Savona Bailey-McClain and Alaiyo Bradshaw Join New York Artist Equity Association Board

Michael Gormley, Executive Director of New York Artist Equity Association has announced that Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director & Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, and Alaiyo Bradshaw, Director of the First Year Program at Parsons School of Design of Fine Art and Vice President of the Brooklyn Watercolor Society, will join NYAE's Board.

NYAE was founded in the 1940s, by more than 160 leading American artists, including Will Barnet, Thomas Hart Benton, George Biddle, Paul Cadmus, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Leon Kroll, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin, Louise Nevelson, John Sloan and the first President Yasuo Kuniyoshi. These diverse artists were all clear on one point -- they had to band together to establish and protect artists' economic well-being. In making the announcement, Gormley states, "Adding Ms. Bailey-McClain and Ms. Bradshaw strengthens the Association's mission of promoting professional opportunities for underrepresented artists, specifically those coming from underserved communities."

Savona Bailey-McClain notes, "I am honored to be a part of such an important organization whose founding members included Harlem giants Gwendolyn and Jacob Lawrence". Ms. Bailey-McClain is a Harlem based curator and arts administrator. She is the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, which has organized high-profile public arts exhibits throughout New York City for the past 20 years, including Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Governors Island and Harlem. Her public art installations encompass sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media, and have been covered extensively by the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, among many others. She is also the host/ producer of "State of the Arts NYC," a podcast program on Podyssey, Radio Public, Youtube, Mixcloud and other audio platforms. She is a member of ArtTable, Advisory Board member of NYC's Dance in Sacred Places, Governors Island Advisory Council and new Committee member of the African Dream Network.

Alaiyo Bradshaw has worked as a fine artist and illustrator for over 30 years and her career teaching art at the college level began in 1995. Teaching art history, painting, digital design, printmaking, and clay building has afforded Bradshaw a wide range of experiences sharing her knowledge. She has taught at Long Island University, Montclair State, Montclair Art Museum, and for over 20 years at Parsons School of Design. She is currently a Professor of Fine Arts and Director of the First Year program of over 300 faculty and 1400 students. Throughout her time at Parsons, she has built a new art and design curriculum. Bradshaw now manages the operations of the First Year and oversees effective curriculum delivery, maintaining and developing academic and pedagogical capacities with faculty throughout the program, building faculty culture, and understanding and meeting evolving student needs and interests. In addition, she is the Vice President of the Brooklyn Watercolor Society, a prestigious body of long-standing signature artists. Her role on the executive board is to oversee our programming for our associate members, help plan our events, and organize guest speakers and gallery exhibitions along with the President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Ms. Bradshaw adds, "My experience as an artist, illustrator, leader, committee member, and overall collaborator motivates me to join Artists Equity as a board member. My focus on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice at Parsons will become a part of my role as well. I want to work alongside the other board members to learn from their experiences and develop new initiatives, programming, and membership."

Equity Gallery simultaneously serves as a gallery for artists to exhibit their work and as a community hub for staging professional workshops and innovative programming exploring critical issues of interest to artists and curators. As such, NYAE acts to counterbalance today's increased focus on the art market by preserving an experiential space that privileges process over product and intent over style whereby artists and allied professionals may come together as trusted stewards charged with advancing visual culture.

Ms. Bailey-McClain and Ms. Bradshaw will help the association's artists prepare for gallery exhibitions and help secure public art opportunities.