YBCA Announces New Senior Fellows Brett Cook & Liz Lerman

We are pleased to announce that artist and educator Brett Cook and choreographer, performer, writer, and educator Liz Lerman have been selected to participate in YBCA’s inaugural Senior Fellows Program. Launching in January 2020, the multi-year program centers artists as leaders in our organization and provides a creative home where artists, curators, thinkers, and changemakers come together to develop new ideas and build community. 

The Senior Fellows Program is an evolution of the YBCA Fellows Program, now in its fourth year and underscores YBCA’s commitment to building transformative relationships with artists and investing in them to develop meaningful artistic outputs. Through YBCA initiatives and partnerships that focus on art and well-being, art and civic engagement, and art and new economies, the Senior Fellows will help shape significant arts-driven social and cultural movement. We also look forward to collaborating closely with the Senior Fellows on the development of large projects including exhibitions, screenings, performances, public programs, and more.

Both Brett and Liz have roots in visual arts and performing arts, and have also previously collaborated with YBCA. In their own work, they are advancing the essential role of art in social and cultural movement, and they are invested in developing systems and structures that catalyze artist-driven change.

A Bay Area native, Brett is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who uses his creative practice to transform outer and inner worlds of being. His museum work features drawing, painting, photography, and elaborate installations that make intimate personal experiences universally accessible. His public projects often involve community workshops and collaborative art, along with music, performance, and food to create a fluid boundary between art making, daily life, and healing. Throughout his career, Brett has always stood by his mission which aims to “give marginalized people a voice.”

Liz is a choreographer, performer, writer, educator and speaker, and the recipient of honors including a 2002 MacArthur “Genius Grant” and a 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to various publics from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and outcomes that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others. 

Learn more about Brett Cook and Liz Lerman.