International Center for the Arts (ICA)

Arts and university executive, producer, and entrepreneur JEFFREY BABCOCK was named executive director of San Francisco State University's International Center for the Arts in January 2007.  An executive known for an innovative, entrepreneurial approach to creating and building cultural and academic organizations and adventurous production and presentation of the arts, Babcock has earned an international reputation for founding/co-founding and leading more than a half dozen successful arts and arts-technology organizations during his career. Of particular interest has been his focus on creating and leading organizations and programs that provide significant career-entry opportunities and support to gifted artists making the challenging transition from talented students to successful professionals.

Prior to his appointment at San Francisco State University, he founded and operated Cultural Strategies, a Phoenix-based consultancy that provided strategic planning, organizational, program and board development, leadership succession and crisis transitions, fundraising, marketing and brand positioning, and media-rich/database-driven Web applications to arts, education, and other non-profit organizations.

Babcock and San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas, together with philanthropist and Carnival Cruise Lines founder Ted Arison, created the Miami-based New World Symphony, where Babcock served as that organization’s founding president and CEO. Babcock also co-founded and managed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with artistic directors Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and conductor Daniel Lewis, and with Mr. Tilson Thomas created and managed the Great Woods Summer Institute, with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the late distinguished violinist Josef Gingold.

As director of Atlanta’s four-year Cultural Olympiad and artistic director and executive producer of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Arts Festival, he was responsible for producing a multidisciplinary, international program that attracted nearly 5 million patrons to more than 300 music, dance and theater performances, 35 visual arts and humanities exhibits, and a first-ever Olympic gathering of Nobel laureates of literature at the Carter Presidential Center.

Babcock has served as dean of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, general director and CEO of Boston Ballet – among the nation's largest professional ballet companies, and was founding executive director of the Clarice Smith Center for the Arts at University of Maryland, College Park, where he led the construction, operational and artistic planning for the 300,000-square-foot academic and six-space performing arts center.

A composer, Babcock wrote and produced "Mirrors," an opera, and numerous works for orchestra, chorus, chamber music, electronic and computer music, dance, jazz and television. He has conducted orchestras, choral ensembles, and opera, and has performed in a variety of live and studio ensembles on keyboards, bass and tuba.

Babcock earned B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in music composition from UC, Santa Barbara, where he was later presented with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

MARK DEAN JOHNSON has been an engaged professor of art for the past twenty five years, and worked to develop innovative programs that expand both audience and appreciation for the arts.

Professor Johnson was appointed Professor of Art and Gallery Director at San Francisco State University beginning in 1994. In 2002-2003, he was simultaneously a Hewlett Fellow at the Stanford University Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, where he developed new programming, public events, and curricular initiatives relating to American art created by artists of Asian and Native American ancestry.

From 1989-1994, he was Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Coordinator of the Core Foundation Program at the San Francisco Art Institute, a member of the painting faculty, and also coordinated academic programs for several curricular areas. 

From 1984-1989, he was Associate Professor of Art at Humboldt State University, where he developed new curricular initiatives working with Native American peoples of Northern California. Educated at Yale University where he worked with Josef Albers and the University of California at Berkeley where he studied with Elmer Bischoff, he has organized many projects and programs that expand awareness about California art, often in collaboration with other institutions. Recent examples from his tenure at San Francisco State University include A Century of California Fiber Art (1997, organized in collaboration with the Oakland Museum of California), Chang Dai-chien in California (1999, organized in collaboration with the Taiwan National Museum of History) At Work: The Art of California Labor (2003, organized in collaboration with the California Historical Society), and Pacific Light: California Watercolor Refracted, 1907-2007 (organized in collaboration with the Nordic Watercolor Museum in Sweden).

He is currently Principal Editor of Asian American Art: A History 1850-1970, forthcoming in 2008 from Stanford University Press and funded by the NEH and Getty, and a co-curator of the exhibition Modern Currents in Asian American Art: 1900-1970, to open at the de Young Museum in 2008.

As a founding member of the International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University, he has coordinated several touring exhibitions and public programs about regional and international developments in the arts.  He also developed an art and the environment initiative in partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco that sited public art in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for a first time, and at the City's Civic Center. 

TOM LUDDY has been associated, as an executive or film producer, with American Zoetrope since l979. As Zoetrope’s Director of Special Projects, he developed and supervised the l98l-82 worldwide revival of Abel Gance’s l927 masterpiece NAPOLEON, as well as the presentation across America of Hans-Jurgen Syberberg’s seven-hour OUR HITLER--A FILM FROM GERMANY, in l980. Luddy coordinated Zoetrope’s sponsorship of Godfrey Reggio’s KOYAANISQATSI (l983), and two collaborations with Jean-Luc Godard, EVERYMAN FOR HIMSELF (l980) and PASSION (l982), as well as the theatrical release of Fielder Cook’s TOO FAR TO GO (1983). He was also instrumental in Zoetrope’s support for Akira Kurosawa’s KAGEMUSHA (l980), Co-Executive Produced by Francis Coppola and George Lucas. 

In l985, Mr. Luddy produced, with Mata Yamamoto, the remarkable film MISHIMA, directed by Paul Schrader, and featuring sets by Eiko Ishioka and Music by Phillip Glass.  He also served as Executive Producer on TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE (l987), written and directed by Norman Mailer. Together with Fred Roos and Barbet Schroeder, he produced BARFLY (l987) directed by Barbet Schroeder from an original screenplay by Charles Bukowski; starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.  He served as Associate Producer on Jean-Luc Godard’s KING LEAR (l987), and on Godfrey Reggio’s POWAQQATSI (1988). In l988, he served as Executive Producer on Dusan Makavejev’s MANIFESTO. Together with Fred Roos and Erwin Provoost, he produced the John Fante adaptation WAIT UNTIL SPRING BANDINI (l990), directed by Dominique Deruddere and starring Joe Mantegna, Faye Dunaway, and Ornella Muti. 

In l992, Tom Luddy reunited with Japanese producer Mata Yamamoto to produce for Zoetrope & Filmlink International WIND, directed by Carroll Ballard, starring Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, Stellan Skarsgaard, Jack Thompson, Cliff Robertson and Rebecca Miller. 

In l993, together with Fred Roos and Fuch Fuchs, he produced Agnieszka Holland’sTHE SECRET GARDEN. In l995, he served as Zoetrope’s Executive Producer on Gregory Nava’s MI FAMILIA/MY FAMILY, starring Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales Edward James Olmos, and Jennifer Lopez. In 1998, he Co-Executive-Produced LANI LOA, directed by Sherwood Hu for Chrome Dragon Films, a joint venture of American Zoetrope and Wayne Wang. 

In l974, Tom Luddy co-founded the Telluride Film Festival along with Bill Pence and James Card: he remains, with Bill Pence, the Director of the Telluride Film Festival. For many years, Tom Luddy was on the board of the San Francisco Film Festival. He also served for three years as a member of the New York Film Festival Selection Committee, after serving as its West Coast programming Consultant. 

He was the American Jury Member at the Cannes Film Festival in l993, under Jury Chairman Louis Malle. He also served on the Juries of the Moscow Film Festival in l979, and the Berlin Film Festival in l987. In addition he served on the Juries of The Cartegena, Mexico City, Morelia, Tehran, and San Paolo Film Festivals. 

From l972 to l979, he was Program Director and/or Curator of Film for Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive. 

ANDREW SPEIGHT is a clear-toned, hard driving alto sax player, one of the Bay Area's most lively and lyrical exponents of straight-ahead, joyous jazz. A native of Sydney, Australia, Speight came of age playing with American stars like Percy Heath, Nat Adderley and Benny Carter as they passed through town. His 1998 CD, Andrew Speight Quartet, won an Aria Award, the Australian version of a Grammy.

In the U.S. since the early 90's, Andrew has been leading jazz studies programs at Michigan State University and since 2000 at San Francisco State University. But most importantly, he’s been blowing the doors off of every joint lucky enough to have him on the bandstand.

He performed with legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb on this year's highly acclaimed CD, Marsalis Music Honors Jimmy Cobb, released by Marsalis Music, the company owned and run by Branford Marsalis.

Andrew Speight's early introduction to the jazz world of Sydney, and the world at large, was facilitated by the fact that his father, John Speight, was a jazz pianist and his mother, Niddrie Wauchope, was a singer. Big name American jazz players would often come through on their own and pick up local backing bands, and Speight's father would frequently get hired and bring his son along to observe.

“My parents knew all the good musicians,” Speight told an interviewer for the website JazzWest a few years back. “It wasn't uncommon for there to be jam sessions at the house.”

Some of the musicians coming through included greats like Sonny Stitt and Johnny Griffin.

“When I was 14,” Speight told JazzWest, “I got to hear Sonny Stitt, who gave me an informal lesson. I'd give my right arm to be able to have that lesson again.

As Speight grew to adulthood, he started his own band, “Now's the Time,” to perform the Art Blakey-style straight ahead jazz he had grown to love. After touring with Nat Adderly, Joe Williams and Louie Bellson, Speight came to the U.S. in 1991 to compete in the prestigious Thelonius Monk International Saxophone Competition, where he was the only non-American finalist.

He went on to join the jazz faculty of Michigan State University, collaborating while there with Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath and Benny Carter. He moved to San Francisco to join the SFSU faculty five years ago. Since arriving in the U.S., Speight has performed at major venues and festivals and performances around the world with the likes of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Milt Hinton, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Speight has developed a distinct, lyrical style. His playing draws inspiration from Charlie Parker’s classic sound while reflecting his own unique perspective. The result is distinctive and compelling--at once vintage and fresh, elegant and articulate.

STEPHEN UJLAKI brings a wealth of working experience as an independent producer, writer, director and educator to his position as Director the DOC Film Institute (DFI), a program of the International Center for the Arts.

Mr. Ujlaki has served as producer for Michael Douglas’s Stone Group, Studios La Victorine in Nice, France, Vice President of Development and Production for HBO Pictures working with CEO Michael Fuchs and Senior Vice President, Rick Bieber.

Mr. Ujlaki has produced such features as: Ripley Underground, Loch Ness, Hot Spot and Courage Mountain.  His HBO productions include: Stiletto Dance, Xchange, Bone Daddy, Valentine’s Day, Hostile Intent and Ms. Bear.  He also has produced network television movies, including Riddler’s Moon, Lost Souls, 30 Years to Life, Pretty Girl Crossover, Parkland and Survivor.  As a writer, director and editor of documentary film, Mr. Ujlaki produced Tunnelbana, Patriotism, Inc., Freedom to Choose, The Shakers, Rattlesnake In Coney Valley, Bells Ringing In An Empty Sky, With Intent To Harm, and Kentucky Annals.

Professor Ujlaki has held faculty positions at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles, Brandeis University, and Franconia College. Mr. Ujlaki is a graduate of Harvard University.

A native of Northumberland, England, SANDY WILSON completed his graduate studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen as a recipient of two Danish Government Scholarships and the Sophus Berendsen Award. While performing as a member of the Royal Chapel Orchestra, he studied composition with Niels Vigo Bentzon and cello with Erling Blöndal-Bengtsson. Mr. Wilson was principal cellist at the age of 21 in the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland, at which time he also performed extensively in duo recital with Swiss pianist, Hedy Salquin. In 1979 Mr. Wilson moved to the United States, completing a degree at Yale University as a student of Aldo Parisot, Otto Werner Mueller and the Tokyo Quartet. He co-founded the Alexander String Quartet in 1981 and has since lived in this country, devoting most of his energies to the development of the Quartet. Mr. Wilson has written and frequently participates on panel debates on the subject of chamber music residency development and presentation. He currently serves as an elected board member of Chamber Music America and is a member of the California Cello Club.