CITYarts is taking a breath of fresh air! Join us in celebrating our 33rd annual
Making a Difference Through the Arts Awards, to be presented at CITYarts’ Back to Life Gala.
JUNE 21, 2022
6:00-9:00pm
The Altman Building (135 W 18th Street, New York)
We will be honoring three inspiring individuals who have made a significant impact on the arts and education in our city and abroad. Their diverse personalities and humanity, exemplified through living and acting according to what they believe in, no matter how difficult or time consuming, is the guiding light for us and our next generation of leaders!
BERNARD LUMPKIN
Nationally recognized advocate and art collector supporting young artists of color, Bernard Lumpkin’s collection is the subject of the current traveling exhibition and accompanying book, “Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists” (2020). His commitment to emerging artists is part of a broader mission of patronage and philanthropy. He currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Board of Trustees of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Bernard's vision of never leaving a gifted artist behind continuously inspires new collectors, museums, and galleries to do the same. He is a wonderful example of how the power of art can change lives.
SHERON WYANT-LEONARD
Sheron Wyant-Leonard is author of the award-winning book I Will: How Four American Indians Put Their Lives on the Line and Changed History (Arcade, 2021), which covers a twenty-year research period with Indigenous men and women about their times in the American Indian Movement. Sheron’s work on the book led to a strong friendship with former Tribal Judge and Movement leader Dorothy Ninham of the Oneida Indian Nation. I Will recently received first place in Native American Studies from the Midwest Book Review and is now in libraries and bookstores across the USA. Her writing takes on the hard issues of Human Rights and the human struggles that have often evolved unfairly in American society.
Sheron was born in the heart of the Jim Crow south in 1957’s Montgomery, Alabama, to an Army Airborne Ranger and a mother who worked for the Department of Defense. Drawn to the arts at a young age, she worked in the American theater with legendary director Adrian Hall and studied with renowned playwright, Donald Freed. Her first play about the AIDS Quilt was adapted into a musical, titled In Stitches and was staged during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The Names Project said that “likely the quilt would never come out of boxes again.” But four months later it was on the White House lawn. A good story can move past the mind and hit right at the heart.
With this love for diverse forms of storytelling, her next project was as a cookbook writing consultant for her cousin, Chef Art Smith. Back to the Table reminisced about their childhood adventures in Florida on his family farm and received the coveted James Beard Foundation Award. For her, it began a lifelong affair with stories out of North Florida. Wyant-Leonard’s latest project is a new musical book based on Jack Healey, former director of Amnesty International USA, whom she worked with on “I Will” short films as part of the Leonard Peltier clemency campaign.
An attention to historical struggles, contemporary conditions, and universal rights form a thread through Sheron’s creative writing practice. The characters in I Will understand both the humor and the profound sadness born of a poverty not of one’s own making. Among the praise the book has received, James Silk, Binger clinical professor of human rights at Yale Law School, has said that Sheron “has a poet’s way with words”, and Judge Kevin H. Sharp, CITYarts 2021 Keynote Speaker who fights for the clemency of Peltier, has said that it is both “heartbreaking and inspiring.”
CHRISTOPHER PADMORE
Christopher Padmore is an educator, who has worked for the NYC Department of Education for nearly twenty years. He has fostered innovative leadership as School Principal at Brooklyn’s Middle School for Art and Philosophy and has demonstrated an unwavering enthusiasm and commitment to youth education, and the cultivation of creativity, intellectual curiosity, and critical thinking at crucial stages in the learning development of our youth.
During the pandemic, Christopher saw the emotional stress that his students were going through. He called CITYarts and encouraged us to start immediately on a mural project. It not only ignited their imaginations but brought them out of their isolation to say "We not only
grow, we soar." This year Christopher was named an Executive Leadership Coach in multiple states. He works with school leaders to provide equitable access to high quality instruction for historically marginalized communities, students of color, and students living in poverty.
We are excited to announce ROY BAHAT as our Keynote Speaker on The Future of Work.
About 30 years ago, a bright-eyed teenager approached me at a family gathering and said, “I want to intern for you. On his first day at CITYarts I said “Roy, take three days to look at CITYarts inside and out, and tell me what will be a challenge for you to do with us.” Less than a day later he came back to me and said: “You don’t have a database. I would like to build one for you.” This is how CITYarts’ first database was created, by a 17-year-old student from Stuyvesant High School in New York City. At the end of the year, we gladly gave him a letter of recommendation to Harvard University. Today, Roy Bahat is considered one of the most creative people in business.
Roy Bahat is the Head of Bloomberg Beta, the first venture capital fund to focus on the future of work. He has started venture-backed companies, been a corporate executive (at News Corporation), in government (at New York's City Hall), in media, in academia, and named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Roy is faculty at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He hosts a weekday show called #thisisnotadvice, where he answers questions on how to thrive at work.
Roy was a commissioner on the California Governor's Future of Work Commission, and is on the board or an advisor to several non-profits including Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and the Economic Security Project. He graduated from Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
We are delighted to have WNBC’s LYNDA BAQUERO as our
Master of Ceremonies for the 2022 CITYarts Back to Life Gala!
Emmy® Award winning Lynda Baquero is NBC 4 New York’s consumer reporter. Lynda’s “Better Get Baquero” segments resolve consumer complaints and provide updates on the latest consumer alerts. "Better Get Baquero" can be seen Monday through Friday during the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts.
Baquero’s reporting was a key component of NBC 4 New York’s award-winning COVID-19 coverage, honored in January, 2021 with the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “creat(ing) a 360 view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic, with courageous and thorough reporting on the virus’s explosion in New York City.” The duPont has long been recognized as the broadcast, documentary and on-line equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, also awarded by Columbia University.
She is also host of the long-running series “Visiones” which highlights issues that affect the Hispanic community by presenting informative conversations from newsmakers, community leaders and celebrities on arts, education and health.
Baquero has been with NBC 4 in a variety of high-profile positions and has filed reports both at home and abroad. Lynda reported live from Puerto Rico on the country’s economy and tourism and President Obama’s visit to the island in 2011; Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Holy Land; Cuba’s economy and the state of religion as the country prepared for the Pope’s historic visit. She covered the Salt Lake City and Atlanta Olympic Games; traveled to the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico to cover the arrival and devastating aftermath of Hurricane Georges and to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for a series of reports titled “Women in Combat.” Lynda covered also covered President Obama’s 2012 visit to New York.
Baquero has co-anchored NBC 4’s “Weekend Today in New York;” “News 4 New York at 6 P.M.” and “NewsChannel 4 at 6 P.M.”. She has also served as host of the nationally broadcast business program, “Hispanics Today”. The recipient of a 1998 local Emmy Award for "Religious Programming" for her coverage of the Pope's visit to Cuba, Baquero also received a 2006 Emmy award for “Best Evening Newscast” with Chuck Scarborough.
Baquero has received numerous awards and recognitions. She was named one of El Diario La Prensa’s “Mujeres Destacadas” (Outstanding Women) and received the Consulate General of Israel’s “Woman of Valor” award. She was honored by New York University College of Arts and Sciences with their "Alumni Achievement" award and received the "Excellence in English Language Media" award from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.
Dedicated to helping young people achieve their potential, Baquero is on the Board of Directors of Let’s Get Ready, a non-profit organization that serves the educational needs of New York City students. She also serves on the Board of the Byram Hills Education Foundation, supporting students in Westchester County. She is also an active supporter of El Museo del Barrio’s arts and education programs.
Fluent in Spanish and French, Baquero is a graduate of New York University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism. She delivered the 2013 Commencement Address at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for her alma mater Cathedral High School.
Baquero and her husband have two daughters.
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