Founding/Creative Director – Nestor Topchy (president), Artist and Co-Founder of TemplO/Zocalo, a nonprofit artist-run performance compound (1989-2000) where he assisted the work of visual and performing artists, playwrights and poets. Mr. Topchy has presented his work nationally and internationally, including at Ivan Honchar Museum Folkculture Kyiv, Ukraine, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Evergreen Museum/Johns Hopkins University, La Museo de Nacion, Lima, Peru, The Edinburg Fringe Festival, Scotland, and in NYC. He has lectured and presented work at The Menil Collection, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, and Devin Borden/Hiram Butler Gallery in Houston. Mr. Topchy lives in Houston with his wife, Mariana Lemesoff, and their daughter, Minerva.

His philosophy on HIVE as  realization: Form moves through collective unconscious into material reality; it  transcends and includes  genre as it arrisses intact and presents us with the challenge of interpretation. It is possible to instantly change the world for the better with just a small act and multiply these through a collaboration such as HIVE. website: http://nestortopchy.com

Architect – Si Dang, AIA (vice president, secretary) has a Bachelor of Architecture from the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston (1998) and is the Principal of ANDRIA Design. Mr. Dang’s professional experiences include previous positions as Senior Associate at Morris Architects and Designer at The Douglas Group, both based on Houston, Texas. With over twelve years of experience, he has had key roles in designing Bayou City Event Center, Phase V of Moody Gardens, Four Points by Sheraton, Houston Southwest, and numerous other projects throughout Texas, Louisiana and California.

His international design experience includes Shanghai Science Land, an interactive science museum in Shanghai, China, and various other projects throughout Asia. In 1999 he co-founded Preston Workshop, an art, architecture and industrial design collaborative focusing on site-specific art installations, contemporary crafts, and engaging the public in the creative arts environment. Mr. Dang endeavors to help create spaces for human transcendence through the visceral engagement with space, time and light. He lives in Sunset Heights with his wife Nancy Dang and their two dogs, Foxy and Toby.
website: http://andriadesign.com

Executive Director – Heidi Vaughan was first introduced to the HIVE project when it was part of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s No Zoning exhibition, in 2009. She brings inspiration from previous exposure to another original village, The Brookwood Community, and her work with Habitat for Humanity.

Previously employed by Burson-Marsteller in Chicago, Ms. Vaughan has extensive marketing, public relations, fund-raising, and volunteer experience, including work with the World Wildlife Fund, the Environmental Defense Fund, SC Johnson Wax, Gatorade, McDonald’s Corporation, Pella Windows, Perrier, The Menil Collection/Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum and many others. She is a Master Gardener and author of two books. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ms. Vaughan has lived in four countries and is finally settled with her family in Houston, where she has lived three times. She finds inspiration in the combination of nature, art, and community.

Cultural, and Performance Arts Curator and Fundraising Director – Mariana Lemesoff Argentine born artist and entrepreneur Mariana Lemesoff is the owner and manager of AvantGarden, the community bar and cultural institution in Houston’s Montrose/Museum District she established in 1996. Set within an historical 1906 craft-style house, AvantGarden is known for its eclectic multicultural atmosphere and original events. As the Founder and Artistic Director of Helios, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts and performance presenting organization, she has continuously fostered up and coming fine artists, musicians, poets, fashion designers, dancers, and theater ensembles.

Ms. Lemesoff’s GROUNDHALL is a larger-scale concert and live performance venue also located in Houston. Prior to these endeavors, Ms. Lemesoff was Co-Founder and President of TemplO, an energetic communal arts project that was home to influential Houston artists. She founded her first business in Los Angeles, California, in 1988, and she continues to be at the forefront of enterprises that foster artistic individuals. She is a graduate of L’Alliance Francaise, and is an ongoing student of psychology, philosophy, and a certified yoga instructor.
website: http://avantgardenhouston.com

Construction Manager – John ‘Juan’ Walker is prinicpal of Moduluxe, a Houston-based company focused on sustainable development. Prior to Moduluxe, Mr. Walker ran Numen Development, where he earned his reputation for ground-breaking work in designing and building shipping-container-based projects. Its single-family Cordell House was selected for inclusion in the 2009 Rice Design Alliance home tour and was featured in Dwell Magazine. Prior to Numen Development, he spent ten years as a Project Manager for W.M. Dillard & Associates, a commercial design-build firm specializing in large-scale distribution, manufacturing and office/warehouse construction.

Mr. Walker has one foot in the art and non-profit worlds as well, having assisted arts organizations including Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, and Aurora Picture Show with construction and permitting issues on a pro-bono basis. He is also a designer, dj, and the Houston contact for the Burningman Festival, an arts event held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada that is an ongoing experiment in temporary community, interactive art, and radical self-expression. Since his residency at Houston’s Commerce Street Artists’ Warehouse in 1989, he has been fascinated with the interrelationship between the built environment, community life, and engaged creativity.
website: http://www.moduluxe.net

Business Advisor – Mehmet F. Muftuoglu has been involved in various new business developments and project evaluations throughout his career. He acted as a business and financial advisor to several start-ups, from small family-owned enterprises to larger multinational initiatives that involved public and private partnerships and financings.

A contemporary art enthusiast, Mr. Muftuoglu has been involved in various artist and collector initiatives to support emerging artists in the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, and Turkey. He is volunteering with the HIVE team as a business advisor and believes in the project’s potential to regenerate an area of Houston that needs support, and that will help artists by offering them an affordable and stimulating working and living environment through environmentally sound and sustainable practices.
Mr. Muftuoglu studied management at college, and earned his MBA at the Wharton School. He currently serves as Assistant Treasurer of ConocoPhillips in Houston. Previously he worked for ARCO and McKinsey and Company.

HIVE General Counsel – deborah lawson earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University and a J.D. cum laude from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. Ms. lawson joined the HIVE project as a volunteer attorney for Texas Attorneys and Accountants for the Arts and never left. In 2008, Ms. lawson started her own practice in order to broaden her legal experience, while allowing more time to participate in non-traditional legal activities, such as non-profit law and development, and special event planning. She is involved with several small-but-successful non-profit organizations, combining her management and law degrees with a desire to win friends and influence people, all while helping these organizations grow and fulfill their potential.

Her affiliations include the Greater Houston A&M Club, the Reveille Club of Houston, the Howdy Club, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Houston, the Association of Women Attorneys, the AWA Foundation, Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association, the Lone Star Veterans Association, and the Lighthouse Animal Foundation. In her free time, Ms. lawson has written two maritime chapters for an upcoming legal text on Federal Causes of Action and was a finalist in the 2009 Scarlet Boa writing contest. She lives in Houston with her husband Rusty and their eleven children, all of whom have tails.

Director of Sustainability – Rhonda Rougeau, LEED AP, Registered Interior Designer, is the founder of IEIaustin, where she is Business Director and Principal of Marketing, Public Relations and Business Development. IEIaustin promotes client needs with an eye on sustainability, developing alliances, planning events, generating publicity and providing consulting and design solutions of all kinds. Previously Ms. Rougeau worked as an independent consultant for The Vinyl Institute. She has been a member of the United States Green Building Council and has attended five national conventions.

Her design experience includes work on corporate, historic preservation-adaptive reuse and multifamily residential projects. She is a member of the National Association of Home Builders and their local chapter, Greater Houston Builders Association. Ms. Rougeau holds a Master’s of Art from New York University in Painting and Drawing. She is continuously involved in exhibiting not only her own art but curating and managing numerous exhibitions at Purse Warehouse Art Gallery, Dakota Lofts Gallery, Erie City Ironworks and The Foundry, including two international biennials. She has also been a contributing author on the arts for the Houston Artistry publication.
website: http://www.ieiaustin.com

Consultant Public Programs and Education – Mayrav Fischer has been the Education Manager for School and Family programs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum since January 2006. She oversees family programs, school programs, training of museum educators, and partakes in professional development of classroom teachers and administrators. She loves thinking about and facilitating experiences that make art, artists, and museums relevant and accessible to as many folks—young and less young–as possible!

Prior to the Guggenheim, Ms. Fisher worked at the Whitney Museum of Art, The Hudson River Museum and the Cooper Hewitt National Design museum. She has an MS. Ed from Bank Street College of Education and a BA from Hunter College of the City University in Art History.

Construction Engineer – Hisham El-Chaar PE PM, civil engineer, has 25 years of comprehensive knowledge and hands-on engineering and construction experience. He has a BSc in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University (1984). His previous experience includes as Project Manager at Marubeni-Taoseo Consortium in Abu Dhabi, UAE, as Senior Project Engineer at Raytheon Engineers and Constructors in Tampa FL., as Project Manager at American Building Systems in Houston, and as Structural Engineer at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

 

Professional Advisors:

Jane Sheffield Lowery served as Executive Director of Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts from 1991 to 2008. She is currently self-employed in the practice of law, with emphasis on nonprofit tax law, and is licensed in both Texas and Colorado. Ms. Lowery has extensive experience with arts mediation training and has mediated arts-related disputes for local artists and nonprofits. In 1994, she was certified as a mediator by the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Institute.

Ms. Lowery graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 1977 and holds a BS in Education from Texas Tech University. In her role as an attorney specializing in nonprofit law, Ms. Lowery advises many arts and cultural nonprofit groups and is a frequent speaker on nonprofit law throughout the state. She chaired the State Bar of Texas’ Legal Aspects of the Arts Committee from 1998 to 2001 and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Texans for the Arts and as immediate past chair of the Corporate Counsel Section of the State Bar of Texas.

Elaine Dillard is a native Houstonian committed to promoting and supporting Houston’s art scene. She combines her experience in event production, catering and the restaurant industry with a flair for creative design. Ms. Dillard has produced: A Kinky Valentine, a fundraiser for Kinky Friedman for governor; Houston Are You Board? with P.U.S.H. and Aerosol Warfare, a fundraiser for the Lee and Joe Jamial Skate Park; and the Bandana art show with Bomit. Her numerous non-profit events have included the Walt Disney Children’s Charity event, the Super Hero Gala and The Wedding for Infernal Bridegroom Productions, the University of Houston’s Women’s Studies Annual Gala, and benefits for Houston Food Bank, the School of the Woods Montessori, The March of Dimes and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Previously she was director of special events for Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. Ms. Dillard serves on the boards of Spacetaker, Catastrophic Theater, and the Lee and Joe Jamail Skate Park. In 2008 she received The Houston Grand Opera’s 2008 Ovation Award, which honors Houston’s next generation of dynamic young leaders in the realm of philanthropic, charitable, and civic endeavors. She currently is director of marketing and special events for the Orange Show.

Nicholas Greer is a local Houston pianist, composer, and producer. He began performing and recording music at age 13. Aside from his recent three-month study at The Collective in New York (2010), Mr. Greer is self-taught and plays by ear. At age 14 he started a group called BoJones. At 20, he began cataloging and planning MantiSparrow Productions (M.S.P.), accomplishing his studio goals with the help of a revolving group of musicians collectively known as Mantis.

Launched in December 2010, Mantis focuses on piano rock and hip hop, and through Wire Road Studios, has released three EPs since then. He also composes music for Houston rappers Nice Guys. The motivation and attitude of M.S.P. and its affiliates, including HIVE, is to energize the city of Houston with an artistic expression that is both intelligent and economically beneficial. Through these endeavors, not only will the city of Houston be enriched, it will add a sophistication and vibrancy that cities with the highest tourist rate possess. nicholashivehoustonorg