ReVision: Art and Justice

Artist, Curator and Facilitator

Bio coming soon

Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia

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Artist, Curator and Facilitator

Coming from a family of artists and human rights activists, Helena is most at home working at the intersection of culture and public policy. She is a collaborative social justice leader with more than 25 years of experience in philanthropy, civic engagement, narrative change, and movement building.  She is dedicated to bridging the worlds of foundations and advocacy to support artists, organizers, and communities working for policy and systems change. 

Helena has co-launched and led several start-up initiatives and today serves as Co-Director of the National Arts Policy Alliance, a new organizing initiative housed at United States Artists, dedicated to securing economic rights for artists and creative workers.  Previously, she served as Project Director for the Art for Justice Fund (A4J). Working with art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund, multidisciplinary artists, and criminal justice advocates, she helped create a time-limited fund (2017 –2023) that leveraged art to promote policy and narrative change to end mass incarceration. Developed jointly with the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, A4J awarded over $127 million in fellowships and grants (457) to artists and advocates, leading to significant policy victories in bail, sentencing, and reentry reform, shifting prevailing narratives, and strengthening legacy organizations that continue to change lives today. 

Before that, Helena co-founded civic engagement organizations at the state level and worked with local and national leaders to promote voting rights, such as automatic voter registration in Oregon in 2015, through community-led legislative campaigns and ballot initiatives. Earlier, she served as a senior program officer at the JEHT Foundation and Open Society Foundations, where she funded organizers working to end racial inequality, promote economic justice, and seed the early movement to end mass incarceration.

Helena has a bachelor’s in social policy from Cornell University and a master’s in public affairs from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

She lives with her family in New York City.

Artist, Founder and CEO, Center for Art and Advocacy

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Artist

Mark Loughney is a formerly-incarcerated painter and draftsman from 
Pennsylvania whose art acts as a courier for criminal justice reform efforts 
nationwide. He is a recipient of the 2023 Art For Justice Fellowship and 2024 
Mural Arts Reimagining Reentry Fellow. He works from his studio in 
Philadelphia and is expanding his Pyrrhic Defeat portrait project to include 
portraits of supporters of criminal justice reform.

Designer, Educator, Founder and Author

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Artist

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Founder and President, Diaspora DNA Story Center

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Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education at the Barnes Foundation

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Executive Director, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

Emily Smith is the Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG), an arts organization that preserves and manages three art environment sites in Philadelphia (The Magic Gardens Museum, The Magic Gardens Studio, and The Magic Gardens Residency). These artistic masterpieces were created over many decades by artists Isaiah & Julia Zagar. Under Emily’s leadership, PMG has transformed these sites into one-of-a-kind destinations that challenge and create deeper dialogue with the world around us.  

Since becoming the Executive Director in 2014, Emily and her team increased attendance 100%, tripled the operating budget, and increased staffing to 22 people. She has made PMG a place for local and international artists to showcase work that moves beyond creative norms and the traditions of art history. In 2016 she partnered with Julia Zagar to implement a residency program that supports female artists working in traditions of folk art, particularly in Mexico. The residency continues today.  

Having worked alongside the Zagars for 17 years, Emily continues the family legacy of working through mental health struggles, championing art environments and the artists who created them, and collaboration with folk artists throughout the world. She is a member of PMG’s preservation team and a founding member of the Artist-Built Environment Network, a nonprofit that advocates for the preservation of unique artist-built sites in America and beyond.  

Emily is also a working artist. Her solo exhibitions Messy Womenand When A Man Decides To Hurt You were shown at Paradigm Gallery. Messy Women discussed society’s gender norms and When A Man Decides To Hurt You was a self-portrait series exploring her experience of violence. She is the recipient of a Leeway Foundation Art & Change grant which supported her exhibition In Visible Skin: Portraits of Transgender Philadelphia. 

At PMG, Emily has been champion of LGBTQ + and immigrant rights and has worked to make the Magic Gardens a place for all. She is passionate about mental health advocacy and the power of art in transforming lives.  

Artist and Curator

Daniel Tucker is an arts leader who helps artists, activists and organizations to create impactful work. He has been sought out for the last two decades as a curatorial, programming and editorial consultant for a range of organizations across the country. As a curator his exhibitions have toured nationally and internationally and he recently developed the Curating Engagement Retreat with support of Wagner Foundation and Public Trust. “Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of Pandemic” (Soberscove, 2022), his last co-authored book with Anthony Romero and Dan S. Wang, was picked as a “Best Art Book of 2022” by Hyperallergic. Tucker is the chair of the international Arts in Society Research Network, has led graduate programs in museum studies and socially-engaged art for the last decade and is currently a fellow with the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania and the Engaged Humanities Studio at Swarthmore College with Paloma Checa-Gismero. Since 2023 he has organized the ongoing Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing, and Screening Series in Philadelphia where he lives with his family. 

State Legislative Affairs Manager, FAMM

Bryan Widenhouse was given a life without parole sentence when he was 17 years old. During his incarceration he accepted accountability for the harm he caused and chose to serve the community and better himself.

Bryan has developed and managed national award-winning projects and programs. He served five terms as president of the prison’s chapter of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. In each of those terms they were named the #1 chapter in the nation. Within this organization he also served two years as a state level program manager. In 2005 he received the organization’s highest award, the Junior Chamber International Senatorship.

In other areas of service Bryan was an Alternatives to Violence facilitator, a Red Cross instructor, and a peer counselor. He successfully authored a grant to fund a prison art class and helped to develop a victim/offender mediation program. He has obtained three vocational degrees.

After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed life without parole sentences for juveniles, Bryan was granted parole in November 2020, after serving 31 years of incarceration. Shortly after his release he joined the National Life Without Parole Leadership Council with Human Rights Watch. The Council progressively works toward the abolishment of LWOP sentences and advocates for second look agendas. He has spoken to members of Congress, testified to legislators, and helped to develop a Speakers’ Bureau to use his voice and experiences to change the narrative of extreme sentences.

In March 2023, Bryan joined FAMM as a policy associate. Today he is a State Legislative Affairs Manager on oversees FAMM’s policy initiatives in six states.