2021 Review Panel

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A young man with long dark hair and a beard, looking at the camera, leaning against a warm-tone wooden wall.

  • Photography captured Misha Bruk's heart and imagination since his childhood in the former Soviet Union and continued through to his studies at UC Berkeley. Misha loves creating beautiful images that capture an essence and invite experiences of unexpected opening and inspiration. His clients include many high profile institutions, magazines, real estate agencies as well as personal photography.

Misha Bruk

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  • Costas Dafnis has supported youth creativity in film, theater, and music through his work at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Art Institute, Young People's Symphony Orchestra, University of the Redlands, Festival Napa Valley, The Bay School of San Francisco, and the Berkeley Symphony. His music for Daniel Kremer's Overwhelm the Sky (Kino Lorber) will be released by La-La Land Records in 2022 alongside an orchestral suite from his music for CR Coppola's Torch.

Costantinos Dafnis

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  • John Ditton is the CEO of Granville Management and serves on the board of directors of the Bay Area Creative Foundation and other biotech and technology start up companies. Before forming the BACF with founder Dr. Emil Kakkis, John worked as a patient group liaison and leader in commercial operations & marketing for rare disease companies. John helped launch the Rare Artist competition and web gallery for the EveryLife Foundation and seeing the joy this brought to the participants, he was immediately drawn to take on the challenge of encouraging creativity in our high schools. John’s passion to develop creative business leaders willing and able to tackle tomorrow’s challenges was formed working with marketing agencies, salespeople and innovative scientists for 20+ years.

John Ditton

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  • Bryn Imagire has worked at Pixar Animation Studios for 26 years. She initially served as a digital painter on "A Bug's Life" and was later promoted to Shading Art Director for "Toy Story 2." Bryn has worked on many movies, including "The Incredibles," "Monsters, Inc." and "Coco." The advice she gives to students currently pursuing art is to work really hard, and to look at all sorts of architecture and design, and art history to absorb as much knowledge as possible.

Bryn Imagire

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  • Lisa Jones founded MASTERWORKS KIDS' FINE ART STUDIO in 1997 to encourage children and their parents to explore the universal experience of communicating ideas through visual media. She created a small business, Urban Canvas USA, to facilitate one-day street painting events promoting art to a broad range of people. Lisa is dedicated to enchancing art in communities.

Lisa Jones

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  • As a long-time Bay Area resident and supporter of the Arts, Dr. Emil Kakkis, formed the Bay Area Creative Foundation to establish a non-profit organization promoting creativity in young people in the Arts and Sciences. We seek to inspire local residents, schools and businesses to support creativity and creative efforts of our local creative youth. The goal is to increase the awareness of the importance of creativity in all of our lives and encourage our young creatives by acknowledging that they have a special place in the world and are valued by their community.

Emil Kakkis

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  • Writer, Director and Producer, Nicole Newnham, is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and director, four-time Sundance Film Festival alumnus and six-time Emmy-nominee. Her first documentary Unforgettable Face screened at Sundance in 1994, the same year she graduated from the Stanford Documentary Film Program. Most recently, she co-directed the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Crip Camp with Jim LeBrecht.

Nicole Newnham

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  • Chris Sampson has enjoyed a diverse career in music as an educator, songwriter, performer, producer, arts administrator and author. In 2009, Sampson founded the Popular Music program at the USC Thornton School of Music. He serves as the songwriting instructor for the GRAMMY Foundation education programs and the National YoungArts Foundation. Sampson is a lifetime voting member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a member of BMI and serves on the advisory board for the Orange County High School for the Arts and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

Chris Sampson

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  • Bob Schleeter has performed with the top jazz, soul, rock, and blues artists in the SF Bay Area, and was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. From 1990 to 2017, he built and led the highly esteemed Marin Academy music program. Bob continues to be amazed and inspired by the work of young people and is happy to support them in their development.

Robert Schleeter

  • Arkadi Serper is the Director of Piano and Composition and Music Theory at The Crowden School, and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory in the Preparatory Department. He has written and published choral music for Kairos Youth Choir and compositions in original musical theatre. Arkadi's compositions have been produced by several major orchestras, and he continues to perform as a pianist locally and internationally.

Arkadi Serper