Michelle Tea
Founder/Director | she/her
Michelle Tea is the author of over twenty books for grown-ups, teenagers and children.
Her autofiction Valencia is a cult classic that was made into a feature length art film.
Her tarot how-to, Modern Tarot, is a best-seller, and her essay collection Against Memoir was awarded the PEN/America Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for The Art of the Essay.
She is a Guggenheim Fellow. Tea was the founding Executive Director of Bay Area arts organization RADAR Productions for thirteen years; her final act as ED was to create Drag Queen Story Hour, for which she has received honors from The California Library Association and Logo Television.
Tea is also the co-founder of the legendary Sister Spit, a performance tour which has been active since its inception in 1997.
Beth Pickens
Chief Financial Officer | she/her
beth pickens is a Los Angeles-based consultant for artists and arts organizations. she is the author of Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles (Chronicle Books, 2021) and Your Art Will Save Your Life (Feminist Press, 2018). she is represented by Laura Lee Mattingly at Present Perfect.
beth earned her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri. Since 2010, she has provided career consultation, grant writing, fundraising, and financial, project, and strategic planning services for artists and arts organizations throughout the U.S. beth team-teaches an entrepreneurship course at the California Institute of the Arts School of Theater and teaches workshops at universities, companies, and art spaces throughout the U.S.