Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

Katharine Martinez is Director of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Prior to this
appointment, Martinez served as Director of the Fine Arts Library in the Harvard College Library, where she
oversaw a collection of more than 1.5 million photographs and prints. She also served as the Herman and Joan
Suit Librarian and oversaw the Harvard Film Archive, with its collection of more than 10,000 35mm and 16mm
films and several thousand posters, and robust public film program. She has experience managing photographic
collections at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, the Smithsonian Institution, and
the Winterthur Library. Martinez has curated exhibitions for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, earned fellowships
from Harvard University Library and Stanford University Library, served on the editorial board for American
Quarterly and acted as a member of the Board of Directors of Research Libraries Group (RLG). She is also
a past-president of the Art Libraries Society of North America. Martinez earned her bachelor’s degree in art
history from the University of Delaware, followed by a Master’s of Library Science degree from Indiana
University and doctorate in American Studies from George Washington University. Her areas of expertise are
19th and early 20th century visual culture, particularly the intersection of high art and popular taste and the
reception of images. She is currently at work on a book manuscript titled “Craze for Pictures: The Production
and Reception of Photographic Images in the U.S. 1880-1920.”
Cindy Ornstein joined the City of Mesa as Director of Arts and Culture and Executive Director of the Mesa Arts
Center (MAC) in July, 2010. In addition to leading the MAC, Arizona’s largest arts center encompassing four
theatres, fourteen performing and visual arts studios, and the five galleries of Mesa Contemporary Arts, she
oversees the Arizona Museum for Youth and the Arizona Museum of Natural History. Prior to coming to Mesa,
Cindy was President and CEO of the Flint Cultural Center Corporation in Flint, Michigan, Associate Director of
the Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Executive Director of Mayfair Festival of the
Arts in Allentown. Before entering arts administration, she was the Director of Corporate Communications
at Rodale Press, Inc., a leading book and magazine publisher, and worked in the public relations agency
business in New York and Atlanta, including holding vice presidencies at the world’s two largest public relations
firms. She began her career as an advertising copywriter and a journalist, and also worked in theatre as an actor
and director in Chicago and New York. Currently, she serves as a member of Arizona’s Cultural Data Project
Task Force. She was appointed by Michigan’s Governor to two terms as a Council Member on the Michigan
Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and served on the Executive Committee of the board of ArtServe Michigan.
Ornstein earned a B.A. degree in English from Vassar College and is currently completing a Masters degree in
American Culture from the University of Michigan.
Tim Rodgers is Director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and Vice-President of the Scottsdale
Cultural Council. He provides executive leadership, curatorial direction, and management for the Scottsdale
Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) and works collaboratively with the other Cultural Council divisions:
The Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts and the Scottsdale Public Art program. Rodgers received a Ph.D. from
Brown University in History of Art and a B.A. degree (summa cum laude) from Arizona State University. An
experienced art academic, writer, lecturer, and curator, first at Brown University and later tenured at Lawrence
University, Appelton, Wisconsin, where Rodgers served as the Curator of the Wriston Art Center Galleries and
Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art. Prior to his current position, he served as Chief Curator at the New
Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe.
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