Diane Barber has been the Visual Arts Curator of DiverseWorks since 1997 and Co-Executive Director of the organization since September 2006. During her tenure, she has curated more than 60 exhibitions for DiverseWorks including Thought Crimes: The Art of Subversion, named Best Art Show in the Houston Press Best of Houston awards; Maria Elena Gonzalez: UnReal Estates, a collaboration with Art In General (NY) and the University of Memphis; and William Pope.L: eRacism, named Best Art Show in an Alternative Space by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in 2003. While at DiverseWorks, Barber has given particular emphasis to commissioning new works and site-specific installations and to developing programs with charged social, cultural and political undertones. Barber has served as guest curator for the Austin Museum of Art , Houston Center for Photography, McNeese State University (LA), Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (NY) and Estudio Abierto in Buenos Aires, where she organized a major public installation by Houston artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck.

Prior to DiverseWorks, Barber served as Exhibitions/Publications Coordinator for FotoFest. She is past board president of the National Association of Artist Organizations (Washington D.C), former Chairman of the Houston Coalition for the Visual Arts, a current member of FotoFest's Art Advisory Board and has served as guest portfolio reviewer at various regional and national conferences.


Cris Worley holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of the South. Since 2003, she has held the position of Director at PanAmerican ArtProjects, Dallas, the first of now two galleries in Dallas and Miami, and following a directorship at Karen Mitchell Frank Gallery. She is a charter member and chairperson of the recently formed Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas and is actively involved in supporting her local art community. The gallery represents artists in national and international art markets including Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Milan, Italy, and Basel, Switzerland.


Andrea Kirsh is an art historian with a very non-linear career. All the artists in the room will appreciate that. In the Eighties and Nineties, she worked as a museum curator and administrator, and she spent two years administering a public art program in Miami.

Later, when living in Eugene, Oregon, and unable to do museum work, she wrote a book, Seeing Through Paintings; Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies, that introduces art historians, artists, museum docents and others to what can be learned about paintings as they might be encountered on museum walls, by paying attention to materials and condition issues.

Since moving to Philadelphia in 2003, she has done some teaching and has been writing criticism for two web publications. One of them is the Fallon and Rosof Art Blog, which has been names one of the top art blogs in America. Andrea is their star correspondent.

She has been on the board of CAA since 2006.


Joanne Mattera is a studio artist whose focus is lush color and reductive geometry, an esthetic she calls "lush minimalism." She has shown in New York City with the Stephen Haller Gallery; at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Thatcher Projects, the Heidi Cho Gallery; and at OK Harris, where she has had two solo shows, the most recent in May 2007. She writes regularly, teaches occasionally, and curates when concept and support converge. Her book, The Art of Encaustic Painting, is the standard reference on the subject, and her reports on the annual Basel/Miami Art Fairs have attracted a following in the blogosphere. She is a visiting lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass. Her most recent curatorial effort was "Luxe, Calme et Volupte: A Meditation on Visual Pleasure," for the Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, where she is a represented artist.
www.Joannemattera.com and blog, www.Joannemattera.blogspot.com

Julie Gerngross Baker is the Co-owner of Garson Baker Fine Art, a contemporary art gallery in Chelsea, NY that opened in 2008 (http://www.garsonfineart.com/). Since 2001, she is also the owner of Julie Baker Fine Art, a contemporary art gallery in Nevada City, CA. She is the Co-founder of flow, an invitational art fair (2006 – present). She is the former President of Gerngross & Company, (1992-1998), an Arts Marketing firm in New York City, established by her father Hans Gerngross in 1946. In 1992, she was the Assistant Producer and Marketing Manager for the Soho Arts Festival founded by Simon Watson. She founded the Soho Gallery Association with Charles Cowles board member, an active organization from 1992-1994. From 1989 - 1992 she was the assistant to Diane Upright at Jan Krugier Gallery and at Christie's in the contemporary art department.

Julie was born and raised in Manhattan but now lives in Nevada City, CA a gold rush era town located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with her husband Richard and three sons Miles, Theo, and Trey.

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento is an artist, writer, and lecturer interested in cultural production stemming from the discursive sites of art, law, and philosophy.

His work has been shown in national and international exhibitions, including Mexico, Germany, Spain, Dallas, New York City, El Paso, and Los Angeles, and has published essays and projects in Five Continents and One City Exhibition (Mexico), Capital Art: On the Culture of Punishment (US), Cabinet Magazine (US), Law Text Culture (Australia), Afterall (US/UK), and Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left (US).

Sarmiento has previously taught at Hofstra University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, and the University of California at Irvine, and has participated in lectures in the United States and abroad, most recently at The Yale School of Management, Parsons The New School for Design, The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics at The New School, Columbia Law School, Columbia University School of the Arts, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The School of Visual Arts, Cornell Law School, and the Centre Sociologie de l’Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris.

Sarmiento received his BA in Art from the University of Texas-El Paso in 1995, and was awarded a Philip Morris Fellowship to attend the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in Art in 1997. He was a Van Lier Fellow at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in Studio Art the following year, and in 2000 was awarded a studio residency at the World Trade Center by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He received his J.D. from Cornell Law School in 2006. He is currently a staff attorney and Director of Education with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York City.

Clandestine Construction Company International (Clancco), a corporation founded in 1968 and based out of New York, is an interdisciplinary project which explores, investigates, and examines the relationship between art and law through architectural-sculptures, performances, writings, interviews, and an internet website/blog, all made available in different material and digital formats. Clancco may be viewed at www.clancco.com.

Janet Riker is director of the University Art Museum at the University at Albany, a 9,000 square foot museum designed by noted architect Edward Durell Stone, which features a changing exhibition program focused on contemporary art and a permanent collection of over 3,000 works on art.

Prior to moving the Capital Region in 2004, Riker was Director of the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn for fourteen years; there she developed a highly regarded program of changing exhibitions and innovative educational offerings for children and adults. She served as director of the Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, Bayside, New York, and Assistant Curator at the Drawing Center in New York City from 1984 to 1988.

Riker holds the M.A. degree in Art History from Columbia University and B.A. from Alfred University. She has organized dozens of exhibitions of contemporary visual arts. She has served on numerous selection panels and commissioning bodies, and has lectured widely on contemporary art and artists’ issues. In 2004, Riker received the Betty Smith Arts Award from the Brooklyn Borough President and was cited by the New York City Council for her contribution to the arts in Brooklyn.

She lives in Guilderland, New York with her husband, photographer Michael Marston and son Philip.

Colleen Keegan is a partner in KEEGAN FOWLER COMPANIES, an equity investment and consulting firm specialized in providing strategic planning and business affairs services for companies in the communications and entertainment industries. Keegan has also worked as a producer for MTV Networks, WETA, and SHOWTIME. She has served on numerous Boards of Directors including the American Refugee Committee, the MS Foundation, Texas Film Commission, Emily's List, the NOW Legal Defense Fund and Senator Dianne Feinstein's Advisory Council.

Camilo Alvarez is a curator of contemporary art who has experience ranging from the traditional to the experimental. He has worked at museums, commercial galleries and alternative spaces, as well as in art consultation, delivery and installation. Born in New York City during the Summer of Sam, Alvarez graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. From there, he returned to NYC as Gallery Manager for Exit Art/The First World. In 2002, he served as Program Associate at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture coordinating the summer visual arts residency program. He organized the 2004 Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art for MIT's List Visual Arts Center with panelists Frank Gehry, Robert Venturi, James Ackerman, Kimberly Alexander and Kyong Park. He recently assisted Caroline Jones create a catalog for the MIT List Visual Arts Center�s Sensorium exhibition.

Letha Wilson is an artist and and freelance website consultant / web designer who received her MFA from Hunter College. She graduated from Syracuse University with her BFA, and studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art, and in Florence, Italy. Her work has been shown in many venues including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Exit Art, Fredrieke Taylor Gallery, White Box, Jack the Pelican, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, and The Arts Center of the Capital Region.

Letha was the Artists File Coordinator, and subsequently the Associate Curator at Artists Space. During her tenure there she led the project to publish the Artists File database online in 2002, and launched the current dynamic website in 2006. Over the years she has worked with many arts organizations in New York City including Art in General, Alexander and Bonin, The America’s Society, and Visual Aids. She is currently working as a Project Manager for the Drawing Center as they finalize their online Viewing Program.

Letha has also collaborated on curatorial projects including Majority Rules in Glasgow, Scotland, (Your Show Here) at Mass MoCA, and co-organized the Salad Days exhibition at Artists Space. Born in Honolulu, and raised in Colorado, she resides in Brooklyn.