We are stronger when we stand together. Network with regional advocates, discuss issues impacting arts and culture in Central CA and collectively prepare to advocate for the arts.
This conversation will start with field updates by Julie Baker, Executive Director, Californians for the Arts, and will be followed by moderated conversation led by Californians for the Arts Board Members Jennifer Laine, Executive Director, San Benito County Arts Council; and Cara Goger, Executive Director, Mariposa Arts Council.
This meeting will be recorded.
Julie Baker
Executive Director, Californians for the Arts
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.
Jennifer Laine
Executive Director, San Benito Arts Council
Hollister
Jennifer Laine has served as Executive Director of the San Benito County Arts Council, a local arts agency based in Hollister, California, since 2010. As Executive Director, she has raised over $2M in arts funding for the county, opened two multi-disciplinary art spaces in downtown Hollister, co-founded the City of Hollister’s Public Art Review Committee, advocated for arts in education and developed dedicated arts programming for some of the area’s most underserved communities, including low-income youth, veterans, students with disabilities and youth in corrections. Jennifer has served as a grant panelist for the California Arts Council and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Hazel Hawkins Hospital Foundation and on the Board of Directors of Californians for the Arts/California Arts Advocates. She is a member of Americans for the Arts and the Northern California Public Art Network. Jennifer holds a B.A. in Art History from UC Santa Cruz and a M.A. in Global Studies from the University of Leipzig, Germany. She is a certified Zumba Instructor and trained modern dancer. Jennifer resides in Hollister with her husband and three children.
Cara Goger
Executive Director, Mariposa County Arts Council
Mariposa
Cara Goger joined the Mariposa County Arts Council in 2012 as the Executive Director. She has over ten years of experience working in the fields of Arts Education and Arts Administration. Prior to her work at the Arts Council, Cara was the Lifespan Learning Coordinator at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego where she served as the primary artist-in-residence for the Museum’s older adult programming and as the lead instructor and curriculum developer for the organization’s School in the Park’s 5th grade program. Additionally, she has worked with the AjA Project, a non profit arts-based organization providing photography-based educational programming to refugee and displaced youth in California. Cara earned a B.A. in Political Science/Foreign Policy from Sonoma State University and a M.A. in Political Science/International Relations from San Diego State University.