Adia Sykes and Lorna Bates have officially become the newest members of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Board of Directors. These two women join Ginger Farley, Bob Faust, Christopher Barrett Politan, Kim D. Ricardo, Baronica Roberson, Peter Taub, and Angel Ysaguirre in steering the organization, now in its 17th year.

Bates brings 20 years of experience and expertise in human resources with a specialization in diversity and inclusion. Sykes is an accomplished independent curator and is currently Museum Manager for 21c Museum Hotel – Chicago. She shares,

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) board and to work with an organization that continues to welcome and support some of the most innovative creators in dance. After interning with the organization a number of years ago, it’s exciting to be asked to contribute to CDF’s leadership as they continue to elevate the phenomenal dancemakers in this city.”

Board Chair, Angel Ysaguirre expresses the excitement of the entire board and staff,

“We are thrilled to welcome two new board members as the importance of Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s work continues to become clearer. Adia Sykes and Lorna Bates bring much needed skills to the board as CDF’s reach is growing.”

Executive Director, Ginger Farley, adds,

“Everyone at Chicago Dancemakers Forum welcomes Adia and Lorna as our newest board members. Their individual relationships to dance and their specific professional skills exemplify the growth that CDF aspires to in board development. Their participation will greatly enhance the citywide work that we do to support dance and dancemakers and to grow as an organization.”

For more information, please contact Shawn Lent, Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s Programs and Communications Director at shawn@chicagodancemakers.org.

Adia Sykes is an independent curator and arts administrator. Through her practice, she seeks to center philosophies of improvisation and intuition, engaging them as tools by which meaningful relationships between artists and viewers can be cultivated, while leaving space for the vernacular to mingle with constructs of history and theory. Her curatorial projects include Locating Memory (Chicago Mayor’s Office, 2018), Project Radio London (Centro Arte Opificio Siri in Terni, Italy, 2018), and The Petty Biennial.2 (Chicago, 2019-2020). She has also realized projects with the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan Galleries, Woman Made Gallery, Material Exhibitions, Roman Susan Gallery, and Comfort Station. Currently, she serves at the Museum Manager for 21c Museum Hotel – Chicago. Adia earned a Masters of Arts from the Department of Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2018) and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2016) with a focus on material culture.

Lorna Bates is an experienced HR consultant with a specialization in diversity and inclusion. As a skilled strategist and tactician, she has the ability to define the challenge; design key objectives and deliver results needed to move forward. For nearly the last two decades, Lorna has served as a valuable member of corporate leadership teams as an HR director, senior HR leader and independent consultant. Her dedication and organizational skills have prepared her to balance numerous positions at once. This includes driving HR strategies and initiatives in support of business goals and objectives, all while delivering a scalable HR shared service model designed to eliminate redundancy, streamline processes, and prepare for forecasted long-term growth for a team of 9,000 employees across 15 states in three different business units. Lorna is a Florida A&M University alumnus, where she studied business administration before going on to receive her MBA from Roosevelt University. She is a senior certified professional under the Society for Human Resources Management and has a certificate in mediation from DePaul University.