Ronald Lopez (former executive director) Lopez’ background included more than a decade as a working artist who also has created city art programs in Los Angeles and Istanbul, Turkey. He was the driving artistic vision behind the SUR: Biennial, which debuted in 2011. While in Istanbul, Lopez founded and developed the Aden Art Center, a national, non-profit creative center for young and emerging artists that featured an artist-in-residence program and a visiting artist component for festivals.

Lopez also curated or been part of programs at numerous prominent institutions such as 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, Self-Help Graphics in East Los Angeles; La Casa del Tunel: Art Center in Tijuana, Mexico; and Loyola Marymount University.

Lopez’s honors include the 2010 National Alliance for Media Art + Culture (NAMAC) Fellowship and a 1996 California Arts Council / CORO Arts Leadership Fellowship. He previously worked with the Progressive Arts Academy in Compton; The Regional Arts Council in Los Angeles; as gallery manager at Couturier Gallery and artist-in-residence at various Los Angeles art centers


Julie Deamer Deamer has a history of creating and guiding successful art endeavors supporting contemporary artists. In 1995, she founded an exhibition space in San Francisco called Four Walls. As Director for five years, she presented enterprising projects by many successful artists exhibiting today including Dave Muller, Chris Johanson, Kathryn Van Dyke, Carter, Euan Macdonald, Sam Durant, Ann Walsh, Olav Westphalen, Pae White, Paul Sietsema, Mark Grotjahn, and Christoph Büchel. In 2004, Julie founded Outpost for Contemporary Art to promotes cross-cultural exchange by developing international artistic projects that stimulate social interaction between people. Julie now serves as the Executive Director of Harpo Foundation, established in 2006 to support artists who are under recognized by the field.

board of directors

Thomas McKenzie (president) joined the board in July 2010. He is the Development Manager for Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Arts for All arts education collaborative. Prior to joining the Commission, he served as the Foundation and Community Relations Manager for The Broad Stage, Executive Director of The Fellows of Contemporary Art, Development Consultant for Deaf West Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, and Antaeus Company, and Business Agent for the California Association of Professional Employees. Before arriving in Los Angeles, Thomas co-founded and co-operated the Peninsula Pulse with David Eliot in Door County, Wisconsin from 1996-2001.

David Bloom (vice-president) joined the board in August 2007 and is the Chairman of the Communications Committee. David works as a marketing consultant in Los Angeles. Previously, David was Associate Dean and Chief Communications Officer for the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and Vice President of Corporate Communications at movie studio MGM Inc., and spent 20 years as an award-winning journalist.

Liz Glynn (secretary) joined the board in September 2010. Liz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work explores the ambition of empire and the pleasure of ruin. Her work has been presented at venues including the New Museum, LACMA, and Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin. She is a 2010 California Community Foundation Emerging Artist fellow, and a frequent collaborator with Machine Project and the Public School, Los Angeles.

Leonardo Bravo is an artist, curator and founder/director of Big City Forum, an interdisciplinary project highlighting creative practices across architecture, design, and contemporary art that are reshaping our sense of urban public space. Mr. Bravo is also the Director of School Programs of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, where he oversees the implementation of strategic arts education partnerships with schools and districts across Los Angeles County.

program advisory committee
for south american program cycle

Juan Devis is a Public Media artist and producer working in video, film, interactive media, gaming and public art. His work is often produced collaboratively to allow for a greater exchange of ideas. Devis is currently the Director of New Media Production at KCET – PBS Los Angeles, in charge of all original online content and special projects.

Jennifer Flores Sternad is a critic, curator, and researcher whose work focuses on militant art practice, public art, and intersections of cultural production and political organizing. She has done extensive research on these topics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico and she received fellowships from Harvard University and the University of California Los Angeles to support her research in South America. She is currently a fellow at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions where she is working on an exhibition about performance art in Southern California.

Miki Garcia is the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF), a non-profit, non-collecting alternative art space. Garcia has also worked in New York City at the Public Art Fund and in La Jolla, CA at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. She participates as a guest curator, lecturer, and panelist for various organizations including El Museo del Barrio and Independent Curators International, both in NY, and contributes to a range of publications and exhibition catalogs.

Bill Kelley, Jr. is pursuing his PhD in collaborative art practices in the Americas at UCSD and is the Managing Editor of the non-profit art journal LatinArt.com

Glenn Phillips is Senior Project Specialist and Consulting Curator in the Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art at the Getty Research Institute. He was curator of the exhibition California Video at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2008. He has also organized a number of video series in Los Angeles, including Pioneers of Brazilian Video Art 1973-1983; Surveying the Border: Three Decades of Video Art about the United States and Mexico; Radical Communication: Japanese Video Art 1968-88,; and Reckless Behavior.

Alma Ruiz is a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, with a primary focus on the postwar period in Italy and Latin America, as well as working with emerging artists. She has been a juror for numerous exhibitions and art biennials in the United States and Latin America including the V Panama Biennial, the Tamayo Biennial in Mexico City, the Second Exhibition of Central American emerging artists in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Women Artists on Immigration in Los Angeles. She has served as a panelist for The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and Creative Capital Foundation in New York, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Florida.

board of advisors