Sustainable and ethical practices in arts management
Jeff Nathanson and Connie Tell
A veteran arts administrator and curator, Jeff Nathanson served as Executive Director and Chief Art Curator for the Museum of Sonoma County from 2017 – 2024. He skillfully guided the organization successfully through the impact of natural disasters, the pandemic, and oversaw a major expansion of the museum’s exhibitions and public programs. Jeff was Executive Director of the Arts Council of Princeton (Princeton, NJ) from 2005 to 2016 during the time of a extensive expansion including the building of a new arts center designed by renowned architect Michael Graves.
Prior to that, he was a special projects curator for the Princeton University Art Museum and from 2000 to 2003, and served as Director of the International Sculpture Center (publisher of Sculpture Magazine) in Hamilton, NJ. He was Executive Director of the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA from 1991 to 2000.
Jeff studied fine arts and music at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz (where he earned a BA with college honors) and earned a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Fundraising from Indiana University School of Philanthropy. Nathanson has also recorded and performed as a professional musician.
Connie Tell is a curator and arts programming specialist with extensive leadership experience in arts administration, curating and overseeing exhibitions, writing, creating multiple educational, scholarly, and public programs with a focus on equity and inclusion in the visual arts. She is the former Director and Curator of the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities (formerly the Institute for Women and Art) at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. As the center’s director and curator, she provided administrative and artistic leadership, strategic planning, grant writing, staff supervision, outreach, program development, and oversight for a multi-program center, requiring specialized knowledge of arts management and curatorial best practices.
Tell is well known nationally for organizing the renowned Feminist Art Project Day of Panels at the College Art Association Annual Conferences for over a decade. She serves on several editorial boards, committees, and has been a review panelist for the California Arts Council. She is the Chair of The Feminist Art Project National Committee.
Tell has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and BFA from the University of Massachusetts. She is a mixed media artist.
