Christina Li
Songwriting

Christina is currently a songwriting student in USC's popular music program. For the past year, she has been interning in the A&R departments of Universal Republic Records and Capitol Records. With her work in A&R, she is constantly searching for new bands and this requires her to know what kinds of songs and acts will do well. Christina has also worked for the Grammy Foundation, Cutting Edge Music Group, Coachella and written for many music blogs. 

Leigh Harris
Songwriting Juror

Crescent City native Leigh "Little Queenie" Harris's double-edged paeans to The Big Easy, "Dawg Days" and "My Darlin New Orleans", are featured on Sony/Shout!Factory's anthology, Doctors,Professors, Kings and Queens:The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans. Working with jazz, pop, funk, blues, folk and rock artists from all over everywhere, she's provided music for film and television in the US and Europe, including the acclaimed HBO series Treme; produced and recorded 4 albums of her own, and contributed to countless others as a performer, composer, producer, babysitter, psychiatrist, beauty consultant, love broker, phamacologist, and diplomatic ambassador. Now relocated to North Carolina, she has begun to join forces with artists of all stripes in her adopted region, and continues to surprise, disarm, and blow away new audiences, carrying musician and listener alike with her through the music of her roots, beyond the swamps, and into the 21st century.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LITTLE-QUEENIE/37033652592

Lloyd Herman

Repurposed Materials in Art & Design Juror

Lloyd Herman was the founding Director of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from 1971 until 1986. A specialist in art made from clay, glass, wood, fibers and metals, he was cited by the University of Washington Press as "one of the foremost authorities on America's contemporary craft movement." In the twenty-five years since retiring from the Smithsonian Institution, he has curated exhibitions on craft and design topics for such clients as the United States Information Agency, the Smithsonian Institution and various museums and traveling exhibition services. He has lectured on American crafts throughout the United States and internationally, and has juried numerous art competitions in the United States and abroad. In recent years he has led international craft tours, and lectures regularly on contemporary glass art for Elderhostel/Road Scholar programs in Seattle.

He is a member of the American Association of Museums, an honorary member of the American Society of Interior Designers and an honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council, and has been decorated by the monarchs of Denmark and Belgium for exhibitions that he organized on the crafts of their countries. > In recent years he has led international craft tours, and lectures regularly on contemporary glass art for Elderhostel/Road Scholar programs in Seattle. His book, Trashformations: Recycled Materials in Contemporary American Art and Design, documented an exhibition he organized that toured the United States for three years, leading to a sequel, Trashformations: East, for the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, and participation in the selection of works for two other exhibitions of repurposed materials.

Nona Donoho
Fine Arts

Nona Donoho has been a consultant for Asheville's Blue Spiral 1 Fine Art Gallery for nineteen years. Blue Spiral has a reknowned reputation for its representation of southeastern fine art. Nona says she is always inspired by the artists that are passionately concerned about local and global environmental issues both personally and as evident in their art.

Maria Epes
Fine Arts

An artist, feminist, designer, publisher, animal activist and gardener –– having lived in New York City for 25 years, Bay Area for 8 years, she is now a resident of Asheville, NC where she and her menagerie live right near the Blue Ridge Parkway. With a B.F.A from Cornell University and M.F.A from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Maria's works are in a many collections both private and public around the world. Maria also has an impressive resume of affiliations confirming her passion as a advocate for the arts.

MariaEpes.com

Marsha Cohen

Fine Arts 

Book Designer/Illustrator, previously art director at McGraw Hill and the Franklin Library. Currently owner/art director Parallelogram Graphics, specializing in 4-color textbooks and adult non-fiction. Taught book design at New York University, School of Continuing Education. Also pursues an interest in representational pen and ink drawing and figurative bronze sculpture.

Allan Combs

Literature Juror

Professor of Transformative Studies at the San Francisco based California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the co-editor of Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth, with Ervin Laszlo, three times recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize; as well as author and co-author of over 100 articles and books on consciousness, systems theory, and ecology.

Source Integralis

David De Vaux

Literature Juror

Poet, editor, publisher, conservationist and theater teacher –– having lived in Australia and other countries, he is now a resident of New Mexico where he and his wife live high in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.