LINC Welcomes Two New Team Members

LINC has made two new additions to its team!  Ryan Breaux has joined us as Project Assistant, and Risë Wilson has been named as LINC’s new Program Manager.  Risë will be responsible for LINC’s national programs focused on artist space, health insurance, and health care for artists.  Learn more about our new program Space for Change, which kicks off both Risë and Ryan’s work at LINC.

Ryan Breaux – Project Assistant

Ryan began his tenure at LINC as an intern, and quickly became an integral member of our team. As LINC’s new Project Assistant, Ryan provides administrative support to LINC’s grant making programs, including Space for Change.

Ryan’s previous experience includes serving as Gallery Staff at SUPERFRONT—a not-for-profit project space for experimental architecture in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn—where he was responsible for grant writing and maintaining daily gallery operations.  In addition, he has interned at several architecture firms in New York City, such as Eisenman Architects and Acconci Studio.  Ryan received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

Risë Wilson – Program Manager

Risë is a cultural worker whose primary focus has been on the ways in which art making and participation can contribute to the total well-being of people of color. She is the Founder of The Laundromat Project, an emerging social enterprise that mounts public art projects in neighborhood laundromats as a way of making art more accessible—physically, financially, and conceptually-- to communities of color living on low incomes. The long term vision for the organization is to build an art center attached to a laundromat that it owns and operates. After conceiving the idea for The Laundromat Project in 1999, Risë focused both her academic and professional careers on bringing the organization to fruition. In addition to graduate work at NYU, Risë pursued a practical education in non-profit arts administration by holding positions in both large-scale and grassroots cultural institutions such as  the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Painted Bride Art Center, and Art Sanctuary. As an artist, Risë works in the genre of printmaking. As an administrator her work has spanned strategic planning, fundraising, community outreach, and art education. Periodically she serves as a consultant to other non-profits in these areas.  Most recently she served as a Research Consultant for The Ford Foundation, supporting the work of its Media, Arts and Culture unit. She has also taught at Parsons, the New School for Design, helping product design students apply their creative talents to the public sphere.

Recognized as one of the "World's Best Emerging Social Entrepreneurs," Risë is a 2008 Douglas Redd Fellow in art and community development; a 2004 Echoing Green Fellow; and a 2002 College Arts Association/NEH professional development fellow. Risë holds a BA in African-American Studies from Columbia where she was a Kluge Scholar, and an MA in Africana Studies from NYU, where she was a Maccracken Fellow.

Before leaving the corporate sector to enter the field of non-profit arts, Risë worked for Procter and Gamble in Customer Business Development.