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Esther Robinson has worked on behalf of America's artists for over 14 years in many capacities, including foundation program officer, television and film producer, and technology entrepreneur. She is the founder of ArtHome, a non-profit business that helps artists and their communities build assets and equity through financial literacy and home-ownership. From 1999 to 2006 Esther was the Director of Film/Video and Performing Arts for the Creative Capital Foundation and one of the principal architects of its innovative grant-making system.
Established in 1999, Creative Capital provides funding to individual artists in media, performing, and visual arts, as well as emerging fields such as internet art, digital media, and work that combines science and creativity. Transforming the traditional role of grant-maker, Creative Capital pioneered a multi-faceted system of support for artists that includes working in long-term partnerships, providing advisory services and professional development assistance as well as traditional financial support.
Esther's experience at Creative Capital made her intimately aware of the financial reality of working artists’ lives. Her close collaboration nationally with funders and artists and her annual adjudication of up to 1800 Creative Capital grant proposals (of which only two dozen would see funding), led her to question whether traditional grantmaking was the most effective way to support a stable and thriving culture sector in America.
Recognizing the crucial role that financial solvency and home ownership had played in the lives of successful artists she had met across the country, Esther became convinced that home-buyer education and financial literacy should be vital components of a new support system for the arts. Determined to build a program that makes measurable change in the lives of individual artists, has broad impact regardless of aesthetic or cultural trends, and that builds vital communities both in and outside the cultural sector, Esther founded ArtHome.
While developing ArtHome, Esther spent two years researching home-buying programs, low-income loan products, financial literacy curriculum and low-income wealth building strategies. She has built a strong advisory board of artists, arts funders, community development leaders, artist housing experts, bankers, and financial experts. She has been involved in numerous community development conferences and pursued professional development opportunities in financial literacy and homebuyer education. These have included intensive training through NeighborWorks(r) America's Training Division, where she acquired skills to deliver a comprehensive homebuyer education program based on the curriculum that NeighborWorks organizations use to turn prospective homebuyers into homeowners.
Prior to this in 1995, Esther realized the goal of producing a national television series before her 25th birthday with Alive TV, a PBS series dedicated to alternative film, video, animation and experimental documentary. She was series producer for two full seasons at Alive TV including the eleven country co-production, Still/Here, a Cable Ace award nominee in 1996. In addition, she oversaw acquisitions, new program development and created the Alive TV web site.
In 1998, Esther co-founded Wavelength Releasing, a company formed specifically to address new forms of content production, distribution, and exhibition. Wavelength Releasing partnered with esteemed companies such as CYBERSTAR –(a division of LORAL), Texas Instruments, The Independent Film Channel, and others. Its projects were profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Variety, on CNN financial News and over 100 other print and media outlets. Wavelength Releasing was responsible for the first fully digital film release, executed via satellite to five cities in October 1998. It was also responsible for the highly successful multi-platform release of The Last Broadcast -- the first ever desktop feature -- a $900 movie that went on to gross over a million US. dollars internationally. Wavelength Releasing served as a new media consultant for the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.
Concurrently in 1998, Esther produced the feature documentary HomePage with acclaimed filmmaker Doug Block, which screened in competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, SXSW, and more. It also aired domestically on HBO/CINEMAX and ZDF/ARTE in Europe, and over a dozen countries internationally
Esther is also a filmmaker with a film-and-television degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2006. Her film, "A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory" won top prizes at the Berlin, Tribeca and Chicago film festivals in 2007; is in international theatrical release; and available on Netflix and I-Tunes.
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