John Hendicott
John Hendicott is a sound designer and platinum selling music producer who has a passion for working with artists to realise their musical vision. John has spent 10 years at the top of his craft, winning national and international awards in a range of disciplines including music production, film, installations and most recently, immersive 360° media.
In 2015, John Co-Founded Aurelia Soundworks, an audio post-production and creative content studio providing world class 3D sound mixing services, consultation and original content to the Virtual and Mixed Reality industries.
John’s latest VR Experience ‘Reeps One: Does Not Exist’, was launched with YouTube at Cannes Lions and has since won ‘Best Sound Design Experience’ at Raindance Film Festival, as well as nominations at the UKMVA’s and The Proto Awards.
currently lives in Los Angeles where he enjoys fostering pit bulls and cooking Sunday roast dinners.
3 words to describe Nature?
Embracing. Nourishing. Inventive
3 things Nature taught you?
That we have all we need
How to get lost
Rhythm
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The Malvern Hills
Regents Park
Canyonlands
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Reassured. Part of something bigger
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Like taking a deep breath and going to explore
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
That change is the only constant. It also makes me feel small
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Limitless, transported
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Awe, excited, charged
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Change is coming
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was lucky to grow up in the countryside, next to a sheep farm in South Wales, UK. My happiest memories were of adventuring in the surrounding fields, getting lost for the day making bows and arrows or hides. To this day, the smell of sheep dung is the most relaxing scent for me!
Maria Jenson
Maria Jenson is recognized as a leader in the arts nationally for advancing innovative strategies to sustain creative communities in the midst of rapidly changing urban environments. As Creative and Executive Director of SOMArts, Jenson has deepened the organization’s commitment to racial equity, creating clear pathways for Bay Area artists to incubate new ideas and grow their careers. Through her leadership, Maria has expanded SOMArts’ educational and public programs, advanced new public-private partnerships, and fostered groundbreaking exhibitions such as The Black Woman is God, The Third Muslim: Queer and Trans* Muslim Narratives of Resistance and Resilience, and many more. These initiatives further SOMArts’ mission to engage the Bay Area’s diverse cultural communities in inspiring creative encounters at the intersection of art and social justice.
As an ardent advocate for the civic and democratic roles cultural institutions should play, Jenson has championed creative projects in community-based and DIY as well as more formal and institutional spaces. Prior to joining SOMArts, Jenson was a key member of the External Relations team in the Marketing and Communications Division managing the transition, rebranding and reopening of SFMOMA during the museum’s $300 million expansion. At SFMOMA, she worked across all departments as a lead project manager on marketing and engagement initiatives and she launched innovative community partnerships as the museum’s Cultural and Civic Ambassador. Jenson produced the museum’s Economic and Cultural Impact study in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, demonstrating the crucial role of cultural institutions in the civic and economic life of San Francisco.
Jenson was the Founding Director of ArtPadSF — an independent art fair launched in 2010 in partnership with Chip Conley. ArtPadSF transformed the Phoenix Hotel into an immersive and interactive platform to engage Bay Area artists, gallerists and art lovers, and enjoyed a successful three-year run that helped to launch the careers of many emerging artists.
A graduate of the 2018 Getty Foundation Executive Leadership Institute, Jenson is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on the role of cultural institutions in fostering a more democratic and equitable society. As the Bay Area continues to change, Jenson is leading SOMArts into its next iteration, strengthening and activating all parts of SOMArts' multivalent programming, including growing the organization's site-specific commissions and programs, as well as reinvigorating its artistic presence in the Bay Area.
3 words to describe Nature?
Solitude. Grace. Ancestral
3 things Nature taught you?
Resistance
Adaptability
Collaboration
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Leo Carillo Beach (Malibu, CA)
Multnomah Falls (Oregon)
Cadeques, Spain
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
At peace and whole
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Mythic, rooted
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Powerful
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Hopeful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Sensual, alert, focused
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Edgy
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Planting a tree in my backyard and watching it grow over the years.
Jacques Andre Dupont
Considered by many to be an authority in marketing, sponsorship and the development of large-scale cultural projects, JACQUES-ANDRE DUPONT is the President of L’Équipe Spectra and 3 of the biggest Festivals in Montreal - the International Jazz Festival, the FrancoFolies, & Montréal en Lumière.
Dupont supports the musical development of the next generation of Québécois artists thanks, among other endeavours, to the creation of the Blues Camp for teens during the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, and staging a series of concerts presenting high school, cegep and university students. In 2017, following the publication of a report by the Conseil des Montréalaises (Montréal Women’s Council), he launched the Hirondelles, an all-female safety team dedicated to maintaining the security and well-being of festival fans and vulnerable people. He is also responsible for many projects addressing the sustainable development of the group, including making the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal carbon neutral, an international first at the time.
He is also a passionate photographer whose work focuses on wildlife and nature. His images have been featured in several major medias like Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, Africa Geographic, Wildlife Photographic, Outdoor Photography, Paris Match, the London Telegraph, China News, La Pravda, etc. His pictures have been selected/or won several photo competitions internationally and have been been exhibited in several countries around the world. With is photography he only wants to achieve one simple goal: bring the beauty of nature into light.
3 words to describe Nature?
Grand. Fragile. Us
3 things Nature taught you?
The more I connect with it, the happier I am.
Even the ugliest animals are beautiful.
It is the best smelling thing ever.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
My three favourite nature spots so far (because I want to see them all!) are
The Serengeti plains of Tanzania because it was love at first sight for me;
Yellowstone National Park, because this where I knew right away I would become a nature and wildlife photographer;
And my own backyard forest in Bolton West, Quebec, because I am the luckiest man in the world to have this in my own backyard every day.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful. Probably the infinity of it, with the suiting sound of the waves
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Curious! I want to explore it… Find an owl nest or a fox hole. And walk along a trustful moose (which happened to me this spring)
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Small and scared. Will my number come up today?
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
A sunrise? Alive, energized, happy to be up early in the day, and looking forward to what’s next. A sunset? happy, relaxed and looking forward to a glass of wine to celebrate the day that just ended so well.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Hoping for a spectacle: the drums, the light show… It’s better than Cirque du Soleil!
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Wanting to snuggle with my wife, as usually it is winter and -20 celsius outside, at our home that we named Domaine des Vents (Field of Winds), for it is really the windiest place.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I think I am an African plains person. That is why I love also so much the Serengeti AND Yellowstone (as it is called the Serengeti of America…).
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10, and then some! For the last 20 years I have been suffering from anxiety attacks on a regular basis… I guess that stress is my Achilles' heel… But since the last few years, nature photography has been the most amazing medicine for me…
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
It's the blue hour, just after the sunset. My dad took me fishing, north of Quebec city. And suddenly, for the first time ever, I hear the call of the loon. Wow! It sounds like a wolf. I am mesmerized by it. Since then, every time I hear a loon calling I go right back to that day, where I was so well, with my dad.