Art Impact® USA
Nourishing Artists To Nourish Humanity With Great Art
Nourishing Artists To Nourish Humanity With Great Art
We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC with offices in Virginia, and New York.
OUR MISSION:
To cultivate, grow and support artists so that their creative gifts enrich our lives.
Art Impact™ USA emboldens an enriched world community through support of its multi-cultural, multi-national artists. The organization is connected with over 1600 artists in sixteen different countries, including Brazil, China, Greece, Guyana, Jamaica, India, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Serbia, St. Lucia, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, and Crow Nation, USA!
Art Impact™USA creates synergistic relationships with corporations, non-profits, hospitals, embassies and artists around the world, establishing opportunities for artists to exhibit and shine their light. To support young, emerging and seasoned artists the organization offers free training programs and various exhibition opportunities. These enable the artists to grow and shine the light of their creativity to benefit humanity, inspire communities and their leaders for the good of our nation and the world at large.
OUR MISSION:
To cultivate, grow and support artists so that their creative gifts enrich our lives.
Art Impact™ USA emboldens an enriched world community through support of its multi-cultural, multi-national artists. The organization is connected with over 1600 artists in sixteen different countries, including Brazil, China, Greece, Guyana, Jamaica, India, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Serbia, St. Lucia, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, and Crow Nation, USA!
Art Impact™USA creates synergistic relationships with corporations, non-profits, hospitals, embassies and artists around the world, establishing opportunities for artists to exhibit and shine their light. To support young, emerging and seasoned artists the organization offers free training programs and various exhibition opportunities. These enable the artists to grow and shine the light of their creativity to benefit humanity, inspire communities and their leaders for the good of our nation and the world at large.
Our Commitment to Diversity
Art Impact™ USA Inc. is committed to diversity in all board members, staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making with equitable treatment and elimination of discrimination in all its forms.
Art Impact™ USA Inc. is committed to diversity in all board members, staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making with equitable treatment and elimination of discrimination in all its forms.
Board of Governors
|
Carolyn Goodridge, Founder. President and Executive Director.
Goodridge holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and an Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As Artist, Curator, and Instructor for over thirty years her role as servant leader is to help artists expand their careers as well as work with non-profits, corporations and leaders in their fields who hold dear the creative potential of our nation. |
Goodridge currently works with 1500 artists in fourteen countries. Curating art exhibitions from Rome, Italy to Washington, D.C. Goodridge is a member of College Art Association, American Alliance of Museums, National Association of Professional Women, and Ambassador of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
|
|
Hubert Jackson, Vice President
Jackson earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Education at Virginia State University in 1965. After graduation, he moved to Washington D.C. It was during these postgraduate years that he really intensified his painting education. By 1971 he earned his Master’s degree in painting from Howard University. At Howard, he enjoyed studying with James Porter, Lois Jones, Ed Love, Jeff Donaldson, and Starmanda Bullock. In the early ‘70s, he participated in the historical national movement of community based mural projects under the advisement of Hughie Lee-Smith. In 1999 Jackson retired from 34 years of teaching art in the Washington, D.C. |
public school system, 27 of those years dedicated to his students at Woodrow Wilson High School. He so inspired his art students that several of them became art professionals themselves.
Continuing his passion for learning, in early 2004, he attended the Corcoran School of Art where he studied under noted artists William Christenberry and Steven Cushner. Jackson has exhibited extensively. His work is in a number of private collections, not only in the U.S., but also outside the U.S. These include ambassadors of foreign countries such as Lesotho, Ghana, Guinea and New Guinea, through the Artist in Embassies program. |
|
Renee Nelson, Secretary
Nelson has served for the past eight years at Mattawoman Creek Art Center (MCAC), a non-profit organization in Charles County, Maryland. Her roles there have been many and varied, to include administrative coordinator, exhibit curator, Art Advisory Committee member, instructor, webmaster, and currently as a member of the MCAC Board of Directors. For several years she taught creative writing at the College of Southern Maryland and other venues around the D.C. Metro area. Renee is an editor, a published novelist and poet, and a prolific multi-media visual artist with a focus and delight in all things tactile. She works in watercolor, fused glass, ceramics, encaustic and clay, and has exhibited in many juried, solo and group shows. Her work is held in many private collections. Of the creative process she says, “Whether I’m writing a story or poem, painting a picture, or creating a sculpture, I want the end result to be something meaningful that causes the reader or viewer to feel something |
to be moved in some way, whether happy, sad, surprised, inspired, nostalgic or simply transported to another place for a moment in time.”
Born in San Francisco and raised in central California, she served 8 years in the U.S. Air Force which afforded her the chance to live several years in the Philippines and travel through much of Asia. While overseas she served as a medical liaison, coordinating patient movement between various bases in Guam, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Hawaii and the Continental U.S. She also worked closely with the Far East Network in a journalistic capacity, writing publications, articles, and as a television presence, reporting on local news. She considers herself a lifelong learner, holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, a Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction, is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics, and has been diligently, though comically and only semi-successfully, learning to play the piano for the past several years. |
Advisory Board
|
Louise Todd Lucky
Senior Advisor Retired president of Fine Arts by Todd, one of the country's leading publishers and distributors of African-American art based in Atlanta, GA. |
|
John Armstrong, CFO
President at Performance Management Services, LLC Washington D.C. Metro Area Management Consulting |
Skilled in operational excellence, growth strategies, executive management, international operations, executive and corporate development, re-engineering, and business process.
|
|
Dr. Margo Thomas
Strategic Planning Director Dr. Margo Thomas is a Lead Expert in Trade and Competitiveness. Her areas of focus include women's economic empowerment, private sector development and public policy. Her experience spans 20 years in international development within the World Bank Group. She has a deep understanding of post conflict and transition economies.
|
Margo holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Private Sector Development from the University of Manchester. Her most recent publications include a collaboration with the London School of Economics and Political Sciences on an edited volume on public policy making in the Western Balkans (publication October, 2014).
|
|
Charlene Hardy, Pro Bono Legal Counsel
An attorney with 15 years of experience providing legal guidance to senior management on employment law issues. Through her work with non-profit arts organizations, Ms. Hardy is furthering her |
interest in the intersection of art and the law, including the legal issues facing museums, collectors, galleries, artists, and arts organizations related to the acquisition, retention, and disposition of fine art.
|
|
Vandorn Hinnant
S.T.E.A.M. Programming Director Vandorn Hinnant received his BA degree in Art Design in 1981 from NC A&T State University in Greensboro, NC. He then lived in New York City and worked for a year as an intaglio printer for the Czechoslovakian born artist, Josef Werner of Germany. In the fall of 1982 and 1984, he studied sculpture at UNC-Greensboro. From 1991 to 1993, he worked in the Artist-In-Schools program through The Green Hill Center for NC Art. In 1995 and 1996, he taught studio art courses at Winston-Salem State University. In 2002 he ended a five year period of serving as curator for the African Heritage Center at his alma mater, NCA&T State University. His original works of art are in numerous private and corporate collections throughout North America.
|
Some works are in Africa and Europe. His works of art are paintings, prints, mixed media assemblages, sculpture, and installations. He is also a visual arts educational consultant working with both youth and adult learners. From 2007 through 2010 Vandorn taught at The Osher Life Long Learning Institute at Duke University, Durham, NC.
Since 2011 the artist has been working to formalize sculptures related to his fascination with the Golden Proportion. In 2013, he was awarded a sculpture commission by the City of Winston-Salem NC commemorating the 100th year anniversary of the 1913 formal merger of the cities Winston NC and Salem NC. The stainless steel twin sculptures “Together We Rise” are located at Corpening Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem NC. |
|
Phyllis Stephens
An award-winning fifth generation quilt maker, considered by critics to be a Master of African-American Story Quilts. Simply stated her quilts are inspirational. She has quilted professionally for more than thirty years. Her quilts have been displayed in some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the world; such as The Museum of the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, Kentucky and the Fine Art Museum of Ghana Africa. It was a special honor for her to show in Ghana, the fabric capital of the world. In 2010, Stephens was awarded by the Georgia House of Representatives, a resolution for her art portfolio entitled “For Crying Out Loud” a tribute to the Children of the Civil Rights Movement. |
She is a published fine artist, whose work is held in both private and corporate collections, including VISA Card Corporation.
Her design process and techniques are cutting edge. Stephens’ work has been described as innovative and fresh. Her color selections and fabric choices are unmatched. She states, “I am an heir to the culture and value of the African tradition of quilt making. The long process allows me time to travel to some of the sweetest places in my memories. Like the quilting parties I enjoyed as a little girl. It was there that sewing hands and tall tales flowed one in the same. I enjoy every part, every process and the special privilege of creating a quilt”. |
|
Nia Tavlarides Stratos
Native Washingtonian, Nia Tavlarides Stratos' natural artistic ability was evident in her youth. She was awarded a scholarship to The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, where her work was exhibited. Burlington Industries purchased her paintings to be used in textile design. She completed her studies at The University of Maryland where she participated in juried shows for painting and jewelry design. Her line of jewelry was sold to boutiques and department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales. She later became a partner in a Washington, DC based advertising agency where her work garnered both regional and national awards. Nia has participated in juried shows as well as many solo & group shows in galleries and institutions, including The Smithsonian, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Art Basel (Miami), The Ritz Carlton, University of Maryland, George Mason University, The Whittemore House Museum and The Women’s National Democratic Club. |
She is a published fine artist, whose work is held in both private and corporate collections, including VISA Card Corporation.
She has mastered the use of color with palettes that range from harmonious, muted, conceptualizations to bold, iconoclastic expressions. She explores a rich synthesis of pattern and spatial composition, through various media. Nia feels each composition is a mosaic of elements demanding amalgamation. Every work of art provides a thoughtful vehicle to interpret texture and dimension and is an examination of color and style through the use of various media. Nia's work opens a window and reveals who she really is. Nia states, "The art work is complete when I have nothing left to say and can happen in an instant, it is instinctual. I love to paint to music and apply the paint in rhythm to what I am hearing. I work with all my senses. I am inspired by the simplest things. Color excites and motivates me" |
