Appointed by the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, the Arts Commission Advisory Board consists of 15 Orange County citizens over age 18 who help to steer the commission’s future and provide suggestions to the BOCC on arts & culture issues. The advisory board meets the 2nd Monday of each month (except for December) at 6:30 pm, alternating between the Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough and Peel Gallery in Carrboro.
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
Denise Duffy, Chair
Francesca Talenti, Vice-Chair
John Claude Bemis, Secretary
Krista Bremer
Alexander Gast
Renee Hayes
Lindsay Metivier
Ashley Nissler
Josh Rosenstein
Wendy Smith
Heather Washburn
Dr. Crystal Wu
Gideon Young
Click here to view the Meeting Schedule and Meeting Archives.
ABOUT US
Denise Duffy, Chair
Denise has a BA from Hampshire College and joined husband Tim in managing Music Maker after leaving a successful career in the fashion industry. Denise’s business experience is invaluable to Music Maker as she wears many hats within the organization – she is responsible for operations, financial management, government compliance, and strategic planning. Denise finds bringing people of diverse backgrounds together in musical celebration the most rewarding aspect of her work at Music Maker. She finds inspiration in these bold senior artists launching new careers and blazing new trails around the globe. She and Tim have two children.
Francesca Talenti, Vice Chair
Francesca Talenti is a media director and designer who has exhibited her work at The Folger and The Guthrie theaters, on PBS National, and at Sundance, Mumbai, Göteborg, and many other festivals. She has won 18 awards and has received grants from the Independent Television Service, Latino Public Broadcasting, and the Kauffman Foundation. Favorable reviews have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Francesca is a professor emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she taught media production. She holds a B.A. cum laude from Brown University, and an M.F.A. in film production from the University of Southern California.
John Claude Bemis, Secretary
John Claude Bemis is the award-winning author of seven books for young readers including The Wooden Prince (Disney-Hyperion) and The Nine Pound Hammer (Random House). He was selected as North Carolina’s Piedmont Laureate for Children’s Literature in 2013 and received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC-Chapel Hill for his work as an author-educator. He leads writing workshops and story consultations for adults, kids, and teens. John is also a visual artist and songwriter who performs with his band Hooverville. He lives with his wife and daughter in Hillsborough. johnclaudebemis.com
Krista Bremer
Krista Bremer is a published author and also associate publisher of The Sun, a Chapel-Hill based literary magazine that goes out to about 70,000 subscribers around the country. She has taught memoir at the Center for Documentary Studies and has organized panel discussions at Flyleaf and elsewhere in the county. For the past twenty years, Krista has been steeped in literature locally and nationally. Her writing has won a NCAC Arts Fellowship and she has served on the committee to select future recipients. Krista’s work has also won a Pushcart Prize, a Rona Jaffe Award, a Breadloaf scholarship, and other accolades.
Renee Hayes
Renee Hayes has been involved in arts philanthropy for more than 30 years. She served as the Associate Director of Grants for the Arts (GFTA) for 22 years. Established in 1961, GFTA is an international model of arts funding with annual revenue derived from the City and County of San Francisco hotel tax. Since its start, GFTA has distributed approximately $400 million to hundreds of San Francisco nonprofit arts and culture organizations. Ms. Hayes was also a Multicultural Arts Fellow at the San Francisco Foundation, co-chair of the City of Berkeley’s Civic Arts Commission, and is on the Board of The Freight–a nonprofit music organization in Berkeley, California. She relocated to Carrboro, NC in 2022. Renee has a diverse musical background: performing in choruses, bands and musical theatre as well as recording jingles, back-up vocals and three albums. She is a nationally certified counselor and life coach specializing in creative life design.
Lindsay Metivier
Lindsay Metivier is a photographer, an educator, an independent curator, and a gallerist based in Carrboro, North Carolina. She holds a BFA in both Photography and Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA in Studio Art from UNC-Chapel Hill. From 2011 until 2021 Lindsay owned and directed a gallery called Aviary in Boston, Massachusetts. Lindsay recently opened an art space (called Peel) in Carrboro, North Carolina. Peel is part gallery, part digital photo lab, part art book store, part gift shop, and also a community event space. Her work has been exhibited widely, most recently at Lump Gallery, Block Gallery, Oneoneone Gallery, The Nasher Museum at Duke University, The Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, The John and June Allcott Gallery, The Front Gallery, and Transmitter. Her work has been featured on The Heavy Collective, Humble Arts Foundation, and A New Nothing.
Wendy Smith
Wendy Smith (she/her), is the Executive Director at The ArtsCenter and an Orange county native, born into a family of creatives. Having graduated college with a BA in Art History, she naturally grew into a career which celebrated artists and their missions. Her first job was managing and then owning Cameron’s, a funky, local gift gallery which featured the work of artists far and near. After over 25 years in retail, she turned towards the non-profit arts sector, specifically development, where she continued to support artists by raising funds for organizations whose missions provided them crucial services and opportunities. Throughout her career, she served on several local boards and has built a reputation as a compassionate and engaged leader in her community who strives to inspire innovation and growth.
Heather Washburn
I am a native of NC, an artist member of the OC Artist Guild, architect and active member in the community. I look for not only the “big puzzle” but also how the pieces have notches defined by their components and rules. These connections could be the understanding of subtle differences of a new culture, the reasoning behind a sculpture or painting, the relationship between two people, or simply how to make an aspect better. I search for the exhilaration of the “ah ha” moment. The one you get right after finding a solution, and especially when someone is along with you for that discovery. It’s lasting, and it’s what I love about architecture and art.
Dr. Crystal Wu
Crystal, a pianist, teacher, and collaborative artist, has been committed to the arts from an early age, filling her time with piano, violin, and ballet lessons. Her love for music never faltered as she went on to earn her BM in Music Performance from UNC-Chapel Hill where she was a recipient of the prestigious Kenan Music Scholarship. She continued her studies and received a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and a Doctorate in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the University of Georgia. Returning to Chapel Hill in 2019, she currently serves as the marketing and development communications manager for Arts Everywhere at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she strives to share, promote, and amplify all the wonderful arts opportunities in the community.
Gideon Young
Gideon Young is a member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective and the Carrboro Poets Council. A Fellow for A+ Schools of North Carolina and a stay-at-home dad, his debut haiku collection my hands full of light was published by Backbone Press (2021). His poetry is included in Best Spiritual Literature 2022 (Orison Books) and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Find recent work in Callaloo, Our State Magazine, and The Heron’s Nest. Awarded a 2023 Arts in Education Artist Residency Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, discover more at www.gideonyoung.com.
