The Team
Meet SJAA’s Core Team of volunteer artists and activists who have come together to launch this new organization.
Peter Allen
Peter was formally educated as a screenwriter and now wears hats of different shapes and sizes, including planning commissioner, marketing guru, and community activist.
Julia Canavese
Julia is a San José native, a dancer, a writer, a passionate arts administrator, and the local nerd next door.
Dana Harris Seeger
Dana is a printmaker, painter, educator, and entrepreneur. She is currently the SVCreates Artist Laureate for Santa Clara County. She is the co-creator and program coordinator of the School of Visual Philosophy in San José.
Amanda Rawson
Amanda advocates for the arts both through her work in public art planning and as a volunteer in various arts organizations and museums.
Brendan Rawson
Brendan has been gleefully clapping on the 1 and 3 his whole life and is not about to stop now.
Yori Seeger
Yori is a figurative sculptor classically trained in Florence, Italy. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute and is a co-founder of Visual Philosophy, an art hub and atelier in San José.
Usha Srinivasan
Usha Srinivasan is the founder and president of Sangam Arts / Mosaic America, a South Bay nonprofit dedicated to strengthening diverse communities through intercultural arts.
Emeritus
Eileen Beckley
Eileen spent her career teaching middle school and junior college and now consults on the arts for the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
Jeannine Flores
Jeannine is the former Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and is currently serving in that capacity in Los Angeles.
Sofia Fojas
Sofia is an advocate for arts and culture for the students in our county as a veteran educator and continues to play music professionally and for fun.
Mighty Mike McGee
Mike is a spoken word artist, the former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, and a fan of lasagna.
Ron P. Muriera
Ron has 20 years of being a performing artist, community activist, arts advocate, and culturista. He's known for playing a mean accordion.
Eva Smith Glynn
Eva, a marketing communications professional and undercover writer, has found meaning and purpose in helping nonprofit art organizations and nascent literary movements. She's stepping into the political realm in order to round out her love letter to San José.