Meet the Team
AMY KAUFMAN
Principal
Amy has demonstrated success in market research, organizational strategy, business and facilities planning, branding, and operational implementation. She has worked with institutions of all types and sizes, including museums, universities, parks, botanic gardens, visitor centers and heritage sites. She collaborates with government agencies, architects, developers, foundations, and institutional leaders to integrate a variety of goals and perspectives.
Amy launched AK Cultural Planning in 2015, building on a 25 year career that has included museum budgeting and operations, market research, project management, and strategic consulting. Read more
MARILUZ HOYOS
Senior Consultant
During the last fifteen years, Mariluz has worked with a broad range of organizations including museums, university galleries, artist studios, and independent non-profits. Based in New York, she has managed exhibition projects implemented in thirteen countries and has coordinated teams with diverse specialties, languages, and cultural backgrounds. Before working in the arts, Mariluz worked as an economic history researcher in Colombia.
She most recently consulted for the Asia Society Triennial in New York, managing all aspects of exhibition planning for its inaugural edition, including forty artists, half of them presenting newly commissioned works. From 2005 to 2016, Mariluz worked with Cai Guo-Qiang Studio overseeing the planning and implementation of large-scale exhibitions that incorporated site-specific new commissions and ephemeral events, as well as cataloging, conservation, and research projects.
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HANNAH BYERS, PH.D.
Advisor for Collections & Cultural Assets
With a background that includes Sotheby’s Advisory, Sotheby’s Museum & Corporate Art Services; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, GCAM (Global Cultural Asset Management), and The Phillips Collection, Dr. Byers has worked on museum development projects in more than twenty countries and has experience on nearly seventy major cultural planning projects in capacities ranging from director, curator, researcher, to manager. She has deep ranging expertise on 150+ institutions globally, in terms of collections, program, boards, staffing, sponsorship, best practices, and operating model. Her expansive knowledge of museum buildings, collections, staffing, and wider civic contexts inform her bespoke strategies for mission-driven collection stewardship, program development, and evolving operating model. Read more
PRERANA REDDY
Associate Consultant
Prerana is an independent cultural producer based in New York City working at the intersection of art, civic engagement, and social movements. She is currently a member of Creative Time's 1st Think Tank cohort which will be exploring new methodologies to dismantle exclusionary and colonialist modes of artistic creation and presentation. Through 2020, Prerana collaborated with AK Cultural Planning on the development of a Public Art Vision for the Trust for Governors Island. Read more
AMANDA PAULSEN
Business Planner
Amanda brings over a decade of knowledge in nonprofit arts management and cultural planning to clients. Since 2012, she has worked as a consultant for museum-planning projects throughout the U.S. to develop innovative business, strategic, and master plans. In both consultant and project management roles, she contributed market research, public engagement, and analysis key to devising creative operating strategies. Read more
DANIELLE BENNETT
Research Associate
Danielle Bennett supports market research and special projects. At AK Cultural Planning, she has conducted focus groups, qualitative data analysis, and market analysis. Previously she has provided curatorial research for the New-York Historical Society and worked in social media and visitor experience for the Alice Austen House. She is a recent graduate of Tufts University’s History and Museum Studies MA program, and her master’s thesis, “Dwelling in Possibility: Queering the Historic House Museum,” explores the meaning and process of developing queer and trans narratives at several historic house museums. Read more
EMILIA SHAFFER-DEL VALLE
Research Associate
Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle has worked with AK Cultural Planning since 2016, supporting market research and special projects. She has executed large-scale surveys, as well as community workshops and in-depth interviews for Oklahoma Contemporary, Marfa Contemporary, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition, she has worked in curatorial and research capacities at arts organizations in New York and Los Angeles, including No Longer Empty, the New Museum, and the Social and Public Art Resource Center. Read more
Affiliates
DIANA DUKE DUNCAN
Diana Duke Duncan LLC
Fundraising
Diana, Principal of Diana Duke Duncan LLC, held leadership positions in development and external affairs in museums from 1985 until 2015. After serving the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia as a leader of its transformational change, she established DDD LLC in 2015 to provide advancement, capital campaign, change management and governance counsel to museums. Clients have included Smithsonian Institution, Glenstone, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, and American Alliance of Museums. Read more
DUNCAN WEBB
Webb Mgmt
Performing Arts
Duncan founded Webb Mgmt to provide advisory services for the development and operation of cultural facilities, organizations, agencies, and districts. Since its founding in 1997, the firm has successfully completed more than 450 consulting assignments nationally—in small-town America as well as big cities. A Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Duncan has been an active speaker and published writer on arts management and the development, operation and financing of arts facilities. Read more
CARRIE BLAKE
Market Research, Facilities Planning
Carrie is a researcher, planning consultant, writer, project manager, and administrator dedicated to arts and culture with a specialization in the performing arts. Since 2006, Carrie has led or contributed to more than 250 studies and plans including research studies, market studies, assessments, feasibility studies, business plans, strategic plans, and cultural plans for communities, organizations, and institutions across the United States. Read more
PAUL PUCIATA
Facilities Planning
Paul has over 25 years of experience in a broad range of project types with a primary focus on the programming, design and project management of cultural projects in historically sensitive landscapes and built environments. These projects have ranged in scale from bespoke interior installations to campus and visual arts master plans, including the Harvard University Art Museums Allston Center study, The Detroit Symphony Hall Master Plan, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Renovation and Expansion and the Bishop's University Campus Master Plan. Read more
CHARLES KIM
Charlotte & Company
Editorial / Publishing
Charles Kim is Principal of Charlotte & Company, a consultancy helping nonprofit institutions devise and execute effective publishing strategies. Charles believes that every organization has the potential to use the content it already creates to further its mission and promote its brand, generate revenue, and increase engagement among leadership and staff. He has previously served as Associate Publisher at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2012–17), where he established a highly successful line of children’s books on iconic artists such as Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, and René Magritte but also women artists and artists of color such as Yayoi Kusama, Sonia Delaunay, and Jacob Lawrence. Read more
LEITH TER MEULEN
Landair
Real Estate
Leith ter Meulen is a leading development management consultant to institutional, government and commercial owners involved with public private initiatives, aligning clients’ business objectives with their real estate needs. As a consultant and trustee, she has been advising not-for-profit organizations in the arts, education and preservation toward strategic, value added business goals for more than 35 years. Her experience reflects a deep emphasis and broad portfolio of projects with a focus on ‘quality of life’ public private partnerships that bring the arts, education, public space and preservation to communities.
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CAITLIN KERKER MENNEN-BOBULA
Digital Experience Strategy Consultant
Caitlin brings over a decade of experience working with cultural institutions to create exhibitions and media installations supported by robust planning and digital strategy work. With a background in project management, she brings a deep knowledge of planning for exhibitions and supporting successful program development. She approaches each engagement from both the institution’s goals and the visitor’s perspective, ensuring impactful experiences that meet a wide range of objectives. Read more
PATRA JONGJITIRAT
As the Crow Walks
Graphic Design
Patra is founder and chief creative at As the Crow Walks, a cartography and graphic design studio that embraces the particularities of places and experiences. The studio realizes a variety of mapping, branding, and marketing projects across print and digital spaces, with client work focused on firms and organizations in the arts, culture, and community building. Working with AK Cultural Planning, Patra designed presentations and projects materials for World Music Institute, Audubon Society, and Storm King Art Center. Read more