The Arts Administration Program (ARAD) at Teachers College, Columbia University is pleased to announce recipients of the Spring 2018 Microgrants for Student Professionalization.

Through the Microgrant Program and with generous support from the Arts and Humanities Department at Teachers College, ARAD proudly supports student professionalization activities on campus and beyond. This award champions special projects proposed by Teachers College student groups (with ARAD student membership), as well as conference attendance for individual students in the ARAD program. Applications were invited through an open call process, and selected by ARAD faculty.

Please join us in congratulating the following recipients on their Spring 2018 awards:

​Emerson Chang graduated in 2016 from National Chengchi University in Taiwan with double majors in Business Administration and Accounting as well as a minor in Japanese. Her ambition to become an arts manager stemmed from an unwavering passion for the performing arts. She conducted the university choir, co-curated a music festival on campus, and participated in productions of the internationally award-winning Taipei Chamber Singers. Prior to joining ARAD, Hsun-Fang worked at Trees Music & Art as an album field researcher, programming assistant, and marketing coordinator for the label’s Migration Music Festival and New Narratives Film Festival. She enjoys connecting with new audience, and looks forward to gaining practical experiences in audience and fiscal development of art events at ARAD.

Funding from the ARAD Microgrant will support Emerson’s participation in the upcoming TEDxBroadway conference, whose speakers include successful practitioners in the performing arts field, including performers and administrators on Broadway. TEDxBroadway will enable her to compare the principles and practices pertaining to performing arts that she has been learning in the program with actual practices in the field.

​Beryl Briane Ford recently graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA with high honors in Art History, a concentration certificate in Museum Studies, and a research fellowship from the Mellon Mays Undergraduate foundation. Prior to being admitted to the Arts Administration program, Beryl Briane interned at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. in the summer of 2016 and winter of 2017. Once there, she discovered her passion for Arts Administration and the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree that supported her intersecting interests in public programming, education, and administration. During her time in the ARAD program, Beryl Briane intends on demonstrating how a career that engages rather than siloes her aforementioned interests is possible and sustainable. She is also interested in eagerly exploring how art museums address issues of community engagement and inclusion as they relate to audience development.

The ARAD Microgrant will support Beryl’s attendance at the Black Portraitures IV: The Color of Silence conference where she will have the opportunity to be exposed to new scholarship and network with academics, and museum and art professionals interested in the work of Black visual and performing artists.

​Chad Rabago is a graduate of Chapman University where he studied Integrated Educational Studies and Organizational Leadership. He moved to the DC area to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA at KID Museum, and following his service year worked as the Office & Volunteer Coordinator at ArtStream, Inc., a disability services arts non-profit. He has been involved in various areas of volunteer management, community outreach, and audience services at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Discovery Cube Orange County, the National Postal Museum, and Shakespeare Theatre Company. With a passion for working with volunteers, Chad is interested in civic engagement and service in the arts.

The ARAD Microgrant will support Chad’s attendance at the Service Unites Conference to develop his knowledge and resources of volunteers at an individual, organizational, communal, and corporate level, and learn how arts organizations can engage community members to affect positive change through service.