Mexican, Mother, Wife, Dancer, Photographer, Poet and Social Justice Warrior, Ruby Lopez Harper is the Senior Director of Local Arts Advancement for Americans for the Arts. Her portfolio includes leading field education efforts centered in equitable practice, leadership development, local arts advancement, disaster preparedness and emergency response and community building for the arts agency field, arts and culture administrators, and arts marketers.
She is the chief architect of the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, leads AFTA’s Arts and Culture Leaders of Color Network and the Leadership Forum program that produces affinity-based leadership development programs. She is a mentor for the Arts Administrators of Color Network. Ruby’s work has focused on equitable access, grantmaking, supporting individual artists, community development, economic development, cultural tourism, marketing, disaster preparedness and emergency response, and public art.