture book, Fail-a-bration!, releases September 10, 2024 from Dial Books.

Nafeesah Symonette is a visual artist, educator, and advocate dedicated to expanding arts access for young people while honoring cultural heritage. Her journey began in Detroit under the mentorship of Joyce Ivory, founder of Young Artists & Co., Inc., sparking a lifelong commitment to arts education. She spent 13 years as a high school visual arts teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., earning the Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Visual Art Secondary Teaching.

Now, as co-founder and Executive Director of Detroit Excellence in Youth Arts (DEYA), she leads efforts to create high-impact, equitable arts experiences for Detroit youth. Appointed to the Michigan Arts & Culture Council by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, she chairs the Arts Education Committee, advocating for statewide arts policies. Through her consulting work, she supports culturally responsive teaching initiatives and collaborates with national organizations to strengthen arts education across the country.

Rachael Davis is felt before she is seen or heard, like a pressure drop or a disturbance in the force. The room suddenly gets...jollier.  Peals of uproarious laughter inevitably follow, from her and from those around her.  Exclamations of "HOLY CRAP!" descend like little hailstorms of love and mirth.  And when she stops telling stories about her beloved family or her crazy life long enough to sing a song, you feel the resonations of her deeply empathetic message deep in your subconscious:  this is music for healing, for realizing darkness exists but never letting it run your business.  For more than 30 years, starting back with her family band in the north woods of Michigan, for formative years in the Boston music scene, and continuing into the present as a beloved Nashville fixture, Rachael has been weaving orbs of commanding melody, ensnaring enraptured audiences around the nation, whether alone, or with any number of collaborators, including vocal nightingale trio the Sweet Water Warblers, and her husband Dominic John Davis, master of the bass (as opposed to bassmaster). Before you get the impression it's all fun and games....listen closer.  There is a serious dedication to craft in her near-operatic vocals, her guitar work, her banjo scholarship, and her commitment to the language and traditions of folk music, while pushing it to new fresh places. 

Rachael will be our songleader and performing at the Summit.

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Rachael Davis recordings are rare in this stage of life, having dedicated more time to both the art of performance and the art of raising her frankly delightful children, but a few have escaped: Minor League Deities (2000), Live In Bremen, Germany (2004), Antebellum Queens (2008), Bandbox Jubilee (2014), plus releases with Shout Sister Shout! (2008) and The Sweet Water Warblers (2020). And, great news, more recordings are coming very soon!  A new compilation released in November of 2023 called A Few Good Ones is available now and contains two unreleased songs from about a decade ago that were recently unearthed, and brand new sessions are under way for a long-awaited upcoming release . 

The world needs more Rachael Davis music, and Rachael Davis needs more of the world, to put down their sorrows and raise a communal voice in celebration of the hilarious beauty of life.  You know how something embarrassing or awful happens, and we say, oh we'll laugh about it later?  Rachael knows life is short:  laugh now.

rachaeldavis.com

 

Benjamin Cheney (he/they/any) is a performer, designer, and massage therapist from Northern Michigan. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Croft Residency, a dance residency in Horton Bay, MI. The Croft supports artists in their creative process, and asks all of its residents to engage in an intentional relationship with the land through practicing gift exchange.

Ben will be a panelist in our discussion on Artist Residencies

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The Croft Residency is based in Horton Bay, MI. We support the creative process as a way to shape this kinship that we are alive, together. Each moment with nature a co-creative dialogue. Our bodies’ movement animating the heart of this connection. Our residents remind us that we dance to feel our stories. To move with the poetry of our being. To reawaken the listening in every gesture and every step.

Annmarie Erickson is an accomplished nonprofit leader with thirty years of experience primarily in the arts and culture sector. Her longest professional tenure was at the Detroit Institute of Arts where she served as Chief Operating Officer. Over nearly seventeen years, she guided the museum through a building renovation and expansion including the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the entire public art collection, spearheaded a financial review and realignment leading to a successful political campaign for millage support in three southeast Michigan counties and participated in the successful defense of the museum’s art collection from creditors when the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy putting the city-owned collection at risk. Erickson acted as primary spokesperson during the bankruptcy, testified for the DIA in federal bankruptcy court and worked with a small team to raise $100 million to help fund city pensions and free the museum from city ownership. She has extensive expertise in operations, strategic planning, governance and board management, communications and marketing and fundraising.

Erickson served as a volunteer for several Detroit-based organizations and led executive searches at Pewabic Pottery and InsideOut Literary Arts resulting in the placement of two successful leaders.

Erickson and her husband, Paul, moved to Traverse City in 2022 where she continued to work remotely as a consultant with a Detroit-based strategic communications firm. She retired in December, 2023 but still provides limited consulting services. She is a published poet.

Annmarie will be a panelist for the discussion: Holding Ground, Finding Direction: Museums in a Time of Change

Alyssa Smith (she/her) grew up in both the United States and France. She currently resides in Traverse City. She gathers her inspiration primarily from the various landscapes she has encountered throughout life as well as her experiences working with energy practices. Her work is ever seeking the connections between these physical and spiritual worlds - our landscapes offering portals to older wisdom. In a world moving too fast, her paintings offer a practice of observation - not of the thing itself but of what it makes you feel. We know what it looks like, but what does it do to you? Nature and our relationship to it presenting a springboard from which we learn of our own story and cycles of life.

Alyssa will be presenting an Artist Talk on her personal experiences as a visual artist

Steven Bridges (he/him) is a museum director, curator, art historian, and writer based. Currently he holds the position of Interim Director & Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. His research and curatorial interests focus on social and environmental justice, and the relationship between art, geopolitics, and scientific inquiry.

Steven will be a panelist for the discussion: Holding Ground, Finding Direction: Museums in a Time of Change

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The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University expands perspectives by connecting people to art, ideas, and each other. With a focus on the art of our time—in dialogue with the historical—the museum encourages engagement with timely issues of local relevance and global significance.

Founded in 2003 by Artistic Director Heather Raue, the CTAC School of Ballet trains young people for careers in dance and is dedicated to its legacy. The School of Ballet offers professional training in ballet and alternative dance modalities, as well as in stagecraft, screendance, lighting, choreography, pedagogy, and Special Needs Artistic Movement to nearly 150 students annually.

CTAC pre-professional students have gone on to dance professionally in many American dance companies including: Miami City Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. They have attended prestigious MFA and BFA dance programs, are on CTAC faculty, and thrive in dance-related careers. Crooked Tree School of Ballet is proud to have brought world-class dance education to well over 4,000 students (ages 4+) in Northern Michigan and beyond.

Crooked Tree students Elsie Dawson, Ailinn Mullaney, Leif VanHorn will perform to a Xavier Cugat piece choreographed by fellow CTAC student Ella Galle

Pokey Robinson (she/her) is a hand poke tattoo artist based out of Traverse City, Michigan.

Pokey began her hand poke journey in late 2020 and, with much thanks to our digital world, was able to observe and engage in research of the practice while honing her poking skills on family and friends. 

In late 2021, Pokey joined forces with Michigan based machine tattoo artist Shannon Doah and began learning much about ins and outs of the tattoo business. Pokey later opening a private studio in the heart of downtown Traverse City where clients can enjoy a view of the bay and the safety of an intimate tattoo session. 

The practice of hand poke tattooing pre-dates machine tattooing and has a rich cultural history across the globe. If applied correctly, hand poke tattoos are permanent and hurt much less than a machine applied tattoo. 

Pokey will be offering hand-poke flash tattoos at the Summit. You can reserve yours here! 

Kelly Gregory (she/her) is an itinerant social artist and architect based out of oceanic autonomous zones, coastal California, and the Great Lakes state. Her practice is rooted in socially-engaged work that centers housing as a human right, climate justice, democratic public space, and inclusive community-driven research. Her practice is highly collaborative and bridges the speculative with the practical, crafting buildings, public space, and community-centered environments that fold in thoughtful future solutions.

Kelly will be a panelist in our discussion on Artist Residencies

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Sawbill Surf Club is a creative residency program hosting artists, writers, scientists, musicians, makers, surfers, and sailors for personal practice on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Amber Hasan (She/Her) is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and hip-hop healer whose work bridges art, activism, and ancestral memory. Through spoken word, music, and storytelling, she amplifies Black women’s voices and explores themes of healing, justice, and resilience. Amber is the author of Drowning in My Own Spit, Ruby in the Rough, and Amerikkkan Nightmare, and the creator of music projects like Loud Mouth Ghetto Girl, Regular Brown Girl, and Cedar Stage Surprise. Her art is a mirror, a balm, and a call to rise.

Amber will be performing an original spoken word piece at the Summit.

Katrina (she/her) is passionate about the arts, environment, and community. Katrina's academic background includes a BA in Interior Design and a BA in Art History & Visual Culture with a minor in Museum Studies. Her experience includes over ten years in the arts field, with expertise in gallery settings and community engagement. Additionally, Katrina has juried Statewide and has twice served as a mentor in the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Mentorship program in Detroit. Katrina is also the co-founder of Project Vermillion, a curatorial collective founded in 2019 that is centered on the intersection of art, architecture, and the built environment.

Katrina has collaborated with artists across urban and rural landscapes. She's led public art projects and community music festivals, celebrating artists, makers, and storytellers. Beyond her art endeavors, Katrina's passion for permaculture and community gardens fuels her advocacy for local farmers and the food movement, which she is able to explore and celebrate in her role as Program Specialist at Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology.

Katrina will be presenting the workshop: Reimagining Art Spaces: Thinking Outside the Box

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The mission of Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology is to build strong communities through the intersections of art, farming, ecology, and economy.

Founded in 2005, Crosshatch envisions communities that are grounded in place: where people connect through stories, music, art, shared work, and food, and where the economy and culture are rooted in restoration of the earth and its people.

Shanny Brooke (she/her/person/human) is the Owner / Curator of Higher Art Gallery which is located in Downtown Traverse City. She is also an Artist working in Oil and Cold Wax. You can mostly find her at the gallery which is also home to a small studio space for herself as well as home to artwork for around 40 artists who are from the region and beyond.

Shanny will be a panelist for the discussion: How to Approach a Gallery and Perspectives on Rejection

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Established in 2016, Higher Art Gallery is a woman-owned and led gallery exhibiting emerging and established regional, national and international Artists. HART is dedicated to the development of an on-going dialogue between artists from a diverse range of artistic disciplines, backgrounds whose work explores the world around us and inside of us.

HART takes pride in choosing to focus heavily on Art made by Women, with 80% of our artists being women, and presenting exhibits each year which are by women.

Being a piece of the puzzle to help working Artists make a living, and connecting Art Lovers with a piece that will not only bring them joy for a life time, but can be passed onto future generations as an heirloom, is what we are passionate about.

Amy Gillard (she/her) is a native Michigander, graduate of Alma College and the University of Vermont, has a 40-year career in sport and event management, including positions with Kansas City Chiefs, Sprint and managing her own event marketing consulting company. She is the Executive Director of Harbor Springs Festival of the Book.

Amy will be presenting the workshop: So, You Think You Want to Throw a Festival

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As Michigan’s only multi-day celebration of readers, writers, books, and literary craft, the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book welcomes nationally published authors and illustrators from eight literary genres. Always held the last full weekend in September, the Festival was established with a three-fold purpose – to bring together presenters and attendees; bolster education and literacy in local schools, and enhance the economic and the cultural future of the Harbor Springs area.

Pianist/Organist + Singer/Composer, Charlie Millard has led his trio the Charlie Millard Band for the last decade across the state and throughout north america with their original songs and dynamic stylings, has been a session musician on a variety of records across Michigan and an accompanist & soloist with other beloved Michigan artists. Featuring Jercat millard on guitars, their live performances have audiences raving about their refreshing Indie-Roll sound described as “small movies for the ears”. The new album from the Charlie Millard Band entitled Pilot Boy is now available for pre-order (vinyl+download!) via their website.

Charlie will be performing one of his original songs at the Summit.

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Website

Youtube Channel

IG: @hattiejanemusic

FB: @CharlieMillardBand

Jessica Kooiman Parker (she/her) is a visual art curator, art consultant and designer. She grew up in southwestern Minnesota and earned a BFA from the University of WI-Stout. From 2013-2020, she oversaw award winning art galleries in both Longmont and Boulder CO. In 2021, she moved to Traverse City, MI with her husband and three boys. Since then, she has built the visual art program for the Alluvion at Commongrounds, exhibiting over 100 artists last year. Her curatorial practice is rooted in sparking curiosity and dialogue among visitors and compensating artists for their time.

Jessica will be presenting the workshop: Make a Statement

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The Alluvion is a 180 capacity venue and event space located on the second floor of The Commongrounds Cooperative building at the edge of The Boardman-Ottaway River near downtown Traverse City. This intimate, creative space is designed with optimal acoustics and world-class equipment. It is dedicated to producing high-quality, highly-accessible performances, community events, visual arts, classes, workshops, and so much more.

The visual arts presented by The Alluvion authentically support, showcase and foster artists and their growth, while empowering visitors to appreciate art(ists) in new ways. Exhibitions and installations can be found throughout the entire Commongrounds building and are always free and open to the public.

Pairing her professional experience in community and organizational development with a personal zeal for building trust, openness, and clarity in governance and decision-making, Megan Motil founded Parallel Solutions in 2014. In her free time you can find her in the woods or on the water, gardening, reading, or dabbling with words, watercolors and acrylics.

Megan will be facilitating the discussion: Ashes, Embers & Sparks: What Could a Real Arts Network Look Like?

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Parallel Solutions is a consultancy based in Traverse City, MI that provides strategic planning, governance design, organizational development, and public-private and inter-jurisdictional partnership services to nonprofit and governmental clients. We create clarity within complexity—helping teams assess conditions, align around purpose, define goals, evaluate options, make decisions, navigate transitions, and develop systems and relationships to support meaningful action. We unlock creativity, strengthen collaboration and build momentum, so people can move forward with focus, optimism, and confidence.

Kevin Summers (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist living in northern Michigan. His practice includes sound, sculpture, reused materials, storytelling, performance, and critical discourses on art, localism, history, and community. His work fosters connection and attunement to Earth and place while challenging dominant narratives. He asks how art can provoke care, dialectical reimagination, and healing. A more liberating future is possible.

Kevin will be presenting the Artist Talk:  Piggery Pete: Collaborative Folk Ritual, Speculative History, and Public Art

Maggie Pavao (she/her) is an arts administrator, advisor, and writer invested in organizations that offer artists long-term support and sustainable opportunities. Maggie serves as the Assistant Director of the Tusen Takk Foundation, an artist residency on Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, and as Associate Director of Communications & Development at Smack Mellon, an alternative arts space in Brooklyn, NY. She held previous positions at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), during which she helped establish the Arts Center at Governors Island, and at New York University's galleries. Maggie holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Museum Studies from New York University.

Maggie will be a panelist in our discussion on Artist Residencies

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Named for an expression of thankfulness, the Tusen Takk Foundation nourishes artists by giving them a place to work, engagement opportunities to enrich the culture of Northwest Michigan, and a platform to share their work internationally.

Bob Brill (he/him) is the Executive Director of Little Traverse Civic Theatre as well as the Director of Venue Operations for Great Lakes Center for Performing Arts.

A native of Petoskey, Michigan, Bob spent four years in the US Army as a Russian Linguist. He is a published author, audiobook narrator, actor, and director. He currently lives in Charlevoix with his wife, Esther and their two pups.

Bob will be facilitating the workshop: Try It On: Your First (Not-So-Scary) Theater Audition

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Little Traverse Civic Theatre is an 80 year-old nonprofit community theatre who's mission is to educate, enrich, and entertain the people of the Little Traverse Bay region through performing arts.

Sheila Ruen (she/her) is the Visual Arts Director at the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey, Michigan. Previously, she served as the Education Director at Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, the Galleries Director at Crooked Tree Arts Center, Arts and Design Department Chair at the William Penn Charter School, a Quaker, an Independent School in Philadelphia, and taught as an adjunct instructor at various schools, including Chicago State University, Philadelphia University, and Stanford University. She studied digital design at the University of Edinburgh, enjoyed a post-graduate painting residency at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, earned an MFA from the University of Michigan, and a BFA from the California College of Art.

Sheila will be a panelist for the discussion: How to Approach a Gallery and Perspectives on Rejection 

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The mission of the Crooked Tree Arts Center is to create ways for people to connect, learn, and grow through the arts. We offer exhibitions, concerts, classes, lectures, special events, and so much more from our campuses in Petoskey and Traverse City, Michigan.

Caitlin Early (she/her) is the Campaign & Development Officer at TART Trails, and is the curator of their trailside public art program Art on the TART. She also serves on the Traverse City Arts Commission. When not encouraging public art to be a facet of every community planning project, she can be found with her family in the woods or the on the water.

Caitlin will be facilitating the workshop: Creative Placemaking: Three Steps to Improving Community Vitality

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TART Trails is dedicated to providing recreation and transportation opportunities through preserving open space corridors, building trails, and advocating for active living and outdoor recreation. Trails are about people. An investment in trails is an investment in community development, a healthy and active outdoor culture, a place that attracts talent and inspires a high quality of life.

Lauren Ward (she/her) is the Director of the Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan, where she works to make sure arts and culture have a strong voice in Lansing and beyond. With roots in education and community engagement, she brings heart, strategy, and storytelling to her advocacy work. Lauren holds degrees from Eastern Michigan University and previously worked at the University of Michigan.

Lauren will be facilitating the workshop: Advocacy in Action: Crafting Your 30-Day Plan

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The Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan is a statewide, membership-based organization committed to amplifying the voice of arts and culture in public policy. We equip cultural leaders with the tools, knowledge, and connections they need to thrive—whether that’s navigating legislation, building relationships with lawmakers, or advocating for sustainable funding. Through collective action, we work to ensure Michigan’s creative sector is recognized, supported, and empowered to serve communities with excellence and impact.

On paper alone, Hail Your Highness sounds poetic: two sisters from Michigan (Jessie Bobenmoyer & Niki Ryland), who play dreamy emotional music that swirls together aspects of genres ranging from hard rock to shoegaze to trap. But it’s their music, with its unorthodox song structures, dreamy dual vocals, and lava-flow undercurrent of distortion and aggression, that completes the picture. As a whole, Hail Your Highness is bigger than its individual parts, a project with no easy genre designation or niche market that sounds like music you heard in a false memory. — KERRANG!

Hail Your Highness will be performing an original song at the Summit.

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HYH links: linktr.ee/hyhband

Joseph Beyer (he/him) is a writer and producer supporting storytellers and arts organizations in a career including leadership positions at Sundance Institute and contributing to Northern Express, Traverse Magazine, and IPR Radio.

Jordan Anderson (he/him) is a Northern Michigan-based writer, director, and editor. After 15 years in broadcast, he founded Pancake Boy Productions to create multimedia campaigns and explore new ideas through storytelling.

Joe & Jordan will be doing an Artist Talk on their experience taking their documentary "Marqueetown" on the road.

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Joseph Beyer and Jordan Anderson co-created the feature documentary Marqueetown from 2023 to 2024 before launching their “Indie Film Road Tour For Good” across Michigan to benefit arts and culture organizations and theaters.

Their film follows one man’s modern crusade to restore the historic arthouse of his youth to its former glory. A true story of chasing your dreams, redefining failure and success, and reembracing the enduring magic of movies.
 

Lisa Craig Brisson is Executive Director of the Michigan Museums Association and a strong advocate for Michigan’s cultural sector. She serves as President of the Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan and sits on the board of the Upper Peninsula Arts and Culture Alliance. Brisson lives on Mackinac Island and in Cheboygan and is nationally recognized for her museum advocacy work.

Lisa with be the moderator for the discussion: Holding Ground, Finding Direction: Museums in a Time of Change

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The Michigan Museums Association (MMA), founded in 1971, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Michigan’s museum community through shared learning, advocacy, and collaboration. Representing over 650 institutions—including art, history, science, maritime, and youth museums, as well as zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens—MMA fosters professional development through programming, hosts an annual conference, presents awards, and champions cultural policy. Its mission: thriving museums, vibrant communities.