Today’s guests are independent arts consultant June LaCombe, Bill Ginn, the executive vice president for the Global Conservation Initiatives at The Nature Conservancy, and artist David Driskell
Love Maine Radio #314: David Driskell and June LaCombe + Bill Ginn
Guests
David Driskell, artist
Photo by Christina Wnek Photography
David Driskell is an artist, curator, educator, and scholar who specializes in African-American art. He has contributed significantly to art history scholarship by examining the role of the Black artist in American society. He has authored six books, co-authored four other books, and published more than fifty catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. His articles and essays on African-American art have appeared in more than twenty major publications throughout the world. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Driskell the National Humanities Medal. In 2001, the University of Maryland established the David C. Driskell Center to continue the legacy he established in studying the visual arts and culture of African Americans and the African diaspora. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta established The David C. Driskell Prize in African-American Art and Art History in 2004, a $25,000 cash prize awarded to an artist, art historian, or curator working in the field of African American art. In 2012, the National Academy, an esteemed arts organization, awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant contributions to American arts and education. His work is featured in the collections of several Maine institutions, including the Portland Museum of Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Farnsworth Art Museum, and Center for Maine Contemporary Art.
June LaCombe and Bill Ginn
Bill Ginn formerly served as the chief conservation officer of the Nature Conservancy and its chief conservation programs officer. He also served as director of Global Forest Partnership of the Nature Conservancy, an international nonprofit conservation organization. As Chief Conservation Programs Officer, Mr. Ginn leads the place-based conservation arm of the Nature Conservancy, which currently spans 32 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific as well as North America and works to advance the organization’s most significant projects and strategies. As director of the Global Forest Partnership, he helped the Nature Conservancy protect over three million acres of forestland through dozens of innovative deals. Before joining the Nature Conservancy, Ginn developed one of the first major U.S. organic recycling companies, which was later sold to a Fortune 500 solid waste company. He serves as advisory board member at BPI Energy Holdings. He has also taught courses in economics and environment as a visiting faculty member at the College of the Atlantic, and he is the author of Investing in Nature, a book about engaging the private sector in conservation policy.
June LaCombe is an independent arts consultant specializing in New England sculpture. She curates and sites sculpture exhibitions in Maine and oversees sales, delivery, siting, and installation for clients throughout the country. Her outdoor shows feature sculpture in a variety of mediums including granite, slate, marble, bronze, wood, stoneware, and steel. Interior sculpture is shown at her home, Hawk Ridge Farm, in Pownal.