Just Humbled and Honored to be included!
And the 2012 Honorees Are…
Creative Bravos Award Recipients
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque
Matthew Greer
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sanchez
Emerging Creative Bravos Award Recipients
Tim Nisly
Carlos Contreras
Young Creative Bravos Award Recipient
Sofia Resnik & Mikala Aragon-Sterling
People’s Choice Award Recipient
Voting is open through 11:59p on January 26!
President’s Award Recipient
Will be announced with the People’s Choice Award Recipient!
About Our Honorees
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School (MACCS) is the first public school to be chartered by the State of New Mexico Public Education Department. MACCS opened in September 2008 with 9th & 10thgrades and is now at full capacity with grades 9-12. The school is committed to using 21st century digital media and information technology to engage students and facilitate proficiency in core curriculum courses. MACCS fosters creative thinking and media literacy while focusing on project based learning, thematic units, student presentations and exhibitions. Advanced Placement, Dual-Credit courses and internship programs enhance the school’s academics and make MACCS a highly recognized public school of choice.
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque was established in 1987 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UNM College of Fine Arts and with the National Institute of Flamenco. Since then, Festival Flamenco has bridged Albuquerque with its Spanish roots by realizing the intersections of antique Gypsy articulation, Spanish classical expression and contemporary American inflection. Distinguished as the most important and longest standing flamenco event outside of Spain, Festival Flamenco is a true celebration of cultural exchange and of course, flamenco. The National Institute of Flamenco is proud to bring world-class artistry to Albuquerque for 25 years. The festival attracts over 5,000 workshop participants and theatre patrons making it one of the country’s most unique arts and cultural events generating $1.2 million in economic impact dollars each year.
Matthew Greer - Artistic Director, Quintessence
Matthew Greer serves as Quintessence’s Artistic Director. Since 2003, Greer has served as Director of Music and Worship Arts at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, where he directs several choirs and oversees a comprehensive music program. At St. John’s, he founded the highly successful “Music at St. John’s” concert series, and “Thursday Evening Musicales,” an annual series of benefit concerts for Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. In recent years, he has conducted performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. In 2011, Matt organized “New Mexico Sing for Peace,” a special concert featuring 245 musicians and commemorating the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. In addition, Greer has lectured on and conducted the music of Brahms, Bach, and Copland. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Greer holds degrees in Music and Theology from Trinity University and Boston University.
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez - Director of Education, National Hispanic Cultural Center
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez has – since the beginning of 2002 – been the Director of Education at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, where she manages multidisciplinary education and outreach programs for teachers, students and the community. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and French, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Education from UNM. Shelle’s professional background spans 25 years and includes private tutoring, classroom teaching, university instruction and research, teacher training, distance education, community arts instruction, community-building and project management. She is committed to arts and cultural education with special attention to collaborative programs, community connections, youth programs and celebrating the power of individual creativity. To indulge her personal creativity, she makes things and writes; her book, Crossings, was co-written by Catalina Delgado Trunk and published in 2008 by National Hispanic Cultural Center. Shelle is married and mother of two boys.
Tim Nisly - Founder and Curator, TEDxABQ / Chief Operations Officer, Rio Grande Community Development Corporation
Tim Nisly is the Founder / Curator of TEDxABQ and the Chief Operations Officer for the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation. As COO, Tim built the South Valley Economic Development Center’s commercial kitchen into one of the largest commercial kitchen operations in the country; works with small businesses on business plans, financing, and marketing strategies; and is currently developing a network of community kitchens around New Mexico. As Curator of TEDxABQ, Tim works with dedicated volunteers to find the Southwest’s most extraordinary ideas and people, which are then presented in a full-day TED-style conference to over twelve hundred New Mexicans. Tim has been a Quality New Mexico certified examiner for 2008 and 2009, a board member for the Rio Grande Valley Farmer’s Guild, and is the co-founder and past president of NetImpact Professional. He’s studied at University of Edinburgh in Scotland and holds an MBA from UNM’s Anderson School of Management.
Carlos Contreras - Teacher, Gordon Bernell Charter School / Poet in Residence, MDC / Host, NHCC Voces Program / Collaborator, Urban Verbs
Carlos Contreras is a two time national champion performance poet and local educator, who leads writing workshops in the adult jail facility at the Gordon Bernell Charter School. He also plays host to the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Voces Program, and he was a participant in the NHCC’s National Latino Writers Conference 09’. A member of 8 spoken word poetry teams at the college and professional level, Contreras has used spoken word as a tool for personal growth and community advancement. He has visited more than 35 elementary, middle, high school, and college campuses throughout his poetry career. He has also been the guest of and is currently the poet in residence at a correctional facility (MDC). Contreras is an English major. He currently creates alongside Colin Hazelbaker and Hakim Bellamy as part of Albuquerque’s Urban Verbs, a Hip-Hop influenced experimental theatre adventure.
Sofia Resnik & Mikala Aragon-Sterling - Co-founders and -publishers, Fraise Magazine /Students, Amy Biehl High School
Sophia Resnik and Mikala Aragon-Sterling are in 11th grade at Amy Biehl High School and the co-founders and -publishers of Fraise, a magazine that focuses on fashion, design and community resources. Sofia and Mikala write, photograph, design, layout and finance (largely through ad sales) the full-color, professional-quality publication, which took shape when the girls could not find the magazine they wanted to read and so decided to make their own. The result of a two-year collaborative partnership, supported by Amy Biehl High School’s electives programs, issues one and two of Fraisewere sold locally in limited runs; issue three is in the works – outside of school hours, as an independent project. Sofia and Mikala are both aspiring designers (Sophia in architecture and interior design; Mikala in fashion), honors students and volunteers.
About the Selection Process
The public was invited to submit nominations for the Creative Bravos, Emerging Creative Bravos and Young Creative Bravos Awards. Complete nominations were reviewed and rated by a Selection Committee comprised of creative community leaders; those individuals, businesses, organizations and events with the highest scores are the 2012 recipients. A President’s Award recipient will be determined by the President of Creative Albuquerque’s Board of Directors. A People’s Choice Award will be determined by public vote, open through 11:59p on January 26, 2012.
The Creative Bravos Gala Celebration & Awards Ceremony
will take place on Saturday, March 24 at the
Albuquerque Museum of Art & History.
Get your tickets now.
Wow! All I can say is: BRAVO! Well-deserved, hermano!