GRANT JAM ‘24

Mollie Flanagan is the Individual Artists Program Director at RISCA. She manages and oversees the agency’s support for artists, including grants, programs, and services. After a decade-long career as a lighting designer, stage manager, and production manager for a wide variety of performing arts, Mollie went to grad school for arts entrepreneurship and management. During grad school, she discovered a love for artist services – supporting individual artists in making art and making a living. She joined the RISCA staff in February 2017, and currently lives by the river in Central Falls. She is now a hobby crafter – knitting, crocheting, and making things out of cement (small planters, mostly).

Shannon O'Halloran Keating is the Director and Program Manager of the Providence Tourism Council which strives to increase the economic impact of tourism, commerce, and engagement of visitors through the development of events, programs, and tourism within the City of Providence. Shannon has committed her professional life to working with and developing organizations that value the transformative power of education, travel, and storytelling. She lives in Providence with her family, where her favorite activities include getting coffee and reading bulletin boards.

In addition to being Program Manager at Interlace Fund, Jori Ketten is a parent, bandmate, and sometimes printmaker and quilt maker. She enjoys managing projects, working with young people, and above all supporting Providence-area artists. In the recent-ish past, Ketten curated exhibitions such as a week of Locally Made programming (RISD Museum, 2013), Going Nowhere, Bell Gallery, 2014, and served as the director of storefront arts galleries and event spaces 186 Carpenter (2010-2017) and 159 Sutton (2016-2022). Ketten also co-ran Providence Provision (2011-2014), a community-based microfinance dinner project, co-launched Joey Quits, a workers' rights campaign, and is a former collaborative producer of the PRONK street festival. 

Rebecca Noon is a performance-maker and arts administrator whose passion is community access. She spent a decade developing community engagement departments for regional theaters Trinity Rep and the Guthrie while organizing time-based happenings under the banner of her former ensemble Strange Attractor. Today she lives in Newport with her sweetheart and humbly serves the artists of Providence.

Julia Renaud believes that public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement—the work of the public humanities—are integral to nurturing, strengthening, and inspiring all communities in Rhode Island. Prior to joining RI Humanities, Julia worked in cultural nonprofits in New York and Providence as an archivist, educator, curator, and public historian.

Audrey Seraphin is the Program Manager for Regional Grants & Initiatives at the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), where she manages NEFA’s participation in ArtsHERE and Cultural Sustainability. Both programs are collaborations with the other five Regional Art Organizations (RAOs), which has helped grow her sense of arts making and funding in the national landscape. Before she was managing grant panels and programs, Audrey served on quite a few with the Boston Cultural Council, Cambridge Cultural Council, and Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is also a practicing theatre artist in the Greater Boston area. Audrey is a founding member (and one-time program manager) of the Network of Arts Administrators of Color (NAAC) Boston, and a long-time believer in the importance of connecting artists, audiences, funders, and administrators for a healthier cultural ecosystem.