Karen Keane is Chairman Emerita of Bonhams Skinner, overseeing the operation of one of the world’s leading auction houses, the largest in New England. She was instrumental in the establishment of Bonhams Skinner as a world-class auction gallery in Boston, as well as the company’s expansion into specialty areas including Fine Musical Instruments, Science & Technology, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Fine Wines and Judaica.

Karen brings her lifelong passion for art, antiques, and the study of material culture to bear for Bonhams Skinner’s business. She is one of the firm’s most versatile appraisers, possessing a broad knowledge of furniture, and fine and decorative arts. Her specialty areas include American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Americana, and Folk Art. Karen is USPAP certified by the Appraiser’s Association of America. She is also a formidable presence at the auction podium and became the company’s first female auctioneer early in her career. 

Karen had the privilege to conduct the auction of the rare and magnificent Qing Dynasty vase sold at Bonhams Skinner for a record $24.7 million setting a record for the top grossing lot ever sold in New England.  

Karen is also a familiar face and leading appraiser on the PBS Emmy Award-winning TV series, ”Antiques Roadshow.” Sought after by the media, she is a regular contributor to art and antiques publications, symposiums, websites and blogs. She lectures and conducts benefit auctions and appraisal events for non-profit and for-profit institutions nationwide, including the Annual MassArt Auction, for which she has volunteered as pro-bono auctioneer since the mid-1980s. 

Karen holds a Master’s degree in Art History from Boston University. She is a former overseer of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston appointed by Governor Charlie Baker.

Daren Bascome is the founder and managing director of Proverb Agency, a branding and advertising agency located in Boston’s South End. Under Bascome’s leadership, Proverb has been recognized as a “Best in Business” by Inc. and has won numerous tourism, local, and international awards for its inclusivity work. 

In addition to leading Proverb, Bascome is on the Board of Massachusetts Marketing Partnership (MMP), an overseer at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and is on the advisory board of the educational organization Facing History and Ourselves. What’s more, he’s been recognized as a “Most Influential Bostonian” by Boston Magazine and as one of the city’s Most Influential Men of Color by Get Konnected!, a Boston-based multicultural resource platform.

Bascome earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and attended Boston University’s Questrom School of Business for small business and entrepreneurship.

Professor Sunand Bhattacharya is the associate vice provost of Design and Innovation Strategy at Boston College (BC). As a learning architect, design educator, and industrial designer, he spearheaded the design and development team to create BC’s first human-centered engineering program. Using data-informed methodologies, he also helps build a culture of collaboration and innovation across BC. 

Before teaching at BC, Sunand was the global learning strategist for Autodesk, leading its Learning Futures team dedicated to Autodesk’s future influence advocacy in design-related STEAM and engineering education. Earlier in his career, Sunand was the principal and co-founding partner of Arjuna Learning Designs LLC, a firm specializing in creating interactive learning objects to enhance teaching and learning for leading publishing houses. 

Sunand holds advisory positions at Olin College of Engineering, Purdue University Polytechnic Institute, Cal State Northridge and Station1-MIT, and Nirma University, and he serves on the International Boards of Global Minimum Inc (GMin) in Kenya and Agastya International Foundation (US) in India. He received his Master of Design in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design in India, and holds a terminal post-graduate MFA degree in industrial design and human factors from The Ohio State University.

Lina Maria Giraldo is a Boston-based designer, interactive media artist, and storyteller from Colombia. She has a background in co-design, civic media, art, and technology and is an assistant professor of data visualization in the Department of Journalism at Emerson College.

She has been honored as a journalist-in-residence at Emerson College, an artist-in-residence for the City of Boston (Boston AIR 2.0), and a recipient of the Now + There accelerator program for creating Public Art in the City of Boston. Lina is also the recipient of the Creative City Grant and the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation Grant. While working as an interaction designer at ESI Design, Lina was part of the award-winning educational website JFK50.org team. On behalf of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Lina has interviewed many impactful figures, including Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Belafonte, and Stephen King.

Lina’s work is focused on creating interactive storytelling for social change through data visualization, grassroots storytelling, public installations, and computer-generated art. She believes in the power of collective storytelling and data literacy from a maker’s perspective to explore questions related to identity, data democratization, and environmental justice within minorities of color, particularly Latine.

Denise Korn is the founder and principal of Yellow&, a dynamic creative consultancy working with impassioned leaders and fearless entrepreneurs to develop brands that foster meaningful business and social impact. 

Korn was previously the creative director/design director for Lifestyle Brand at Gensler, and founder of the award-winning brand strategy and design firm, Korn Design. A design industry speaker, mentor, and activist, Denise is the recipient of the Fellow Award from the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) for her contributions as a design visionary and youth advocate. She was also awarded a James Beard Foundation medal for design, and her work has been honored by AIGA, Communication Arts, Graphis, Hospitality Design, and Interior Design magazines.

A champion of diversifying the creative economy, Denise founded Youth Design in 2003 to mentor the next generation of design professionals and cultivate career opportunities in the field. She currently serves as a senior fellow in social innovation at the Babson College Lewis Institute, on the Advisory Council for Cornell University’s School of Architecture, Art & Planning (AAP), and the Advisory Boards for AIGA/Boston and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC).

Peter Nessen is the founder and president of Nessen Associates. He is a public accountant who has served as CEO and on the governing board of advisors for national investment banking firms. Peter was assistant secretary of administration and finance responsible for human and social service purchase reform. He also served as secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In that capacity, he was the senior cabinet member and the chief financial officer in the cabinet of Governor William Weld. Peter has also been a partner in the accounting firms of BDO Seidman and Henry J. Bornhofft Company, and the Dean for Resources and Special Projects at Harvard Medical School. He chaired the Massachusetts Cultural Council and served on the Governor’s Commission evaluating school reform, as well as representing Massachusetts as the public commissioner on the New England Accreditation Commission.

Peter holds a BA degree from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Business Administration from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck Graduate School of Business Administration. He currently serves on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Janice M. Saragoni is president of Saragoni & Company, a Boston-based communications consultancy specializing in media relations, relationship marketing, crisis communications, and public affairs. Active in a variety of cultural and non-profit organizations, Jan is a member of the Executive Committee of Save Venice, Boston Chapter, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government Magazine. She is a committee member of UNICEF’s “Children First Speakers Program” and serves on the Advisory Board of the Boston Public Market. 

Over the years, Jan has served on the Boards of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, the Cambridge Office of Tourism and was a founding planning board member of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, responsible for the development of Boston’s Greenway Parks.

A Brighton native who attended Boston public schools, Jan earned a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Amherst College and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She also attended Cape Cod Community College and completed a program of advanced studies at the University of Perugia, Italy.

Kelly Sherman is a non-profit strategist who helps advance innovation within organizations. Passionate about design thinking, she brings a user-centered approach with clients who span the sectors of arts and culture, higher education, and racial and social justice. 

Kelly was a participant in MassChallenge and a strategist at EPAM Continuum, where she served a broad range of Fortune 500 companies and received a Gold IDEA Award for design research from the Industrial Designers Society of America. She has held leadership roles on numerous governance and advisory boards, including the BSA Foundation, MIT’s List Visual Art Center, MassArt’s Alumni Leadership Council, and the Mayor’s Arts Task Force in Cambridge. 

For nearly twenty years, Kelly worked as a visual artist, displaying her work publicly in parks and neighborhoods, as well as in galleries and museums like the Krakow Witkin Gallery, Center Street Studio, and in the collection of the ICA Boston, where she received the Foster Prize.

Kay Ehwa is a conceptual installation artist and event planner with a focus in lighting design based in Boston, Massachusetts. They have assisted in six SIM major semester shows and are co-chairperson of the Pulse Advocates through MassArt Counseling Center. They were a member of the Eventworks 22-23 cohort, which produced several events and a series of artist talks — including an artist talk with alumnus Brian McCook, known as drag artist Katya Zamolochikova. In collaboration with Megan Ross, Kay co-created VideoStore, a floor-to-ceiling immersive traveling gallery of a 1980s video rental store with a cast of employees and an underlying mystery, recently installed in Godine Family Gallery.

Kay is also a founding member of the Learning Optimization Advocates For Studios, a group dedicated to providing MassArt students with better learning environments and studio spaces. They are in their senior year in the SIM major at MassArt, set to graduate with a BFA in May 2024.