Fund your arts career through grants! Learn the ins and outs of the application process from those well-versed in the process: Hillary Plate & Rita Cohen.
Free with Z artist membership; $10 suggested donation for non-members
Artist Member Events: The Z Artists and local art-lovers are invited to this series of interactive workshops, Master Classes, and social hours aimed at cultivating creativity and community! Your creative spark starts here! BECOME A Z ARTIST HERE
ABOUT THE CLASS LEADERS:
Hillary Plate is a passionate advocate for arts as a vehicle for social change; a collaborator invested in crafting and guiding meaningful experiences between artists, audiences, and community partners. Her many roles in the arts and humanities world range from acting for regional theatre companies, and television, to producing live and online programming for performing arts, spiritual and history-based organizations. She served Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in NYC for nearly ten years in Development, Educational Programming and finally Assistant Director of Community Programming & Partnerships. Her collaborations reach more than 100 organizations, including The Juilliard School, Urban Word, and Grammy Award-winning artists, she produced workshops, premiere concerts, commissioned works, fundraising galas, corporate and spiritual retreats, and educational and public performance series in both traditional and non-traditional spaces for all spectrum of audiences. She was a key member of the build-team for the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, a registered lobbyist for the arts and youth voter rights, and she was a member of the strategy team aiding in the development of a multi-use arts campus in Shanghai, China. Since moving home in 2017,she has continued to serve the arts community by fusing her fundraising, lobbying, educational and production experience to produce works for the community here from VBGIGs (globally inspired gatherings) to shows like the Brooklyn Manila Project or Jon Batiste. She serves as the primary liaison to the Virginia Beach Arts Commission providing grant guidance, workshops, and she served as the lead grant manager for the Virginia Beach COVID Relief Grants for the Arts & Humanities in 2020 which provided nearly 1 Million dollars in direct aid to local non-profit organizations. Hillary is a published author and editor, a member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Folk Alliance International, co-founder of the arts and education committee at WOMEX (the premiere World Music Expo), recipient of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Emeriti Award, alumnus of APAP’s Emerging Leadership Institute and most recently, a co-recipient of the Virginia Beach Human Rights Award with the Cultural Affairs Team for their work on improving multi-cultural representation on local stages as well as the development of a cultural equity committee for the commission.
Rita Cohen Born in Accra, Ghana, Rita immigrated to Norfolk, VA as a child. She attended the University of VA on a full academic scholarship as an Achievement and Echols Scholar. Dancing and singing since she was a child, she graduated with a BA in Classical Music and received her Master of Music in Classical Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. After singing professionally from NY through Texas, she paused her career to focus on her two children.
She has fused her performing abilities, fluency in many languages and innate fitness to become an international Zumba® and African Dance instructor, teaching thousands of kids and adults in her local Hampton Roads area and beyond. She is a multiple Presenter of the international Zumba Instructors Convention, where she was awarded Humanitarian of the Year in 2022.
Ms. Addico Cohen has created several highly acclaimed avenues through which she shares her African culture with adults and children alike, using the arts, history, and language. She has created a 3-tier educational program that has placed her and the nonprofit she founded, Tidewater African Cultural Alliance (TACA), on the Teaching Roster of the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
