Company and grants Manager
Mercedes Searer
Mercedes is a movement artist, writer, and Company Manager for Jody Oberfelder Projects. Her approach to company management is shaped by her own artistic practice, viewing fundraising, grant writing and producing as integral to the development and realization of creative work. She oversees fundraising and producing strategies; writes and edits grant, residency, and performance proposals; manages budgets and finances; coordinates contracts with presenters, and develops crowdfunding and communication initiatives. Searer previously held this role from 2012-2014 while also performing as a dancer with the company. She also produces and writes for The Bumbys and works as a freelance grant writer and copywriter with artists and creative businesses in New York City, including Dear Strangers and Koktail Mobile Bar. She holds an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College and a BFA from Point Park Conservatory of the Arts, and is a former Dance/NYC Junior Committee member, committed to advocating for dancers in NYC.
Archivist
Gilda Edelman
Gilda is assisting in the arrangement of JOP’s archives to include audiovisual materials, photographs, and ephemera. She has a background in ballet and trained pre-professionally with Boston Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre. Gilda earned her B.A. in political studies and Middle Eastern studies from Bard College, and is now working with the research divisions at the main branch of the New York Public Library while she completes her MSLIS at the Palmer School of Library & Information Science. Before returning to school, Gilda worked in a research capacity supporting fundraising operations for cultural and humanitarian nonprofits in New York.