Governing Board
Salome Asega is an artist and researcher based in Brooklyn, NY. Salome has participated in residencies and fellowships with Eyebeam, New Museum, The Laundromat Project, and Recess. She has exhibited at the Shanghai Biennale, MoMA, Carnegie Library, August Wilson Center, Knockdown Center, and more. She has also given presentations and lectures at Performa, EYEO, Brooklyn Museum, MIT Media Lab, NYU, and more. Salome is currently a Ford Foundation Technology Fellow landscaping new media artist and organization networks. She sits on the boards of National Performance Network and POWRPLNT. Salome received her MFA from Parsons at The New School in Design and Technology where she teaches classes on speculative design and participatory design methodologies.
Angelina is an artist and community organizer. Her previous projects include a community yoga space called Body Actualized Center. She is a graduate of the University of Washington-Seattle with a major in International Studies-Latin America and a minor in Anthropology. She is an ongoing pillar for POWRPLNT’s vision and our community.
Alex Duncan, originally from Vancouver, Canada, came to New York to study game design at NYU. After graduating, he worked on games and digital media art projects while also teaching game development and history. In 2016, Alex moved into the tech sector, joining the team at Brooklyn-based startup Looking Glass Factory, helping create their line of holographic displays. After some time there as a developer, Alex moved into a management role and is now VP of Software Engineering.
Anibal A. Luque represents tomorrow's leaders in the creative industries. He graduated from New York Law School, where he was a member of the Moot Court Association and the Institute for Information Law and Policy. He has advised and counseled independent record labels, art and fashion startups, music festivals, tech companies, beverage incubators, DJs and producers, stylists, public relations firms, management firms, and fine artists. Anibal also focuses on working with innovators of social good-- from digital education nonprofits to global impact travel-- he's helping shape the culture of tomorrow.
Anibal has been a featured guest lecturer at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and Yale University among others. He is a mentor at the New Museum's NEW INC incubator.
He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, California, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
American fashion designer Shayne Oliver is the founder and designer of New York City-based streetwear label Hood By Air. Born in Minnesota and raised in Trinidad and Brooklyn, Oliver attended both New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology but eventually dropped out. After saving up some money from DJ’ing, Oliver started creating pieces from what he could afford and eventually launched Hood By Air in 2006, which began as an underground label with small-scale production of sweatshirts and T-shirts. Recognized for aligning with the work of other high fashion heavyweights like Helmut Lang and Raf Simons, Oliver’s designs are known for constantly pushing the boundaries of design and proportions in sophisticated ways.
Laura Risimini joined the Purpose Foundation as its first Foundation Manager in 2020. Prior to joining the Purpose Foundation, Laura was the Foundation Manager of the HLH Family Foundation, formerly known as The Sister Fund. In that role, Laura guided the organization through a transition from a women’s fund to a family foundation. She managed both the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, in addition to all aspects of its grant cycle management. Laura also supported the ongoing philanthropic engagement of the Next Generation Grant Advisors of the donor family. Prior to joining the HLH Family Foundation, she worked at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) at Fordham University, where she was responsible for coordinating international training programs for humanitarian aid workers. Laura has also worked with humanitarian consultants in addition to internships with Concern Worldwide, U.S., Inc. and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Laura recently completed the Next Gen Fellows Program offered by Exponent Philanthropy, and served on the Grant Advisory Committee for The New York Women’s Foundation. She continues to serve as a Member of the Concern Leadership Network. Laura received her Bachelor’s Degree Cum Laude in International Studies with Departmental Honors, from Fordham University in 2010, and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Fordham University in 2013. Laura is passionate about working for organizations that support women’s rights, social justice, poverty alleviation and international development. She lives in Long Beach, New York.
Advisory board
BARRAGÁN was founded in New York City in 2016 by Mexican artist, Victor Barragán. With roots under the guise of an eponymous underground fashion label, the brand is a shifting entity which moves through various media and ultramodern communication. Its output signifies anything in the elaboration of the lives and work of its collective community. BARRAGÁN is driven by ways to continually redefine itself and spaces as it needs. It positions itself in spheres of art, fashion, photography, and experience, while creating its own context of analysis and playing by its own rules.
Pauli Cakes (they / them) is a New York born and based multi- faceted artist, dj, community organizer and co-founder of rave, fundraising and music platform DisCakes. DisCakes raised over 5 thousand dollars for individuals affected by COVID-19 and systemic inequality during the pandemic. Pauli has thrown and performed in raves and events globally. Pauli has been heavily involved with New York Cities vast underground nightlife and creative communities for several years. All of their creative and organizing work is influenced by love, fluidity, breaking out of homogenized social structures and embracing radical self expression.
Jesse Damiani is a writer, curator, and cultural producer living in Los Angeles, CA. He covers art, media, and technology on Forbes, with other recent bylines in Billboard, Entrepreneur, Quartz, The Verge, and WIRED. He is a Curator and Director of Simulation Literacies at Nxt Museum and Director of Emerging Technology & Insight at Southern New Hampshire University, where he leads the Future of Work initiative. He has consulted with Google, Oculus, and the Sundance Institute, and served as a mentor in the YouTube VR Creator Lab. He is also Founder and Series Editor of Best American Experimental Writing. He was the Curator/Producer for the XR art exhibition, Spatial Reality, at sp[a]ce gallery; Co-Curator of Virtual Futures with LACMA for LA Art Show; and Co-Curator of SIM-CINEMA with FLOAT and Wevr. He is Curatorial Advisor for CURRENTS New Media and founded the AWE Arts Initiative, where he curated and produced the Immersive Arts Symposium. He also curates The Tech Zone at DesignerCon and XR For Change, the XR summit at Games For Change.
Reese Donohue is an artist, musician, and creative technologist. Reese founded Tempo, a Brooklyn-based interactive design studio that builds immersive experiences rooted in sound. Tempo's projects range from concept development to production design to technical integration and have exhibited in MoMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, New Museum, and Serpentine Galleries, and have appeared in The New York Times, ARTFORUM, and Pitchfork.
Reese studied at University of California, Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and is an inaugural member of ONX, a new arts fellowship created in partnership between The New Museum and Onassis Foundation, and an alumni of The New Museum’s art and technology incubator NEW INC.
Lilly is the founder of Propel Program, an incubator for underestimated founders. Lilly brings two decades of experience across public, private, and startup ecosystems and is a longtime mentor and connector. She is thrilled to work in community with such amazing social change makers who are working every day to make this world a better place.
Julia Kaganskiy is an independent curator and cultural strategist working across art, design and technology with a focus on facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration between the arts and sciences. As a curator and strategist, she has worked with Science Gallery London, Serpentine Galleries, ArkDes, Borusan Contemporary, Matadero Madrid, MANA Contemporary, Eyebeam Center for Art & Technology, Transfer Gallery, Red Bull Arts and many others. Previously, she was the founding Director of NEW INC (2014-2018), the first museum-led cultural incubator and an initiative of the New Museum, where she designed and led a community workspace and professional development program that supported more than 100 creative practitioners annually. Prior to that, she was the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Creators Project (2010-2013), an international cultural platform co-created by VICE Media and Intel dedicated to art and technology.
Arbie Mosley, from Detroit, Michigan,is currently living that tier 2 visa life in London. Arbie is primarily working as a Global Customer Success Manager for a marketing technology company, Demandbase, where has been for several years working in a variety of roles that have really sharpened their communication and project management skills. Their professional background has primarily been in client service roles, and prior to Demandbase Arbie worked as an Account Manager at Nielsen where they helped to manage the TimeWarner relationship. Outside of their professional pursuits, Arbie is passionate about traveling, music, the arts and understanding how they can contribute to social progress.
Phi Pham is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder and CEO of Building Beats, an organization that develops creative entrepreneurs through beatmaking, DJ’ing and hip-hop and co-founder and CEO of HeliumLink, a company that brings community-driven wifi access to IoT and LoraWAN infrastructure. He earned his BS in Neural Science and BA in Psychology from NYU. Phi was born and raised in Colorado and is currently based in Brooklyn.
Mad is a curator, writer, and community liaison working within art, technology, and society. She is currently the Artistic Coordinator at Art Blocks, a first-of-its-kind generative art NFT platform. Formerly, Mad led Programming at POWRPLNT, where she facilitated community organizing, artist workshops, and leveraging the power of collective networks to build spaces of care and creativity.
Mad has also worked with NYC/LA art spaces Artwrld, Eyebeam, SIGNAL, Amos Eno, and TRANSFER Gallery.
Dorothy R. Santos is a Filipina American writer, artist, and educator whose academic and research interests include feminist media histories, critical medical anthropology, technology, race, and ethics. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Eugene V. Cota-Robles fellow. She received her Master’s degree in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts and holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of San Francisco. Her work has been exhibited at Ars Electronica, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the GLBT Historical Society. Her writing appears in art21, Art in America, Ars Technica, Hyperallergic, Rhizome, Vice Motherboard, and SF MOMA’s Open Space. Her essay “Materiality to Machines: Manufacturing the Organic and Hypotheses for Future Imaginings,” was published in The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture. She is a co-founder of REFRESH, a politically-engaged art and curatorial collective, and serves as the Executive Director for the Processing Foundation.