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Meet our Board of Directors. Images of Cultural Artistry is served by a board of directors whose knowledge, talents and experience bring invaluable guidance and supervision.
DENISE SAUNDERS THOMPSON
has extensive experience in non-profit and for-profit, established or start-up organizations. She has advised organizations on administrative, programmatic and fundraising issues including strategic plans, policy and procedures, communications programs, budgeting and contracts. Currently, Denise is the President and Chief Executive Officer for the International Association of Blacks in Dance, a non-profit service organization and D.d.Saunders & Associates, Inc., a comprehensive fine arts advisory firm offering artist management/ representation, arts producing, consulting, and production services. She recently held the position of Professorial Lecturer at American University in the Graduate Arts Management Degree Program. In April 2015, Denise completed 17 years of service at Howard University in the capacities of Professor, Theatre Manager/ Producing Artistic Director for the Department of Theatre Arts and Manager of Cramton Auditorium. She is Co-Founder of PlayRight Performing Arts Center, Inc., a non-profit arts organization in Atlanta, Georgia, and former Business Manager for The Malone Group, Inc. a non-profit arts organization in Washington, D.C. that co-produced Black Nativity at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for six years. Denise currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Friends of Theatre and Dance at Howard University, is a Member of Actors Equity Association (AEA) and Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA).
How the International Association of Blacks in Dance Keeps Dance Alive during the Pandemic
AKUA KOUYATE-TATE
Akua Kouyate-Tate oversees all of Wolf Trap’s Education Programs including the nationally recognized Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and Wolf Trap Internship and Apprenticeship Program.
Prior to joining Wolf Trap in 2001, Ms. Kouyate-Tate worked for more than 25 years as an administrator, educator, and professional artist with arts and disability organizations and government agencies including Memory of African Culture, Inc.; Young Audiences – DC Chapter; DC Public Schools; United Cerebral Palsy; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Library of Congress. She also has served as an Adjunct Faculty member of Dance Major programs at Howard University, University of Maryland, American University, and George Mason University; as a grants review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and other state and local arts agencies; and regularly presents at national and international conferences on arts education.
Ms. Kouyate-Tate holds a MA in Arts Management and a BA in Performing Arts-Dance from American University, and is a recipient of a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award and a 2015 BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference K -12 Promotion of Education Award. She has conducted postgraduate research in African Cultural Studies at Howard University and in the countries of Mali, Senegal, and the Gambia.