The Orange County Arts Education Center Committee (OCAECC) looks at all the aspects of arts education in our community. They have completed their research and produced a report entitled "Status Review of Arts Education".

As a follow up to that report they have produced a brochure with follow up steps entitled "Arts Access for All" (PDF) and are currently engaged in creating the Orange County Arts Education Center (OCAEC) as a resource for the community.  More detailed information on the OCAEC is available in the documents below:

1. OCAEC Executive Summary (PDF - 43 KB)
2. OCAEC Business Plan (PDF - 344 KB)

If you would like to receive OCAECC minute updates via email, click here.

Committee Members:

• Susan Arkin
  Former OCPS School board member and community volunteer.
  
• Julie Coleman
  Founder/Director of Orlando School of Cultural Dance
  Program Director OSCD Foundation under the Congressional District Program
  Committee member for ACE (Arts for Complete Education)
  
• Manny Garcia
  Manny Garcia was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He completed his undergraduate degree at American University in Washington, DC.
  He has been an innovative and distinguished leader in the areas of government, real estate and politics including:
     - Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico in Washington, DC
     - The Virginia House of Delegates
     - The National Institute of Education 
     - The Department of Housing and Urban Development
  In the political arena, he managed a number of political campaigns and later was Chief of Staff of The Republican National Hispanic Assembly, part of the Republican National Committee, in Washington, DC.
  He is married to Alberta Zinno and they have one son – Michael Garcia.
  
• Elisha Gonzalez Bonnewitz
  Elisha Gonzalez-Bonnewitz was named director of Orange County Take Stock in Children for Valencia Community College in May 2007.  Gonzalez-Bonnewitz serves in a leadership role overseeing educational partnerships, community relations, marketing, corporate partnerships and business operations. Gonzalez-Bonnewitz, who in the past fifteen years, has served in various senior-level management capacities as an educator including teacher, dean, assistant principal and principal for Orange County Public Schools, the twelfth largest district in the nation. While at Orange County Public Schools, she oversaw faculty development, curriculum delivery, student achievement and led its financial and facilities operations. 
  
  Since leaving Orange County Public schools, she also has served as the regional director for U.S. Senator Mel Martinez and represented him in ten counties in the state of Florida.
  Gonzalez-Bonnewitz has served locally on the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission – MOIAC, the Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council, and at the state level on the Equity in Educational Opportunity Task Force, the Florida's Partnership for School Safety and Security Task Force, the Laptops for Learning Task Force.
  
  Gonzalez-Bonnewitz was recognized by the Orlando Business Journal as a Forty under Forty award winner in 2008. Currently she serves on the Orange County Arts Education Center Committee and is board member of the Orlando Philharmonic.
  
• Nan Palermo
  Director of Curriculum Services for Orange County Public School and former principal.
  
• Lawrie Platt Hall
  Consultant who has worked on the Status Review of Arts Education in Orange County and the Arts Education Center Business Plan.
  
• Lino Rodriguez
  Holds a B.A. from the University of Florida and a Masters from UCF.  He's been with the Orange County Public Schools since 1984 and is currently the principal at Grand Avenue Primary Learning Center.
  
• John Sinclair
  Chair of the Rollins College Department of Music, Music Director of the Bach Festival and the First Congregational Church and Director of the Rollins College Community School of Music with students as young as pre-school age.
  
• Becky Stafford
  Life-long member of the Central Florida Community. Member of the Trinity Preparatory School Board and the Central Florida YMCA Board.
  
• Stella Sung
  Composer and professor of music at CREATE: Center for Research & Education in Arts, Technology & Entertainment
  Stella Sung, composer, pianist, and Professor of Music at the University of Central Florida's Department of Digital Media, and Director of UCF's Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology, and Entertainment (CREATE), was born in Gainesville, FL in 1959 and demonstrated her musical gifts soon after beginning piano lessons at age eight. She gave her first public recital at thirteen, studied piano extensively throughout high school and attended both the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina before entering the University of Michigan as a piano major; she went on to earn the master's degree in composition from the University of Florida and a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin.
  
  Sung has received recognition and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony and other leading music organizations. She has also won two Florida Individual Artist's Fellowships (sponsored by the Division of Cultural Affairs for the State of Florida), a 2005 Florida Artist's Enhancement Award, and the 2007-10 Phi Kappa Phi National Artist's Award. Dr. Sung is a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Florida and has received other awards from UF. Additionally, film-maker Aaron Hose� has made a documentary about her Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra for which he received two Telly awards.
  
  For the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra's 10th Anniversary season (2003), she was commissioned to compose Constellations, which featured a multi-media presentation. Her second commission for the Orlando Philharmonic, shared with the Akron Symphony, was Rockwell Reflections, which received rave reviews and will be featured on the Wichita Symphony
  
  Orchestra's 2010-2011 season. Commissions for 2008-2009 include a guitar concerto for the San Francisco Conservatory New Music Ensemble, and a ballet for Dance Alive! National Ballet (State Touring company for the State of Florida) based on the topic of Ellis Island. Additionally, Sung is an active composer for film and digital media, and continues to develop projects using surround sound technology which she calls "Immersive Ambience."
  
• Sandy Winkler, CHAIR
  Ms. Winkler is the Director of Marketing for HuntonBrady Architects in Orlando where she oversees the firm's strategic planning, business development and corporate philanthropy.  She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and is active on local boards, including A Gift for Music, and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), in which she received the Presidents Award for Outstanding Service in 2002 and in 2009. She is also an active member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services, EDC bioOrlando, and Florida Hospital's Circle of Friends.
  

Alternates:

• Mary Patrick

Staff Liaisons:

• Paul Wenglowsky