Film Forum

The Center for Art and Advocacy is a nonprofit organization that provides catalytic support, professional development, and exhibition opportunities to directly justice-impacted artists throughout the United States via its flagship Right of Return Fellowship, Academy, and Residency programs.

Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and racial, reproductive and environmental justice. Her films have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums and schools; on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Free Speech TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. In 2023, Gund won the Gracie Award for Documentary Producer. Her films include MEANWHILE, ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON (Academy shortlist), PRIMERA (HBO), AGGIE (Strand Releasing) and BORN TO FLY (Emmy nominated). She has served on several arts, media and justice nonprofit boards and has been a creative advisor on numerous documentary films. Gund is an alumnus of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program. She has four children and lives in New York City.

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, writer, pedagogue, and cultural worker based in Philadelphia, PA. As a visionary thought leader creating socially conscious music, film, performance, and visual art, her practice embodies resilience, care, and community-centeredness while working at the intersections of reproductive justice, black feminist thought, and transformative change. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Frieze LA, Eastern State Penitentiary, and the Brooklyn Museum, among many others. Baxter has received numerous prestigious awards, including being an inaugural Right of Return fellow, Mural Arts Philadelphia Reimagining Reentry fellow, Leeway Foundation Transformation awardee, and a Soros Justice fellow. On February 2, 2024, Baxter received a Governors' Pardon from Josh Shapiro and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, honoring her transformative work in the arts and culture sector and her 17-year commitment to communal healing, advocacy, and repair.

Jesse Krimes is a Philadelphia based artist, curator, and advocate whose work explores how contemporary media shapes and reinforces societal mechanisms of power and control, with a particular focus on criminal and racial justice. Shortly after graduating from Millersville University, he was indicted by the U.S. government on drug charges. While serving a six-year prison sentence he produced and smuggled out numerous bodies of work, established prison art programs, and co-created multi-racial artist collectives. After his release, he founded and currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Art & Advocacy, the first and only national fellowship dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated artists. Krimes’ work has been exhibited at venues including MoMA PS1, Palais de Tokyo, Philadelphia Museum of Art, International Red Cross Museum, Zimmerli Museum, Newport Art Museum, and Aperture Gallery. His curatorial practice is focused on elevating other system impacted artists, and he also successfully led a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for charging formerly incarcerated people predatory fees after their release from federal prison. Krimes won an Emmy Award for his documentary ART AND KRIMES BY KRIMES. He was also awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Creative Capitol, Art for Justice Fund, Independence Foundation, and Vermont Studio Center. His work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Newport Art Museum, OZ Art NWA, Kadist Art Foundation, The Bunker Artspace, and the Agnes Gund Collection. He is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.

Stanley Richards is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Fortune Society (Fortune), a service and advocacy non-profit organization established in 1967 and based in New York City whose mission is to support successful reentry from prison and promote alternatives to incarceration. Stanley is a formerly incarcerated man of color with decades of experience in the criminal justice field. In 2014, Stanley was recognized by the Obama administration as a Champion of Change for his commitment to helping individuals impacted by the justice system. He also became the first formerly incarcerated person to be appointed to the NYC Board of Correction. As Vice Chair of the Board of Correction, in June 2020, Stanley was appointed to lead the Working Group to End Punitive Segregation. In July 2021, he was appointed to become the First Deputy Commissioner of Programs and Operations at the New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC). He was the first formerly incarcerated person to serve this second highest position within the NYCDOC, the second largest jail system in the country. Stanley returned to the Fortune Society as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2022, and became the President & Chief Executive Officer in January 2024 and now leads a team of over 500 employees to continue expanding the Fortune’s impact to support individuals who have been affected by the criminal legal system. His other appointments include the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, which released a blueprint for the future of criminal justice in NYC; the Working Group on Design, a subcommittee of the Implementation Task Force, to ensure effective implementation of the “Smaller, Safer, Fairer: A Roadmap to Closing Rikers Island” initiative; the NYC Commission on Community Reinvestment and the Closure of Riker’s Island; and other taskforces on criminal justice issues. Stanley is a graduate of Medaille College, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business: Institute for Not-For-Profit Management Executive Level Program, and the Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship Program.

Eboné Bishop is an attorney and organizational strategist. She is the Founder and CEO of Evolv, a boutique advisory firm that helps companies, cultural institutions, and nonprofits identify and achieve their strategic objectives and provides risk mitigation and crisis management support.  Prior to this work, Eboné was an international corporate transactions attorney who lived and worked throughout Asia specializing in mergers and acquisitions and market entry due diligence. Eboné is also a Lecturer at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU, hosts the radio show, Unleashing Humanity, on WIOX, 91.3FM, and is a member of the Boards of Citizens Union and Humanity in Action.

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