Panel Discussion: The Future of Arts Journalism

Sree Sreenivasan
Technology Reporter;
Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism

Sree Sreenivasan is a journalism educator and freelance journalist. He is Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia University's journalism school, where he runs the new media program. He also serves as a technology reporter and commentator for a variety of news outlets. Most recently, he spent two years as the tech reporter for WNBC-TV in NYC and various NBC News programs (he previously spent six years as WABC's Tech Guru). His work explaining technology has appeared in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Rolling Stone and Popular Science.

He is co-founder of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, a group of 1,000+ journalists across the US and Canada. In March 2004, Newsweek magazine named him one of the 20 most influential South Asians in the nation and in July 2007, India Abroad named him one of the 50 most influential Indians in America.

Marian A. Godfrey
Senior Director, Culture Initiatives
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Marian A. Godfrey is Senior Director, Culture Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trusts; from 2004 to 2008 she served as Pew’s Managing Director, Culture and Civic Initiatives; and from 1989 through 2003, as Pew’s Program Director for Culture.

Previously, Ms. Godfrey was Manager of the theater collaborative Mabou Mines, for which she also produced a feature film, "Dead End Kids: A Story of Nuclear Power" (1980-86); Instructor in Drama at New York University Tisch School of the Arts (1980-87); Director of Development for Dance Theater Workshop (1983-85); and Managing Director of Ensemble Studio Theater (1977-80). She received her MFA in Theater Administration from the Yale School of Drama in 1975 and BA magna cum laude in English Literature from Radcliffe in 1970.

Ms. Godfrey currently chairs the Arts Policy Roundtable of Americans for the Arts and is a member of the boards of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the League of American Orchestras and the Center for Cultural Innovation in Los Angeles; previously she served on the boards of the Maine College of Art, Grantmakers in the Arts (chair, 2000-2002) and Theatre Communications Group.

Sam Sifton
Cultural News Editor
The New York Times

Sam Sifton has been the cultural news editor of The New York Times since May 2005. His previous posts at the Times include deputy dining editor (2001); dining editor (2001-04); and deputy culture editor (2004-2005). Before joining the Times in 2001, Sifton was a founding editor of Talk. Sifton held a number of positions at the weekly New York Press during his tenure there from 1990 to 1998, including restaurant critic, contributing editor, senior editor, media critic and managing editor.

Sifton began his journalism career as assistant editor for American Heritage magazine in 1988. From 1990 to 1994, he taught social studies in the New York City public school system.

Alisa Solomon
Director, Arts & Culture, M.A. Program
Columbia School of Journalism

Alisa Solomon directs the Arts & Culture concentration in the MA Program at the J-School. She came to Columbia in 2005 after nearly 20 years as a Professor of English/Journalism at Baruch College-CUNY and as a Professor in the Ph.D. programs in Theater and in English at the CUNY Graduate Center.

In addition to periodic contributions to The Nation, The Forward, The New York Times, WNYC, GuardianAmerica.com, and other publications, she was on staff at the Village Voice for 21 years, where she won awards for her reporting on reproductive rights, electoral politics, women's sports, and immigration policy. Currently, she is a contributing editor on the weekly radio program “Beyond the Pale: Radical Jewish Culture and Politics” (WBAI) and for the quarterly journal Theater.

Solomon's book, Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. She is the editor of three anthologies: Wrestling with Zion Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (with Tony Kushner); Theater and Social Change (Theater, 31:3); and The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater (with Framji Minwalla). Solomon holds a doctorate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale.