Brown Bag Lunch with CFTA Executive Director Julie Baker

Julie Baker, Executive Director, Californians for the Arts/California Arts Advocates

Julie Baker is a seasoned arts and marketing professional. Prior to becoming Executive Director of Californians For The Arts and California Arts Advocates in October of 2018, Julie Baker served on the board for four years as chair of the membership committee and of Confluence, an arts advocacy conference. She serves as the California State Captain to Americans for the Arts', National Arts Action Summit and is chair of the visibility committee for the State Arts Action Network. From 2009-2017, Julie Baker served as the Executive Director of The Center for the Arts, a non-profit performing arts venue and California WorldFest, an annual music and camping festival located in Grass Valley, CA.

Prior to moving to California, Baker worked in New York City at several prominent art galleries and the international auction house Christie’s before becoming the President of her family’s art marketing agency, Gerngross & Company Inc. In 1998, she moved with her family to Nevada City, CA where she was first employed as a Senior Executive Producer for Tristream, a 20- person web development and marketing/branding company. In 2001, she returned to her passion for the arts and opened Julie Baker Fine Art, a gallery of emerging artists. She was the co-founder of Flow art fair, a satellite art fair to Art Basel Miami Beach. She is active in her local community including serving on the high school Site Council and the board of California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project. She is the owner of Julie Baker Projects, a full-service arts consulting firm where projects have included talent buying for multiple performing arts centers, curating projects such as the Global Rhythms Series at the Crocker Art Museum and event planning for non-profit organizations.