JAI Arts Professionals

In an effort to better serve the Jewish Artists Initiative ( JAI ) and the Southern California arts community, we have created a Directory of JAI Arts Professionals. All bonafide members of JAI, they are variously Curators, Critics, Administrators and Scholars whose professional accomplishments are very relevant to the Jewish community. We hope this resource will be helpful to you in what ever project, exhibition or programming you are undertaking. This list of individuals is complemented by our Directory of Artists.
Sara L. Cannon
Art Curator, Academy for Jewish Religion, CA
After graduating from the University of Southern California Graduate Studies Program with a combined Master’s degree in Museum Studies and Art History, her first professional position was in the Education Department at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. Sara moved on to work as Assistant Director and then Director of the Museum Education and Tours program at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles. She also developed the tour-guide manual and touring program for Watts Towers and trained guides.
During her career she received several education grants, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts Museum Education grant, to fund “Poetry and Art in Your Neighborhood,” a grant to fund an architecture or architect education program for homeless youth based at Hollyhock House, an AQMD grant to develop art education to teach children about air quality in their neighborhood, and various other grants for her education programs. She also received grants to produce a film on the restoration of Hollyhock House “Restoring the Romanza”, one from the American Craft Association to curate the exhibition “The Inspired Vessel.”
Sara curated numerous exhibitions at the Municipal Art Gallery and Hollyhock House and became the director of the Art Gallery at City Hall. She was president of the Museum Educators of Southern California, on the executive committee of Art Table, was on the Advisory Council of the L.A. Center for Education Research and the Skirball Museum. She has been on numerous art and education panels, has been a guest speaker for education in the arts and the development of docent programs and has written articles for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department for arts brochures, wrote art catalogue essays and newsletters. She continues to curate exhibitions in Los Angeles and other cities and is currently the art curator for the Academy for Jewish Religion, CA.
Email: shara6081969@gmail.com

Josh is passionate about the intersection of art and leadership development. He is an alumnus of the Jeremiah Fellowship, Selah and ROI, and was a 2011 member of the Selah National Leadership Team. He is a trainer for PresenTense. Josh is a co-founder of East Side Jews and is an advisor to Seder2015. He is a coach trained through the Center for Nonprofit Management. He comes to his work with over ten years of non-profit and informal education experience. He holds a BFA in Performance Studies and Media Production from Emerson College. Josh lives in Echo Park with his wife, Ayana, and their two children, Lazer and Diggy.

She is currently the curator for the Platt/Borstein Galleries at American Jewish University. She also oversees a number of private and foundation collections, as well as the estates of artists. She speaks to artists and collectors about the legacy of their art and how to prepare it for the future. She has curated exhibitions both in the United States, Europe and Israel (fall 2015) and written a number of catalogs. Special projects include hands-on art workshops and exhibitions focused on using art for healing and transformation.


She has organized exhibitions in all media, primarily on nineteenth and twentieth century art, for United States institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The National Gallery of Art and The Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Toledo Museum of Art, The Center for the Fine Arts in Miami, The Reading Public Museum, Guild Hall Museum of East Hampton, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Honolulu Academy of the Arts, The Municipal Art Gallery in Los Angeles, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco and The Pasadena Museum of California Art. She has also curated exhibitions throughout Asia and Europe. She has published over 100 articles and more than 40 books and catalogs related to her curatorial interests.

Parallel to her academic studies, Deborah trained in bookbinding, printing, and the preservation of manuscripts, books, and works on paper. She has worked with the special collections of the Brandeis University Library, JTS, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her professional experience includes working in collections management, curating, book repair, and museum education at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum in New York, The Met, and The Skirball Cultural Center, respectively. Currently, Deborah is developing a Catalog Raisonné for an octogenarian artist, leads private, intergenerational museum tours at museums around Los Angeles, conducts research in the area of Masorah, and is studying Hebrew calligraphy.