Biennial of the Americas Denver 2010

The 2010 Biennial of the Americas is an international event that celebrates the culture, ideas and people of the Western Hemisphere, hosted by the City of Denver.

Biennial Staff

  1. Jim Polsfut

    President of The Americas Roundtable

    As President of the Cordillera Foundation, Jim Polsfut focuses on international grant-making and on dialogue creation, including the Rocky Mountain Roundtable during the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and The Americas Roundtable currently. Previously, Mr. Polsfut led a GE Capital division in Mexico. He earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.

    jpolsfut@biennialoftheamericas.org

  2. Donna Mullen Good

    President of Operations and Finance

    Ms. Good served as Executive Director for the 1997 Denver Summit of the Eight Host Committee. She is a recognized leader in successfully running international events. Highlights of her international experience also include serving as Executive Director on the U.S. Host Committee – International Summit on Hazardous Waste Disposal – U.S. Department of Energy.

    dgood@biennialoftheamericas.org

  3. Rachel Chaparro

    Director of Communications

    Ms. Chaparro is an experienced communications and public relations professional. She has successfully run local and statewide political campaigns, managed large-scale public outreach efforts for non-profits and conducted policy research for the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Bighorn Center for Public Policy.

    rchaparro@biennialoftheamericas.org

  4. Holly Barrett

    Manager of Foundation and Corporate Relations

    Ms. Barrett has ten years experience working in the non-profit sector, helping to connect philanthropic people with the issues they care about. Prior to coming to the Biennial she was with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence; before that she was with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains; before that Opera Colorado.

    hbarrett@biennialoftheamericas.org

  5. Steven Katich

    Director of Arts and Culture

    Mr. Katich is an attorney by trade and has successfully coordinated numerous public and private events, including two Super Bowl parades, the opening of Denver International Airport for United Airlines, an Olympic exhibition baseball game and a Mayoral inaugural.

    skatich@biennialoftheamericas.org

  6. Veronica Figoli

    Director of The Americas Roundtable

    Mrs. Figoli, originally from Venezuela, is a multicultural strategist who has an understanding of pure Latin markets (i.e. South America, Central America) and U.S. Hispanic markets. On numerous occasions she has been called upon to serve as a liaison and facilitate communication between top corporations in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States.

    vfigoli@biennialoftheamericas.org

  7. Ben Racine

    Program Coordinator of The Americas Roundtable

    Mr. Racine previously worked for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Golden State Warriors and has recently turned his attention from the world of professional sports to public policy and politics. Mr. Racine is helping shape The Americas Roundtable by coordinating program material and selecting discussion participants.

    bracine@biennialoftheamericas.org

  8. Fabby Hillyard

    Program Coordinator of The Americas Roundtable

    Ms. Hillyard is the former Director of Art Culture and Film (DOCA) and Director of the Theatres and Arenas Division for the City and County of Denver. During her tenure with the city, she helped led the renovation of Red Rocks Amphitheatre creating the new visitor center and the expansion of the Colorado Convention Center.

    fhillyard@biennialoftheamericas.org

  9. Melissa Dock

    Executive Assistant

    Melissa Dock joined the Biennial Team in December 2009 after leaving her job as Director of Marketing for a small Equity Firm. Ms. Dock earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Colorado with a focus on international markets. While earning her degree she studied abroad in Florence, Italy where is focused on International Business Relations.

    mdock@biennialoftheamericas.org

  10. Martha Rodriguez

    Director of Volunteers

    Martha Rodriguez currently serves as the Director of Volunteers. Prior to the Biennial, Martha was on staff at The Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships as the Census Outreach Specialist for the City and County of Denver overseeing Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Complete Count Committee for the 2010 Census.

    mrodriguez@biennialoftheamericas.org

Board of Directors

  1. Don V. Bailey

    Triton Investment Company dbailey@tritonproperties.com

  2. Patricia Barela-Rivera

      PBRDenver@gmail.com

  3. Mario Carrera

    Entravision Communications Corporation mcarrera@entravision.com

  4. Zee Ferrufino

      zee@kbno.net

  5. Michael T. Fries

    Liberty Global, Inc. mfries@lgi.com

  6. Amy Harmon

    Urban Market Development, LLC amy@urbanmarketpartners.com

  7. James R. Mulvihill

    Black Creek Capital, LLC jmulvihill@blackcreekcapital.com

  8. Erin Trapp Ph.D.

    Denver Office of Cultural Affairs erin.trapp@denvergov.org

  9. Edward (Ted) White III

    Moye White LLP ted.white@moyewhite.com

  10. Roxane White

    Chief of Staff for Mayor Hickenlooper roxane.white@denvergov.org

  11. Thomas Williams

    Williams Group LLC williamsgroupllc@msn.com

Curatorial Team

  1. Paola Santoscoy

    Curator

    Paola Santoscoy is a curator and writer on contemporary art based in Mexico City. A frequent collaborator at internationally recognized exhibition spaces and museums in Mexico, she most recently worked as Associate Curator at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (2003-2007). She is co-founder of the curatorial project 111 (one artists, one day, one night) in this same city. In 2009 she earned an MA degree from the Visual and Critical Studies Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

  2. María del Carmen Carrión

    Curatorial Advisor

    María del Carmen Carrión is an Ecuadorian curator, writer, and cultural advisor. She is co-founder of Ceroinspiración an exhibition and residency space in Quito. In 2005 she earned her master's degree from the Curatorial Practice program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She currently lives between Quito and San Francisco.

  3. Alexandra Solomon

    Curatorial Assistant

    Alexandra Solomon is a Christie's Education graduate with an MA in Fine and Decorative Arts and Connoisseurship. She was awarded a Fellowship at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice and her main emphasis has been in the Latin American Contemporary art scene. Her most recent work has been with Jacob Karpio Galería based in Costa Rica where she has worked on managing exhibitions and curation for International Art Fairs.

  4. Kate Lesta

    Associate Curator for Music and Live performance

    Kate Lesta is a founding member of Communikey and the International Cities of Advanced Sound network (I.C.A.S.) She resides in Boulder Colorado, where she produces the annual Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts. She is also the International liaison for Kidspatch, Children's Festival of New Creativity.

  5. Jonathan Root

    Associate Curator for Video and Live Performance

    Jonathan T. Root is an Art Director, Event Designer and Video Performance Artist, who currently creates stage productions and live visuals for nationally touring musical artists. Jonathan previously served as co-founder and director of Doja Art Gallery in Denver, Colorado. He studied Art Theory and Design at Ringling College of Art and Design.

  6. Lauren Higgins

    Associate Curator for the Speaker Series

    Lauren Higgins is an experienced artist, social-environmental system consultant and social strategist whose practices reflect her personal commitment to holistic design, transformational change in human systems as well as arts and cultural exchange. She is currently the Sustainabilty Director for The CMKY Festival of Electronic Arts, where she establishes an intersection for Ecology, Technology and the Arts, and is Co-Director for Project GreenUP at Blue and Yellow Logic, a Denver- based social enterprise focused on multiculturalism in the green movement.

  7. Relja Bobić

    Associate Curator for Children Programming

    Relja Bobić is an independent curator, arts and events manager, music promoter, radio presenter, DJ and occasionally electronic musician and journalist. He is based in Belgrade, Serbia where he has been the author and executive producer of several hundreds of music, visual arts and artistic education projects, events, and radio shows, all of them in the independent production of the Belgradeyard Sound System, a collective which he co-founded in 1999. Since 2002, his main focus is the annual DIS-PATCH Festival of Cutting-Egde Music and Related Art. He is often invited to contribute guest programs at local and international manifestations. He is also the co-curator of KIDSPATCH festival since its inception in 2008.

  8. Nana Radenković

    Associate Curator for Children Programming

    Nana Radenković is an art historian, freelance cultural manager and a curator based in Belgrade, Serbia focused on the fields of artistic education and contemporary music and graphic art and design. She has worked as a general manager of several Serbian cultural institutions, as well as on various individual and independent projects from the fields of contemporary art, new media, visual culture, film, theatre and electronic music. She has worked as the executive producer of more than 500 exhibitions and events. In 2008, she co-initiated KIDSPATCH, a new festival format celebrating “New Children's Creativity”.