Editors' Introduction

Neville Vakharia is the Associate Dean for Research & Planning at Drexel University and an Associate Professor in Drexel's graduate Arts Administration & Museum Leadership program, teaching courses in management, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, and related subjects while undertaking research and development projects that seek to strengthen the arts, cultural, and creative sector. His research centers on the role that technology, innovation, and knowledge play in building sustainable, resilient, and relevant organizations and communities. His work has been published internationally and he has developed new tools and resources to benefit the cultural and social sectors. Neville is a frequent speaker, facilitator, and panelist for a wide range of conferences and events nationally and internationally.

Prior to Drexel, Neville was the director of the Cultural Data Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts (now SMU DataArts), a growing national initiative created to improve the management and financial capacity of arts and cultural organizations, inform grant-making strategies, and serve as a powerful tool for policy research and analysis. At Pew, he oversaw the program’s strategic direction, operations, and national expansion from a start-up enterprise to a multi-million dollar organization.

Prior to Pew, Neville was Director of Technology Services and Programs for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, where he developed and launched the Technology Connectors, a program designed to support the technological capabilities of the region’s arts and cultural organizations through education, strategic planning, and consulting. He served as Director of Marketing for the Prince Music Theater, overseeing all audience development and branding strategies, and for 12 years he was the founder and co-producer of the ArtsFest Film Festival, central Pennsylvania's largest film festival.

Neville also has more than 10 years of experience in the corporate sector, working in new product development, marketing and global product management for W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., manufacturer of GORE-TEX products. Neville holds two international patents and has developed several new products and technologies. He earned both his bachelor of science degree in materials engineering and his master of science in arts administration from Drexel University where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Information Science. He serves on the board of directors of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and is the co-editor of Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts. Neville also serves as an advisor to many creative, start-up, and social enterprises and community-based organizations.

Paul Bonin-Rodriguez research focuses the systems of support and training for cultural professionals and follows from extensive career as a producing artist and non-profit administrator. He is the author of Performing Policy: How Politics and Cultural Programs Redefined U.S. Artists for the Twenty-first Century (2015), which assesses how arts policy research and development initiatives since the 1990s have radically reshaped artists’ practices and opportunities nationwide. His articles and chapters appear in Art Journal; Artivate: a Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts; Theatre Topics; Liminalities: a Journal of Performance Studies; Applied Theatre: Economics; An Unimagined Space Beyond New WORLD Theater; and Theatre, Performance and Theories of Change.  His OpEds have been published in The Well, Hechinger Report, Truth Out, and Alcalde.

At present, Dr. Bonin-Rodriguez is at work on a second book about the emergence and development of network-based artist service organizations since the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing heavily on archival documents and interviews with cultural professionals, Groundwork (working title) reads the arts intermediary system against the growth of network-based theories and technologies in the social sciences, math, science, and media, and demonstrates how current focuses on equity and justice follow from a greater understandings of complex network dynamics.

Dr. Bonin-Rodriguez is an Associate Professor in the Performance as Public Practice Program at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an Associate Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Graduate Advisor. He is the founding Chair of the undergraduate Minor in Arts Management and Administration, which provides students with arts leadership training in the nonprofit and commercial sectors, as well as international production work, jobs in arts journalism, and arts entrepreneurship, to name a few. Nationally, he is the co-editor for Artivate: a Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts and a Regional Liaison for the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program.

Prior to coming to UT, he toured the U.S. as a producing playwright, performer, dancer and worked as an arts administrator for more than two decades. Nationally, he has served on a number of initiatives focused on the nation’s arts infrastructure. These include Leveraging Investments in Creativity, ArtPlace America, the Center for Arts and Social Engagement at the University of Houston, the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University, and Common Field.