Staff Bios
Executive Director Cristina Ballí began her career with Texas Folklife as the project director for our South Texas radio project throughout 2008-2009. She brings to Texas Folklife her rich and varied background as a cultural manager in the Texas-Mexico border area with particular expertise in the region’s accordion-based conjunto music. As Director of the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito, she led the efforts to develop a cultural tourism program based on the city’s unique Mexican-American music history. In 2007 she oversaw the building and opening of the Historical, Conjunto Hall of Fame and Freddy Fender Museums in San Benito. Ballí's efforts in the Valley included radio documentary production and arts reporting for KMBH/KHID, the Rio Grande Valley’s public radio station. Cristina Ballí is a native of Brownsville, Texas and received a Bachelor of Social Work from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.
Former Executive Director
Nancy Bless earned a B.A. in Art from Scripps College in California and her M.F.A. in Studio Art from Ohio State University. Bless has twenty-eight years of experience in the arts as a programmer, administrator, and writer. Bless worked for the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) for eleven years, for whom she managed artists' residencies, developed artist-community collaborations throughout Ohio and produced exhibitions, catalogs, and videos. She designed and directed the OAC's Summer Media Institute, a graduate level hands-on program in film, photography, and radio designed for Ohio teachers. As the curator of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, and as gallery director of Women & Their Work in Austin, Bless organized numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, video, and film. Her shows have toured nationally and internationally, and she has contributed to national publications including Sculpture, Metropolis, and ArtNews. Her own documentary photography has been been shown in galleries and museums across the United States. Before taking the position at Texas Folklife, Bless produced and co-directed Third Ward TX, a one-hour documentary with KUHT Houston PBS. Completed in 2007, Third Ward TX features the artists and residents of Houston's Project Row Houses and the Third Ward community. It is regularly broadcast throughout the United States on PBS, and screened internationally at film festivals. Bless is the executive producer of all Texas Folklife media productions from 2004-2012.
Program & Events Manager
Sarah Rucker, originally from South Texas, graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts with a focus in dance from the University of Texas in Austin. She also received a Certificate in Business Foundations from the McCombs School of Business. Her previous non-profit experience includes assisting with fundraising as a development associate at American YouthWorks. Her duties for Texas Folklife include overseeing the planning of events, coordinating tasks with the staff, and assisting the executive director in efficiently producing successful programs. For Texas Folklife, she acted as producer on such events as Barbara Lynn & Friends at the Library of Congress and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (presented by the American Folklife Center) and From the Hands of Gods: The Dance of South India with Bharata Natyam artist Anuradha Naimpally. Rucker has exhibited her own choreography in local showcases such as 10 Minutes Max and Big Range Austin Dance Festival. She also performs with Toni Bravo's Diverse Space Dance Theatre.
Project Coordinator/ A Place at the Table
Becky Bingman coordinates Texas Folklife's Apprenticeship program and has been involved the arts and education community for 25 years. Before joining Texas Folklife, Becky worked with the Kentucky Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, where she organized artist workshops for teachers, and developed arts programming and curriculum materials for Kentucky Educational Television. She has a long-standing interest in indigenous and unschooled artists. As gallery director at Appalshop, the nationally known media arts center in Whitesburg, Ky., Becky exhibited regional artists and contributed to a documentary series on Kentucky folk artists. She also has co-curated exhibits for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the Zuni Nation, and the Speed Museum in Louisville. Also involved in the art of food (and a one-time restaurateur and caterer) she presented the foodways of Appalachia for the 500th anniversary of the Voyage of Columbus, held in Genoa, Italy. Becky earned her bachelor's degree in art education from Roger Williams College in Providence, R.I.
Project Coordinator / Stories from Deep in the Heart
Deborah Esquenazi
Radio Production Assistant / Stories from Deep in the Heart
Michelle Mejía assists in conducting audio workshops for the Stories from Deep in the Heart program. She has also been an office assistant for Texas Folklife for the past three years. Mejía recently received her Bachelor's Degree in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin.
Office Assistant
Catherine Gordon
Office Assistant
Sonia Alvarez has been an office assistant since 2010. She enjoys traveling and learning about world cultures and is currently pursing a degree in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She is originally from El Paso.
Producer/ Accordion Kings & Queens
Luis Zapata is vice-chairman of the Austin Music Commission and a veteran producer of local Austin music events. As marketing andsales manager for Roadstar Productions, he successfully promoted popular Austin city events such as the Old Pecan Street Festival, Mardi Gras, First Night, and the Republic of Texas Biker Rally. As an event manager, he has worked with Joan Jett, the Black Crowes, Stone Temple Pilots, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Motley Crue, Patti Smith, Los Lobos, Santana and countless other musical greats. He is also an advocate of Latin music in Austin, managing and producing Manuel "Cowboy" Donley, a local Tejano musician, for the last several years. Zapata received both his bachelor's degree in economics and his master's degree in Latin American Studies with a minor in musicology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Workshop leader/ Stories from Deep in the Heart
Elisabeth Perez-Luna is news director and an executive director at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia. She is a veteran radio journalist who has been producing national radio programs since 1979. In addition to conducting several radio production workshops with Bless for the Ohio Art Council's Summer Media Institute, she has written and produced audio-art pieces, museum audio projects, more than 200 documentaries and numerous independant series. Perez-Luna was the executive producer and host of "Crossroads," NPR's weekly news magazine, for its entire ten year run. She is executive producer of the weekly NPR news magazine, "Artbeat;" contributes regularly to NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" shows; and has won numerous awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Federation of Community Broadcasting, among others. She and audio artist/engineer Lou Perskie co-founded the production company, Toucan Productions. Perez-Luna earned her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She led the Texas Folklife radio workshop in South Texas and is consulting on expanding the workshop to Austin.
Workshop Leader / Stories from Deep in the Heart
Andrew Garrison
Radio artist and producer of radio program/Border Radio
Ginger Miles is radio producer of Texas Folklife's Border Radio: The Big Jukebox in the Sky and The Electronic Campfire. Originally from Abilene, but based in New York City for many years, she returned to Austin to produce Border Radio for national broadcast. Her radio documentaries and dramas have often brought her back to Texas. Her series Old Time Texas: On the Backroads was distributed nationally by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. She has sustained a long career as independent producer, writer and editor for public radio across the country, including two original radio dramas: The Day Buddy Holly Died and Moisha, recorded at the Museum of Modern Art's Warner Screening Room. Miles’ award-winning radio work has aired on NPR, and she has produced for the Smithsonian, Ellis Island and National Museum of the American Indian. Her Hometown Texas: To Mother With Love, received the top award for documentary from the Corporation from Public Broadcasting, and she has received numerous grants from National Endowment for the Arts.