Cultural Dynamics: Co-Creating a Vision for Philadelphia
The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is proud to host "Cultural Dynamics: Co-Creating a Vision for Philadelphia," a groundbreaking convening featuring Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD, Chair, National Endowment for the Arts, with opening remarks from Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Senior Vice President of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Shawn McCaney, Executive Director of the William Penn Foundation. As we look forward to the enactment of Mayor Parker’s new strategies and initiatives, and as we prepare for a landmark year in 2026, Philadelphians will come together to envision how arts policies can foster social impact and economic prosperity. On September 10, 2024, Cultural Dynamics will unite civic leaders, artists, and community members to explore strategies that integrate arts and culture into transformative civic decision-making. We invite the public to join us for a livestream of this important conversation and a series of community-based meetings that will follow.
Due to extremely limited capacity, registration is available by invitation only.
This event will be livestreamed for the public, more information coming soon!
Featuring
Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD | Chair, National Endowment for the Arts
In January 2022, Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD became the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Her appointment by President Biden is historic as she is the agency’s first African American and first Mexican American woman to serve as NEA Chair. Jackson’s career has focused on understanding and elevating arts, culture, and design as crucial elements of healthy and equitable communities.
An urban planner, researcher, and academic, Chair Jackson is a tenured professor on leave from Arizona State University, where she led the Studio for Creativity, Place and Equitable Communities. For almost ten years, she served as a senior advisor on arts and culture and strategic learning, research, and evaluation at the Kresge Foundation and has advised other foundations. For 18 years, Chair Jackson worked at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, where she was the founding director of the Culture, Creativity and Communities Program. She has served on numerous boards on national and local nonprofit organizations.
Donna Frisby-Greenwood | Senior Vice President at The Pew Charitable Trusts
Donna Frisby-Greenwood is senior vice president at The Pew Charitable Trusts, leading the organization’s work throughout the Philadelphia region and with communities of biomedical and marine scholars. She supervises Pew’s portfolio of local programmatic work and grantmaking, which includes informing discussions on important policy issues facing the city, supporting the health and welfare of the region’s most vulnerable populations, partnering with local institutions to encourage a thriving arts and cultural community, and pursuing civic initiatives to strengthen Philadelphia’s appeal to residents and visitors alike.
Frisby-Greenwood joined Pew after serving as president and chief executive officer of The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, which identifies, coordinates, and connects philanthropic resources to leverage investments in the city’s public schools. Before that, she was Philadelphia program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, executive director of After-School All-Stars Philadelphia, executive director of Rock the Vote, and a National Urban Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She currently serves as vice chair and director of National Urban Fellows Inc., secretary and director of the Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, and director of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education Foundation.
Frisby-Greenwood holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Virginia and a master’s in public administration from Baruch College.
Shawn McCaney | Executive Director of the William Penn Foundation
Shawn brings more than 10 years of leadership experience at the Foundation to his role as Executive Director. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, he was the founding program director for the Creative Communities program and managed National Initiatives for the Foundation, seeking to expand philanthropy in the region and share the Foundation’s learnings with others focused on similar issues nationwide.
Recently, Shawn oversaw the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy revision process, which is conducted every 10 years. This effort resulted in the adoption of a new mission statement and grantmaking values and principles, the establishment of expanded and new grantmaking priorities, and key changes to the Foundation’s application process to increase its accessibility and transparency. The strategy revision was informed by an extensive stakeholder engagement effort that included nearly 400 conversations with local stakeholders and community members.
Shawn received his graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from Temple University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, an International Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners, and is a licensed Professional Planner in the State of New Jersey. Shawn serves on the board of the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation and is chairman of the Haddonfield Borough Planning Board.
Cultural Dynamics is made possible by the generous support of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the William Penn Foundation
Special thanks to our partners, Pennsylvania Humanities and Creative Philadelphia
Thank you to our in-kind sponsors Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
