Co-Director

Holly is an expert systems thinker–seeing connections and making more than the sum of the parts. Her endless curiosity, penetrating intelligence and commitment to excellence underpins all of Helicon’s work. Holly draws on her training as an historian and her experiences as a program developer and funder to inform Helicon’s efforts to elevate the role of artists, recognize the full diversity of creative expression and make the arts and culture a more central part of community life.

Holly has a knack for identifying the most important issue facing the field at the time, and her work is often a thought-provoking catalyst for change. Reports such as Bright Spot Leadership in the Pacific Northwest (Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, 2012) and Fusing Art, Culture and Social Change (National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2011) have stimulated field-wide discussion. Earlier in her career, her work at the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund helped shift national discourse and practice in the ways cultural organizations engage audiences and communities.  In 2000, Holly’s work prompted unprecedented research on artists, Investing in Creativity (Urban Institute, 2003), and the creation of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a unique ten-year initiative to expand support and recognition for artists nationwide.

Holly serves on the board of Sadie Nash Leadership Project, an award-winning leadership program for young female leaders in metropolitan New York, and Fractured Atlas, a national organization pioneering technology-based ways to empower artists, cultural organizations and other creative enterprises.

Co-Director

Alexis is a researcher, strategist, and advisor helping partners across sectors build a more just and regenerative future through culture and creative strategies. Her work connects artists and cultural workers with movements for social, ecological, and economic justice.

She has served as faculty and program designer for the cultural leadership program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and for Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership program. Her research on socially-engaged artistic practice has shaped artist training curricula and philanthropic programs worldwide.

A Summa Cum Laude graduate of Princeton University in Cultural Anthropology, Alexis draws on her own creative practices — along with advanced studies in Chinese medicine and Buddhism — to inform her perspective on cultural change.

She currently serves on the board of Fractured Atlas and is helping establish a Public Bank in the East Bay. Alexis lives in Oakland, where she spends as much time as possible outside — in the garden, or in the hills with her dog.