Artist Mentors | Staff | Board of Directors | Press | Directions
Staff
Jason Yoon, Executive Director
jason AT newurbanarts DOT org
Jason Yoon joined New Urban Arts as its Executive Director in February 2008. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Finance and Operations at the DreamYard Project, a Bronx New York non-profit provider of arts education programs. He also founded and directed 7ARTS, a youth arts program for teenagers based in the Queens Museum of Art and worked as the Development Coordinator at the Explore Charter School, an award-winning public charter school. In his time as Executive Director of New Urban Arts the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities recognized New Urban Arts as one of the nation's 50 best youth arts programs and the United States Department of Education selected New Urban Arts as just one of 20 high school after-school programs to be included in a national study of best practices to be completed in 2010. In 2009, at a White House Ceremony, Jason accepted a Coming Up Taller Award on behalf of New Urban Arts from First Lady Michelle Obama. An initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Coming Up Taller award is the nation’s highest honor for the field of out-of-school time arts and humanities programs.
Jason has an MPA in public and nonprofit management from NYU Wagner's Graduate School of Public Service where he was a Carl Long Dean's Fellow and earned a BFA in painting and art history from the Rhode Island School of Design. While at the Rhode Island School of Design, Jason worked as an Artist Mentor in New Urban Arts' after-school program. A native New Yorker, Jason currently resides in the West Broadway section of Providence Rhode Island.
Sarah Meyer, Program Director
sarah AT newurbanarts DOT org
Sarah Meyer joined New Urban Arts as its Program Director in October 2005. Sarah Meyer is a creative non-fiction writer, but her passion for the arts and her impulse for creative living extend beyond the written word. As New Urban Arts' Program Director, Sarah has developed many new initiatives including the Summer Art Inquiry program, the annual Art Inquiry program resource guide and S.T.A.B. (Studio Team Advisory Board), New Urban Arts' youth leadership council. Under her direction, New Urban Arts has achieved record youth and artist participation in its programs as well as record attendance at its public programs and exhibitions.
Prior to coming to New Urban Arts, Sarah worked to build the emerging youth writing community through Young Chicago Authors, which included Louder Than A Bomb, the Chicago Teen Poetry Festival and Youthology, a summer program that culminated in a multimedia performance exploring societal notions and stereotypes of youth culture. She holds a B.A. in English from Portland State University with a focus on grantwriting and gender studies. As a recipient of the Arts in Youth and Community Development Fellowship, she completed coursework for her Masters in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2005. Her thesis explores organizational transition, growth and rebirth in community-based youth arts organizations, identifying best practices for creating an environment capable of change. As an educator and youth advocate, Sarah has taught creative writing, theater, collage, and leadership training to youth ages 8-21 since 1997. She works to develop supportive environments that engage youth in creative inquiry and personal development.
Tamara Kaplan, Operations Manager
tamara AT newurbanarts DOT org
Tamara received a B.F.A in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1994. She then received a M.A. with a specialization in Museum Education and M.A.T. certification in K-12 arts education from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2000. During the years between schooling, Tamara worked as a production supervisor at a tile factory in New Jersey and a studio assistant at two production pottery studios in New Hampshire. She was subcontracted by Miotto Mosaics to create 6’ x 3’ mosaic panels for Canal Street Station, NYC. Tamara also spent time working in her studio and teaching adults and kids how to throw pots.
Ten years ago, Tamara started working with various Providence communities as a graduate candidate at RISD. Her graduate thesis was an in-depth look into how art museums can access new audiences by engaging teaching artists to develop work in communities not usually engaged in museum visits. This work led her to the position of Program Director at New Urban Arts, then a three-year-old grassroots arts organization. For the past eight years, Tamara has worked to provide Providence high school students with a safe and non-judgmental space in the out-of-school time to make art while developing caring relationships with adults and a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. After spending seven months as the Interim Executive Director, Tamara now serves as the Operations Manager.
Tamara's letterpress sits on her dining room and her four-year-old twin daughters are currently using her typewriter. These days, she works in letterpress, paper, sewing, prints, and words.Jesse Banks III, Studio Manager
jesse AT newurbanarts DOT org
Jesse Banks III is a freelance photographer who was raised in Liberia and currently resides in Providence. Jesse has had many roles at New Urban Arts, starting as a student over seven years ago, he has spent many years as an Artist Mentor, a board member, and most recently joined the staff as the Studio Manager.
His photography has been published in many Rhode Island newspapers including Providence Monthly. Jesse studied photography as a student at New Urban Arts with Artist Mentors’ Erik Gould, and Kat Ball. Jesse’s work explores personality and spirit through portraiture. Jesse continues to give back to NUA positive experiences that were given to him as a student. He is continuing to explore his creative voice and practice both within and outside of photography.
Daniel Schleifer, Development Associate
daniel AT newurbanarts DOT org
Daniel Schleifer received his B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Brown University in 2004. Since 2004 until recently, Daniel has worked as a policy researcher, organizer, grant writer and lobbyist for Open Doors RI (formally the RI Family Life Center). In 2006, he served as field director of the Rhode Island Right to Vote Campaign (a project of Open Doors RI), a successful effort to amend by referendum, the Rhode Island Constitution, to extend voting rights to individuals on probation and parole. Daniel also wrote the grants that funded the campaign, raising over $300,000.
Daniel joined the New Urban Arts community in the fall of 2007 to pilot our Studio Study Buddy program, which combines academic tutoring with the structure and principles of New Urban Arts' Artist Mentorship. Daniel is also a founding member, Sousaphone player, and composer in the What Cheer? Brigade, an 18-member brass band that has toured internationally.
Tyler Denmead, Founder
Tyler Denmead started New Urban Arts as an undergraduate at BrownRead a detailed biography of Tyler Denmead
By Ashley Paniagua, Student 2001 - 2005
