Todd Lester is the founder of freeDimensional (fD) and more recently the Creative Resistance Fund. Before launching freeDimensional he served as Information & Advocacy Manager for the International Rescue Committee in Sudan. Todd holds a Masters of Public Administration from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Refugee Studies Centre’s Summer School in Forced Migration at Oxford University. Todd is engaged (thinking/writing/convening) at the intersection of art for social change; horizontal network as institutional form; culture funding; cultural exchange & diplomacy; artist mobility & residency programs; and the role of the artist in policymaking. As such, Todd is an active advisor to several residencies, artist-led projects and networks – Res Artis, Gardarev, Sangam House, Pirogue Collective of Gorée Institute, Guapamacátaro Interdisciplinary Residency in Art and Ecology, HomeBase Project, Esthétique & Handicap, the Flux Factory’s diversity committee, and a planning committee for the Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Arts & Culture Fellowship – a regular contributor to The Art & Democracy Project, nominator to the Prince Claus Fund for Culture & Development, and serves as a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute. In 2006, Todd received the Peace Corps Fund Award for his work starting freeDimensional; was named ‘Architect of the Future’ by the Waldzell Institute in 2008; and selected as a delegate to The Opportunity Agenda’s 2011 Creative Change summit.
Amongst other activities/initiatives Todd Lester has also:
- Helped find United States selection partners for the World Event Young Artists (http://www.ukyoungartists.co.uk/event/weya-2012)
- Helped the artists Swoon and Paula Segal with community introductions in Sao Paulo, Brazil for Encampment Ersilla, a project they are doing at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) (http://dedentroedefora.com/en/acampamento-ersilia/)
- Helped to conceive the intellectual framework for a conference with the Triangle Network called Networked: Dialogue & Exchange in the Global Art Ecology, which takes place in London, November 26-27 (http://www.thetriangleconference.org/)
- Helped to identify staff and artists for HomeBase V as well as speaking on both the opening and closing panels for HomeBase BUILD http://www.homebaseberlin.com/interregnum–blog-by-todd-lester.html
He also serves as an advisor and idea-generator for the inaugural Rockwood’s National Fellowship for Leaders in Arts and Culture (http://rockwoodleadership.org/artsocialchange).
USA
http://www.freedimensional.org
http://www.artsrightsjustice.net
http://www.creativeresistancefund.org
