CODAsummit: Art, Technology and Place
September 29 – October 1, 2026
Santa Fe, NM
2026 Speakers
Meet the artists, builders, and leaders driving public art into the future. This year’s speaker lineup spans keynotes, panels, and presentations on everything from ancestral storytelling to emerging technology – check out the agenda to see when each session takes place, or meet the discussion leaders for this year’s roundtables.
Keynote Speakers
Virgil Ortiz
Artist working in clay, couture, film, and digital media
Virgil Ortiz is one of today’s most visionary artists—fusing Pueblo culture with sci-fi, fantasy, and fashion to create unleashed new worlds. Drawing from ancestral storytelling and his family’s legacy of Cochiti Pueblo potters, Ortiz transforms clay, couture, film, and digital media into futuristic narratives that captivate audiences worldwide. His saga Revolt 1680/2180 reimagines Pueblo history with time- traveling warriors, igniting Indigenous Futurism on the global stage. With exhibitions from Paris to Miami, Ortiz inspires a new generation to see art as rebellion, resistance, and survival—blazing a path where culture collides with imagination, and the future is unbound.
Shannon Riley
CEO, Founder + Co-Creative Director, Building 180; Executive Director + Co-Founder, Paint the Void; Co-Founding Partner, Big Art Loop
Shannon Riley is an award-winning creative leader working at the intersection of art, civic space, and social impact. She’s Founder and CEO of Building 180, a women-run art agency producing large-scale public artworks, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of Paint the Void, which has commissioned over 330 murals since 2020. Her latest project, Big Art Loop, is a 34-mile sculptural art trail through San Francisco aiming to install up to 100 works over three years — conceived and funded by the Sijbrandij Foundation, curated by Building 180, with over $2 million already committed. She also collaborates with San Quentin SkunkWorks on Chiaroscuro, bringing murals and sculptures into prison spaces. Her work is recognized by SXSW, CODAworx, and Boston College.
Meredith Winner
COO, Building 180; Managing Director, Paint the Void; Co-Founding Partner, Big Art Loop
Meredith Winner is a curator, producer, and arts leader working to expand access to public art and support artists in building sustainable careers. She’s COO of Building 180, a women-led public art agency, and Managing Director of Paint the Void, a Bay Area nonprofit that has commissioned over 330 murals since 2020. Her work centers on helping artists bring ambitious ideas into public space, reflected in Big Art Loop, Building 180’s 34-mile public art initiative transforming San Francisco into an open-air gallery. Meredith has directed two Bay Area artist-in-residence programs, including one with CIIS, and serves as an Executive Board Member of the Bombay Beach Institute, having also worked as Artist Liaison for the Bombay Beach Biennale. With nearly two decades in the arts, she holds a BFA in Sculpture from Cornell University and is committed to reshaping the art market to better support emerging artists.
Herman Mejia
Herman Mejia is an artist, designer, and creative development professional working at the intersection of public art, architecture, fabrication, and placemaking. At Eventscape, he brings ambitious ideas to life, working with artists, architects, developers, and cultural institutions to transform creative vision into landmark experiences. Herman balances creative and analytical thinking, bridging artistic vision with the realities of fabrication and execution. He works alongside artists to find solutions that honor a piece’s spirit while preserving its essential character, whether the challenge is technically complex, monumental in scale, or calls for an inventive approach to materials.
Yvonne Monestier
Public Art Program Manager, Waterfront Toronto
Yvonne Monestier is Public Art Program Manager at Waterfront Toronto, where she leads public art initiatives across one of North America’s most ambitious waterfront revitalization projects. Working at the intersection of art, architecture, infrastructure, and community development, she oversees the commissioning and delivery of major public artworks that help shape Toronto’s evolving waterfront. With nearly two decades of experience in public art, cultural planning, and strategic partnerships, Yvonne is a recognized leader in leveraging art to create vibrant and connected public spaces. She holds a Master’s degree in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.
Marie Belzil
Creative Director, Moment Factory
Marie Belzil is a Creative Director at Moment Factory, where she has conceived some of the studio’s most iconic projects—from Foresta Lumina, the first immersive night walk in the Lumina series, to Mirror Mirror, an innovative experience exploring the beauty and mystery of the human mind. She is driven by a desire to create moments of collective awe through multimedia storytelling, blurring the line between the tangible and the virtual to immerse audiences in worlds rich with emotion and wonder. Deeply committed to authenticity and collaboration, Marie has led international teams to develop enchanting night walks across Japan, France, and the United States. More recently, she has spearheaded projects in collaboration with Wendat and Anishinaabe communities, reflecting a strong dedication to meaningful partnerships with First Nations.
SuperReal by Les Studios Moment Factory Inc.
Panel: Here, There and Everywhere: Transforming Spaces with Public Art
Meredith Doborski (Moderator)
Public Art Director, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
As Public Art Director for the State of New Mexico, Meredith works with local and national artists to enrich New Mexico through the acquisition of innovative and diverse public art. Committed to strengthening New Mexico through the arts, Meredith has dedicated her career to nonprofit and community-based work. With a background as a visual artist, art educator, and graphic designer, Meredith continues to utilize her skillset to increase appreciation and access to the arts for community members statewide. Meredith holds a BFA in Print Media from Alberta College of Art + Design, and an MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico.
Andrée Bober
Founding Director + Curator of Landmarks, UT Austin Public Art Program
Andrée Bober is a curator and arts administrator who works with some of the most admired artists of our time. In 2008, she founded Landmarks at The University of Texas at Austin. Through a long-term loan with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she has acquired and commissioned major works by artists such as Ann Hamilton, Marc Quinn, Nancy Rubins, and James Turrell. Prior to Austin, Bober led the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati through the successful completion of its Zaha Hadid-designed facility, after which the architect won the 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Bober studied art history and museology at The University of Texas at Austin, practiced painting conservation in Vienna, and earned an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University. Her recent publications include The Collections: The University of Texas at Austin (2016) and Landmarks (2015).
Jeremy Crandell
Project Manager, Burning Man’s Man Pavilion
Jeremy Crandell is an accomplished art producer with a keen eye for curating captivating visual experiences. With a deep understanding of the art world and a passion for creativity, Jeremy brings a unique blend of expertise and artistic vision to every project he undertakes. His ability to seamlessly blend diverse artistic styles and concepts allows him to create immersive exhibitions that captivate and inspire audiences. With an unwavering commitment to quality and a genuine enthusiasm for fostering artistic expression, he continues to shape the art landscape with his innovative productions. Jeremy is currently the project manager for Burning Man’s Man Pavilion which constitutes the effigy of the “Man” and the structure on which it stands and, ultimately, burns.
Lakeisha Edwards
Executive Director, UrbanArt Commission, Memphis
Lakeisha Edwards is the Executive Director of UrbanArt Commission, the nonprofit organization that administers the City of Memphis Percent for Art Program and stewards a public art collection of more than 320 works. She leads one of the nation’s few independent nonprofit organizations entrusted to administer a municipal Percent for Art program. Under Edwards’ leadership, UrbanArt Commission has directed more than $1.4 million to artists and fabricators since she joined the organization in November 2023, reflecting its commitment to strengthening the creative economy through investment in artists. Edwards led UrbanArt Commission in bringing Molly Gochman’s Monuments to Motherhood to Memphis. Her leadership on the project was later featured in Forbes. She also served as Co-Chair of the 2026 Creative Placemaking Appalachian Summit and received the 2026 American Advertising Federation Public Service Award. She is a 2026 graduate of Leadership Tennessee NEXT and believes public art is not an amenity but essential civic infrastructure that shapes how people experience, connect with, and care for their communities.
Annette Ridenour
President, Aesthetics, Inc.
Annette has been a leader in health care design for 40 years as president and founder of Aesthetics, Inc., her multidisciplinary design firm. She has been described as a practical visionary for her ability to combine explorative thought with strategic thinking focused upon implementation. She is a natural group leader with healthcare organizations, assisting them in their processes to create physical facility development, which reflects their institutional mission and goals. Annette is one of the pioneers of the field of art and healthcare. She is past national president of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, where she was a founding board member. She is currently a board member of the National Organization of Arts in Health and is one of its founders. Numerous articles by and about her have appeared in such publications as Healthcare Design, Health Facilities Management, Healthcare Building Ideas, and Spirituality & Health.
Presentation: Creating Public Art in China
Shan Shan Sheng
Artist, East West Art Studio
Internationally recognized artist Shan Shan Sheng was born in Shanghai and came to the United States in 1982, winning a full scholarship to Mount Holyoke College and earning her MFA at UMass Amherst before continuing as an artist-in-residence at Harvard. She has since held over 40 solo exhibitions across Europe, Asia, and America, and now lives and works in San Francisco. Sheng is best known for large-scale public art, including “OPEN WALL,” exhibited at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Her work appears in collections including Harvard, UMass, the China National Art Museum, and the Berengo Collection, Venice, with museum exhibitions spanning Prague, Stockholm, and Shanghai. She has completed over 65 permanent public art projects worldwide, including installations in four of the world’s tallest buildings.
Yuling Wang
General Manager, Blue Dragon Art
Yuling Wang, the visionary founder of Blue Dragon Art in Taipei, collaborates with global icons like Yayoi Kusama, Dale Chihuly, Susumu Shingu, Daniel Buren and Florentijn Hofman. Blue Dragon, with a portfolio of over 100 public art projects and 25 large-scale art festivals, breathes life into urban spaces, driving local tourism through impactful art experiences. Notable among these is Florentijn Hofman’s Yellow Rubber Duck Tour in China, which drew 12 million visitors in 5 years. Blue Dragon is deeply committed to the transformative power of art, believing it can turn urban consumer spaces into captivating visual stories and cultural experiences. They strive to create vibrant, inclusive spaces that bring people together through the universal appeal of global art brands.
Blooming by Shan Shan Sheng
Presentation: Temporary Public Art
The Enduring Power of the Ephemeral
Vincent Roy
Co-Executive Director + Artistic Director, EXMURO
Vincent Roy has been an influential contributor to the Canadian contemporary art scene for over two decades. In 2007, he founded EXMURO art public, a non-profit dedicated to the conception, production, and dissemination of contemporary art projects in public space, driven by a desire to transform urban environments through interventions that invite dialogue and unexpected encounters. As Artistic Director, Roy has commissioned and curated over one hundred public art projects, including installations by internationally acclaimed artists such as Ai Weiwei, Felice Varini, and Pipilotti Rist. In 2016, he launched an art circulation program that redistributed more than 40 works across Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia. In 2024, he inaugurated Aire Publique, a contemporary art center in a heritage building in Old Quebec. He received the François-Samson Award in 2014 for his contributions to the arts in Quebec.
Coherence: Light and Consciousness
Morgan Barnard
Artist, Meow Wolf
Morgan Barnard creates experimental, immersive works featured in museums, galleries, festivals, and public spaces, incorporating animation, video, dynamic lighting, sound, rapid prototyping, and generative design into projections, lighting installations, screen-based works, and physical media. With a background spanning fine art, education, filmmaking, music, and interactive design, his practice explores the emergent nature of reality and perception by combining natural and generative systems into experimental, interactive experiences and performance-based pieces. His public art includes Tilikum Light in Portland, Oregon, which uses Willamette River data to control dynamic lighting on the Tilikum Crossing bridge, and Sublimare at the San Diego airport, a lighting installation driven by real-time data from an offshore wave buoy. His performance work includes Inter-Reactions, a generative audio/visual piece live-streamed during the 2021 Currents New Media Festival.
Cláudia Costa Vasconcelos
Founder, Principal Artist and Creative Director of Fierce-Art
Portuguese artist and architect Cláudia Costa Vasconcelos creates large-scale light and public art installations that invite people to pause, connect, and experience the world differently. With over 20 years of experience across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States, her work sits at the intersection of art, architecture, light, and human experience. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Fierce-Art and was the Director and Creative Director of LIGHTME Lusail, Qatar’s international light and digital art festival. Grounded in universal human values, Cláudia uses light as a language to create spaces of beauty, connection, and contemplation in the public realm. Her work has been exhibited and commissioned internationally, including Giant Flowers, acquired by the City of Porto, as well as projects developed for major cultural and international events.
Ivan Depeña
Principal + Artist, Ivan Toth Depeña Studio
Ivan Toth Depeña is a Hispanic-American artist and sculptor based in Charlotte, NC, where he operates Depeña Studio. Trained at the New World School of the Arts and Pratt Institute, he holds architecture degrees from the University of Miami and Harvard’s GSD. His practice spans public installations, light art, painting, and drawing, often incorporating custom software, LED systems, and interactive sensing to enhance — not define — the sculptural experience. Depeña has completed permanent commissions nationwide, including Charlotte’s $16.4 million I-277 Rail Trail pedestrian bridge, designed with structural engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner. His honors include the Public Art Network’s “Year in Review” award (2012, 2018, 2019) and a 2025 CODAward for Breaking Barriers. He won the Knight Arts Challenge in 2013 and has exhibited at the Bechtler Museum, McColl Center, and PAMM, among others.
Andrea Polli
UNM Art/Engineering
Andrea Polli is driven to create artworks exploring the relationship between air, technology, and climate change. From “Soundwalks” in Antarctica to public light installations in Pittsburgh, her work uses environmental data to visualize atmospheric pollution through sound and light, aiming to raise awareness and inspire action around climate change and environmental justice. Polli has presented public art in twenty-five locations and had over twenty solo exhibitions, including at the Parco Arte Vivente Museum, Turin, plus over one hundred group exhibitions in cities like Paris, Berlin, and New York. Her work has received major support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, and Fulbright. She co-edited Far Field: Digital Culture, Climate Change, and the Poles and authored Hack the Grid. Polli is a Professor at the University of New Mexico, holding the Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media.
Michael Wang
Artist
Michael Benjamin Wang is an artist whose work uses global-scale systems as media for art: climate change, species distribution, resource allocation, and the global economy. His works include Carbon Copies, linking artwork production to greenhouse gas release; World Trade, tracing steel trade from the World Trade Center after 9/11; and Extinct in the Wild, bringing species that survive only under human care into spaces of art. Wang’s work has shown internationally, including at the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Governors Island’s Arts Center in NYC, Manifesta 12 in Palermo, the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, Parque Cultural de Valparaíso, and Fondazione Prada. He has written extensively on art, architecture, technology, and the environment for Artforum, Art in America, Texte zur Kunst, and Mousse, including an essay on the extinct aurochs in Cabinet and one on artist Ryan Trecartin in Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century.
Alex Webb
Architect, Associate Professor of Emergent Technology, UNM
Alex Webb is the Associate Professor of Emergent Technology and director of the Predock Center for Design Research at the University of New Mexico. Holding both an architectural license and a PhD in Digital Design Theory, Alex explores how emergent organizational systems can be deployed and misused for functional purposes, using computational design workflows to draw on evolutionary intelligence and algorithmic models as generators of architectural concepts. Alex codifies environmental data, urban behavioral data, and other big datasets through programming languages, integrating them into architectural systems to create high-performance constructs. Alex established a design practice and consultancy in 2010, and has worked for firms including Marmol + Radziner, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Xefirotarch, and Gensler. Alex holds a Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc, a BFA from Colorado College, and has studied at the Berlage Institute and Columbia University.
Photon:s by Ivan Toth Depeña
Panel: Best Practices for Working with a Fabricator from People Who’ve Learned the Hard Way
Joe Riche (Moderator)
Executive Director + Owner, Demiurge
Joe Riché is the owner and Executive Director of Demiurge LLC, a large-scale sculpture fabrication and installation studio based in Denver, Colorado. Since founding Demiurge in 2000, he has built the studio into a nationally recognized fabrication partner for artists, architects, developers, and public art agencies, bringing ambitious, complex work off the page and into the physical world. Joe holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design from the University of Louisiana Lafayette, and from 2001 to 2014 served on the City of Denver’s Department of Cultural Affairs Public Art Committee. At Demiurge, Joe leads with the conviction that fabrication is not a service. It is a discipline. His team operates at the intersection of engineering rigor, material craft, and artistic vision, fluent in the languages of engineers, architects, contractors, and fabricators, and skilled at translating across all of them on behalf of the artist and client. That ability to bridge disciplines, hold the vision, and keep complex projects moving is what sets Demiurge apart. A maker at his core, Joe is always pushing toward the next thing worth building.
Calli Beck
Owner, Stark Raven Fabrication
Calli Beck—an artist, designer, and fabricator with over 20 years of experience— runs Stark Raven Fabrication in Santa Fe, NM– a collective of artists dedicated to transforming spaces with large-scale sculptures and immersive designs. We redefine traditional fabrication by cultivating a collaborative, inclusive environment where creativity thrives and boundaries are meant to be pushed. We believe in art’s power to connect, inspire, and transform communities. Our collaborative projects strengthen social bonds, uplift diverse voices, and nurture pride, using art as a tool to unite people and transcend boundaries. Through apprenticeships, workshops, residencies, and community events, we empower individuals to creatively express themselves, build skills, and engage meaningfully in the artistic process.
Brian McCutcheon
President, Ignition Arts
Brian McCutcheon is an Indianapolis-based artist using all media to create highly crafted sculptural work, much of which is large scale and public. He is also founder and owner of Ignition Arts LLC, a company specializing in design development, project management, fabrication, and installation of large scale public art projects by national and international artists and designers.
Sean Orlando
Founder + Artistic Director, Engineered Artworks
Sean Orlando is a Richmond, California–based sculptor specializing in large-scale public art and monumental site-specific installations. His work merges engineering, storytelling, and imagination to create immersive environments that invite gathering, exploration, and spark wonder. Drawing inspiration from natural systems, urban infrastructure, and the language of machines, Orlando creates works that feel both engineered and whimsical. He is the founder of Engineered Artworks, a Bay Area fabrication studio focused on public art, sculpture, and complex installations. He collaborates with clients, artists, and community partners to develop public artworks that respond to the identity, history, and character of a place.
Spotlight: The Artist as Entrepreneur
Tanner Flynn (Moderator)
CEO, Parasoleil
Tanner Flynn is the Chief Executive Officer of Parasoleil, bringing more than two decades of leadership experience in strategic planning, operations management, and process optimization. Tanner is passionate about building collaborative, high-performing teams and advancing design through innovation and collaboration, such as the current “Artist Series” pattern partnership featuring Virgil Ortiz and others.
Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg
Artist
At the height of the pandemic, artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg blanketed the National Mall with 701,000 white flags marking lives lost to COVID-19. Entitled In America: Remember, the art was judged by Artsy Magazine as one of 2021’s twelve best public art exhibitions worldwide. Images of the art continue to accompany stories of the pandemic. Firstenberg represented the United States at the 2016 Harbin (China) International Ice Sculpting Competition, capturing the Creativity Prize. In creating her Empty Fix art series to destigmatize drug addiction, she interviewed hundreds of people across our nation. In 2024, she installed alienable right to life (24’ x 35’) on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. to reframe the issue of gun access in America. Currently, she is creating a 6’x12’ “micro-script” drawing from over 7,500 news articles to memorialize this extraordinary period in which we live. Firstenberg promotes arts funding as an investment in powerful communications.
Nicolas Soren Goodich
Founder + Director, The Luminous Community Center
Nikolas explores paradoxes of perception and consciousness through symmetry and asymmetry, in hand mono-printed works on glass and plexiglass. Layering plexiglass and kiln-fired glass — on canvas or in LED-embedded frames — he creates luminous works that merge print, painting, and sculpture, extending into architectural installation and public art. His current bodies of work, Double Inverted Portraits and Luminous Symmetries, use symbolic figuration and organic abstraction as metaphors for our place in the universe — mirrors of how we see ourselves and others. With international collaborators, Goodich has proposed The Luminous Community Center, a monumental, traveling public art project. Nikolas Soren Goodich is a biracial LA native represented by galleries in LA and The Hague, with work in collections across the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, and the EU.
Marjorie Guyon
Chief Creative Officer, I Was Here Project
Marjorie Guyon, co-founder of the I Was Here Project, creates work marked by layers of history and time — images that emerge from and disappear into an ancient surface while lighting the path of time. Born in NYC, she studied poetry at Hampshire College before becoming a nationally known artist in Lexington, Kentucky, where her studio sat above the site of the largest auction of enslaved Africans west of the Allegheny Mountains. The I Was Here Project began in 2016 after Guyon envisioned an African mother and child moving as points of light across the Historic Courthouse — inspiring her Ancestor Spirit Portraits series. Since then, the project has become a nationally recognized public art and education initiative, with 2023 milestones at One World Trade Center, the Octagon Museum, and MAD Arts, shifting the civic narrative toward the power of the Nation Builder.
J Muzacz
Owner, The Mosaic Workshop
J Muzacz is a muralist, mosaicist, public artist, community leader, author and educator. Originally from Houston, a graduate of the University of Texas in Sociology, Muzacz went on to live seven years abroad painting numerous large-scale murals in far-reaching places such as Taiwan, New Zealand and Okinawa, Japan. He is co-founder and owner of The Mosaic Workshop, an artist-run space in East Austin where community members can learn the process of public art from concept to completion through hands-on mosaic and mural painting projects of monumental scale. Past clients include CapMetro, City of Austin, City of Fort Worth, Georgetown Arts & Culture, Flint Public Art Project, CBRE, Transwestern, Troublemaker Studios, and the Texas Commission on the Arts among others. In 2022, Muzacz published his third book, a 700-page encyclopedic volume titled ATX Urban Art, about the layers of historic and contemporary graffiti, street art, murals, and mosaics of Austin.
Anima by Daniel Popper
Presentation: Ecological Poetics in Infrastructure
Ryan Edwards
Principal, MASARY Studios
Ryan Edwards is a Co-Founder of MASARY Studios, a new-media art collective based in Fort Point, Boston. Founded in 2015, their work often manifests as multimedia, site-specific artworks that reconsider architectural and spatial givens, interweaving both habitat and inhabitant. Ryan is trained as a drummer, composer, sound artist and ethnomusicologist. He is most proud to be a father.
Danielle Roney
Founder + Artist, Danielle Roney Studio
Danielle Roney’s New York–based practice advances how art and technology create meaning in the twenty-first century. For over two decades she has worked across sculpture and digital media, connecting collective behaviors and spatialized intelligence to underscore our macro and micro entanglements. Her projects occupy hybrid architectures — from museum portals to monumental commissions, including recent works at Denver International Airport and PortMiami — using state-of-the-art computational and fabrication processes with a team of international artisans, engineers, and animators. At the vanguard of the networked public sphere, seminal works include Global Portals (TEDGlobal, 2005) and the U.S. Pavilion for the 2010 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Opposing Views (ISEA 2011) visualized conflict through real-time public debate on the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb’s media façade — a historic first. Her new initiative, DRONEY.IO, redefines distributed digital infrastructures as performative thresholds for collaborative cultural production.
How We Did It: The Best of Collaborations
Debra Stewardson (Moderator)
Director, Hology
Debra Stewardson is the Director of Hology, an independent UK-based new media arts consultancy and curatorial practice specializing in the curation, development, and execution of large-scale arts projects across public, commercial, and cultural environments. Collaborating with an international network of visionary artists and cultural leaders, her work merges visual art, innovative technology, and urban architecture to create culturally relevant experiences that redefine how audiences engage with stories and shared human experiences. Central to her practice is a deep commitment to supporting artist development, providing critical mentorship and strategic advocacy that help elevate artists’ careers and sustain long-term creative practices.
Marc Aptakin
President, MAD
Marc Aptakin started in Miami’s art scene and now leads Mad — a full-service digital, marketing, and advertising hub — and MAD Arts — a museum/lab blending art, technology, and innovation through ambitious, cross-disciplinary projects. His work unites artists and companies, bringing their bold visions to life. Mad empowers global brands with full-scale creative solutions, while MAD Arts acts as a lab for experimentation and collaboration. Their shared space supports artists and companies in bringing bold ideas to life.
Daniel Popper
Artist
Daniel Popper is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for his monumental sculptures that merge the organic spirit of nature with the imaginative essence of the divine. His visionary large-scale figures, crafted from materials such as wood, fiberglass, and Fiber Glass Reinforced Cement (FGRC), evoke a sense of the sacred and transcendental. Popper’s work transforms public and private spaces into surreal environments, inviting viewers to engage with hybrid entities that blend elements of nature and humanity. His sculptures often serve as stages, gateways, or chapels at major art and music festivals including Afrikaburn, Boom Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Electric Forest. Popper’s creations invite contemplation by blending the material with the numinous, often incorporating illuminating projections that enhance their mystical quality. Whether enduring or ephemeral, these elemental monuments serve as totems for reflection and connection, encapsulating a profound interplay between art, nature, and the human spirit.
How We Did It: IP Issues for Artists
Sherri Brueggemann
Former Manager, City of Albuquerque Public Art
In 2025, Sherri Brueggemann retired as the Public Art Urban Enhancement Division Manager for the City of Albuquerque, Cultural Services Department. She has managed art programs and public art projects in New Mexico for over 25 years, including co-managing the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Public Art Census. Sherri holds a Masters from UNM’s School of Public Administration with an emphasis in cultural policy evaluation. She was a founding member of the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network and served as a PAN Council Member. She is also a former printmaker, special events coordinator, winery owner, and has been adjunct faculty at the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts, Arts Management Minor Program. Since retiring, Sherri has reignited her arts consulting company, 100% for art and is developing an artists budgeting platform to help artists know their value.
Danicia Monét Malone
Founder, Rokh Research & Design Studio
Dr. Danicia Monét Malone is a public art ambassador, cultural researcher, and founder of Rokh Research & Design Studio whose work explores the relationship between place, memory, and collective wellbeing. Rooted in traditions of gathering, ritual, and spatial storytelling, her creative practice transforms service into an act of creative placekeeping—inviting people to slow down, connect, and experience public space through care and sensory engagement. Blending sound, conversation, and design, Malone creates immersive experiences that function as temporary sanctuaries within everyday environments. Her practice draws from Black spatial aesthetics, community stewardship, and the belief that hospitality itself can be a form of cultural infrastructure. Through intimate ceremonies, pop-ups, and public activations, she uses the art of gathering as a medium for reflection, belonging, and imaginative exchange.
How We Did It: IP Issues for Artists
David Carstens
Partner, Carstens Allen & Gourley, LLP
As a founding partner, David Carstens brings deep expertise across patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, combining technical, business, and legal backgrounds to craft effective IP strategies. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (UT Dallas) and Mechanical Engineering (Texas A&M), plus a law degree, MBA, and Wharton’s General Management Program. His practice spans patent and trademark prosecution and litigation—protecting software, cosmetics, oilfield equipment, medical devices, and telecom—along with licensing, M&A IP evaluation, infringement counseling, and non-compete/confidentiality agreements. He’s a registered patent attorney admitted before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit, and has served as a court-appointed mediator and expert witness. For over thirty years, he’s taught IP law as an adjunct at SMU Law and authored publications in leading law journals. He’s also founded several businesses, including T Bank N.A. and Doxile, Inc.
Panel: The Expanding Role of Public Art Consultants and Funders
Joe O’Connell (Moderator)
Founder + Artist, Creative Machines
Artist Joseph O’Connell founded his studio, Creative Machines, in 1995. Creative Machines has grown to become one of the largest and most capable studios run by a single artist. Creative Machines has created and installed over 100 public art and exhibits for clients throughout the world, including some of the largest and most complex kinetic and lighting projects ever. They work in a wide range of media and have developed extensive processes for community engagement. Because they take projects from start to finish, they can prototype ideas extensively during the design and involve communities from start to finish.
Brooke Anderson
Executive Director, VIA Art Fund
With a career devoted to championing artists and an inclusive, elastic art history, Brooke Davis Anderson has held leadership positions in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and North Carolina. She is currently the inaugural Executive Director of Via Art Fund in New York City. As Museum Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Anderson built an American art story more inclusive of women and artists of color. As Executive Director of Prospect New Orleans, she strengthened the triennial’s finances and structure. At LACMA, she launched the Watts Towers Conservation and Community Collaboration and the Mellon-funded Curatorial Diversity Initiative. As the first Diggs Gallery Director at Winston-Salem State, she grew it into a key regional destination—work recognized by the Chronicle Newspaper and an endowment in her name, and more recently by Rush Philanthropic Arts.
John Grant
Creative Design & Project Manager, Public Art Services
John Grant is a Creative Design & Project Manager for the production and installation of monumental works of art. During his tenure as the Director of Denver’s Public Art Program John oversaw the installation of 147 permanent artworks for the City’s collection, re-vamped the collection maintenance procedures, normalized the public art contracting processes, and brought the City’s collection to national attention for excellence. In 2000 John founded Public Art Services, a unique creative consultancy that works with artists from ideation to installation to help realize monumental projects that engage communities, define spaces, and encourage dialogue. In addition, Public Art Services offers public art master planning services, creating site-specific art integration strategies and long-term visions for municipalities and developers to serve as a roadmap to the future. Over the course of his career John has aided in the creation of over 200 works of public art with a strong belief that public art is the common language that defines a community.
Jennifer Brener Seay
Founder + CEO + Art Consultant, Art + Artisans Consulting Inc.
Jennifer has helped clients create impactful spaces with art for 22 years. She is passionate about helping clients succeed by using art as part of the strategy to achieve their vision and attract their ideal market. She believes art creates spaces with unique identities that people love and visit again and again, bringing countless positive experiences that inspire and build community. Jennifer views her primary role today as Chief Relationship Builder with clients and within her team. Jennifer has led many large commercial projects across the country with clients who value integrating art to tell a story, convey their brand, build community, and engage people. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. In 2019 she was a finalist for Austin Business Journal’s CEO of the Year, and a Bisnow honoree for Women Leading Commercial Real Estate in 2024.
Ready to connect with your peers at CODAsummit?
September 29 – October 1, 2026 | Santa Fe, NM