Anya Sirota is an interdisciplinary designer. She creates scenographies, architectural installations and experimental environments. As principal of Akoaki, and co founder of the Detroit based research and urban intervention platform, the Metropolitan Observatory of Digital Culture and Representation (MODCaR), Anya works on projects that use cultural production to create impact on public space and perception. The work, ranging from pop up film festivals to illicit galleries on industrial rooftops to Afrofuturist neighborhood stage props, has received recognition in the United States and abroad. Most recently, Anya helped launch the ONE Mile project in Detroit’s North End. The collaborative effort combines design and performance to activate a mile long stretch of a legendary musical district. She holds a degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and teaches architecture at the University of Michigan.

Cézanne Charles, Director of Creative Industries, is responsible for co-leading the design and implementation of Creative Many’s creative industries research, reporting and supporting efforts to define public policy strategies, sector supports and investment priorities. Charles directs Creative Many’s statewide programs providing the knowledge, networks and advocacy needed to help empower the practices of artists, designers, makers and creative technologists within the state. She is also a member of the Creative Economy Coalition of the National Creativity Network engaged in the development of a creative economy public policy agenda for the US and North America. She joined Creative Many in 2008.

Charles also co-directs rootoftwo, LLC, a hybrid design studio founded with John Marshall in 1998. rootoftwo, based in metro Detroit, makes hybrid design projects, social objects, experiences and works for the public realm – typically at the scale of devices, furniture or small buildings – to encourage interaction and engagement. Their experimental objects and experiences attempt to disrupt and expose existing systems of social behavior through humor, play, interaction and participation. Recent project, Whithervanes – commissioned by The Creative Foundation for the Folkestone Triennial 2014 was featured in Wired, Dezeen, and Fast Company. The duo were also part of the Detroit editorial and conceptual team for Near Future Lab’s “To Be Designed” Catalog. Their projects create a condition where we can perceive ourselves; the here and now; and perhaps the future, differently. http://www.rootoftwo.com

Mara is the chief operating officer for Americans for the Arts and is responsible for the overall performance of the organization, working to ensure its resources are used effectively to accomplish the organization’s complex strategic plan. Mara has developed programming to meet the needs of a growing constituency of organizations and individuals committed to using the arts to impact communities and lives. She was instrumental in the merger of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies and American Council for the Arts that led to the formation of Americans for the Arts and has played an active role in other partnerships and mergers that have grown the organization’s reach. Mara, a native New Yorker, has worked in arts administration for more than 25 years at a variety of theater companies and arts organizations nationwide. She holds a B.A. in theatre and an MFA in theatre management.