Announcing the ISC Mentorship Program!

Written By Vinson Valega

Through a thoughtful matching process, artists can work directly with mentors whose experience spans higher education, museums, nonprofit leadership, galleries, arts journalism, publishing, community engagement, and many other areas of the arts.

Meet Our Mentors!

What makes ISC mentorship different is its emphasis on practical, actionable guidance. As part of our Connection Hub, it is our mission to make accessible these amazing and generous individuals to those who might need direction and assistance with certain aspects of their artistic lives.

Mari Spirito
Executive Director, Curator, Protocinema.

Seph Rodney
Arts Writer, Editor, and Curator.

Each mentor establishes their own fees, although all have generously agreed to begin with an approximately 30-minute introductory conversation to determine whether the relationship is a good fit.

Suggested fees range from $75–150 per hour, and ISC receives no portion of these mentoring fees. 

We invite you to visit our Mentorship Page to learn more about our inaugural group of twelve mentors. They include artists, writers, nonprofit leaders, gallerists, curators, and other educators.

Areas of expertise include: community building, grant proposals, sourcing funding, public art, RFQs, exhibitions, leadership strategies, legacy planning, and much more!

Find the mentor whose experience best matches your goals:

Alexandra Siclait
Austin Thomas
Brian Clyne
Erika Diamond
Felicity Hogan
Jan Wurm
Kealey Boyd
Leslie Gerber-Seid
Mari Spirito
Mitra Khorasheh
Seph Rodney
Yasmeen Abdallah

Find Your Mentor!
Vinson Valega

Vinson Valega is a Media Producer, Jazz Musician & Activist.

He is a full-time freelancer attracted to compelling ideas told through creative storytelling.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics in 1987, he moved to New York and immediately fell in love with the city. In the 1990s, Vinson studied jazz performance at the Mannes College of Music (now part of the New School) and began his freelance music career. Around that time, he began booking live jazz ensembles for corporate and private events through his newly minted music agency, Just Jazz.

In 2003, his activism took off when he began blogging and making original jazz recordings accompanied by his liner notes focused on social change. Then in 2009, he turned his music label, Consilience Productions, into a 501(C)(3) Non-Profit Organization that uses music to increase civic engagement.

As his music career was proceeding, he simultaneously began working as a Project Manager on large-scale public art commissions by his wife, artist Sharon Louden. Then in 2014 after graduating from a video journalism program at the Columbia University School of Journalism, he founded Mill City Profiles, a video production company dedicated to telling important personal stories using moving images. In 2016 he added to his portfolio of creative skills by becoming a Squarespace specialist, designing beautiful mobile-friendly websites for creatives, non-profits, and small businesses.

Vinson now lives in Jackson Heights, Queens with Sharon.

http://www.vinsonvalega.com
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