Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Greetings from Jason

Hi everyone,

This is Jason Yoon, I started as the Executive Director of New Urban Arts on Monday February 4. I'm honored to have been chosen by the community to fill this role and I'm excited to work with you. One thing I believe firmly in is transparency. I plan to be honest about where I'm coming from and this blog entry will be the start of us getting to know each other.

Where I'm From
I was born and raised in New York City (Brooklyn>Queens) where my parents have lived since they moved there from Korea. I was into art from a young age and I had great art classes in my high school and I participated in fantastic art programs for teenagers, including one at Cooper Union. I bounced around colleges and ended up at RISD, which is how I got involved with New Urban Arts as a mentor back in 2000-2001. After art school, I moved back to NYC and worked in education in a variety of roles.

About Me (Professionally)
For those of you that didn't get to meet me during the (exhaustive!) interview process, feel free to check out my resume. I'm sharing all this because I've been strongly influenced by the places I've worked and the amazing people I've worked with over the years. At the Brooklyn Museum I learned how important it is to keep experiencing art in order to make it. At Explore Charter School I learned to never stop trying to improve. At the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation I learned how dangerous it is for youth programs to grow blindly without really knowing what they do well and how they do it. Wagner helped me think strategically about from everything from managing money to working with people. DreamYard taught me the importance of listening and not assuming that I have all the answers. 7ARTS reinforced what I learned at New Urban Arts: that collaborative, caring relationships between artists and young people can lead to amazing things. All this is just scratching the surface, please feel free to ask me more about the experiences I'm bring to NUA.

About Me (Personally)
I love running (I ran the NYC marathon last year). I love to dance, especially salsa (I was on a salsa dance troupe for many years). I am a suffering Mets fan, a Knicks fan on strike and a completely ecstatic Giants fan!

Things I'd Like To Talk About (Feel Free to Post Other Questions)

* What do you think you get out of your involvement with New Urban Arts?

* What do you think I should be most concerned about as a new Director?

* What do you think New Urban Arts should look like in five years?

Contact Me
E-mail: jason [AT] newurbanarts [dot] org
AIM: jayoon78

1 Comments:

Blogger mary said...

I didn't know you ran long distance Jason. That is intense.

2:07 AM  

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