Diana Wege | WOVEN Founder & Treasurer

Diana Wege is a mother, philanthropist, activist-artist based in New York. Diana was born and raised in the Great Lakes region and is a graduate of Syracuse University. Her work has been shown in galleries, museums, and art fairs across the US and the UK, Canada, Japan, Spain,, and France. She is the 2017 recipient of the Jérôme Lohez 9/11 Foundation’s "American Spirit" Award.

Diana’s conviction comprises the eradication of prevalent violence marring the nation’s schools and beyond. Her work in conflict resolution began in 1998 when she formed CrUSAde. The foundation’s work on issues related to conflict resolution in public schools gained attention in the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and was written up in both the Connecticut NYTimes and the Hartford Courant.

Diana uses art to passionately express the nexus between the environment and social justice through street advertisements, both nationally and internationally. Her most recent project, “Earth Requiem,” is a multidisciplinary and collaborative project incorporating a four-movement symphony, sacred manuscripts, and installations of monumental landscape paintings in public spaces. These paintings garnered her a Jurors’ Finalist award from ArtPrize. Her most recent work, EARTH, is a 1,000-page anthology of religious and environmental books spanning twenty-five centuries of human civilization.

Wicile Gee, LMHC | WOVEN Executive Director & NICE Program Director

Mrs. Wicile Gee is the Executive Director of We Oppose Violence Everywhere Now INC (WOVEN). She also oversees the Nurturing Inclusive Community Program (NICE) a project of WOVEN where currently over 5,000 students are being served in a school district in Rockland County. 

Born and raised in Rockland County,  Wicile has the benefit of being a 1st-generation born product of the school district.  Her multi-cultural upbringing helped her become more aware of the needs of people and the community as a whole, this helped her during her tenure as a social worker and supervisor in the NYS foster care system. She is well versed in conflict resolution, restorative justice, social-emotional learning, and mental health. 

Wicile earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Mercy University, where she studied Behavioral Science and Mental Health Counseling.  She is fully registered as a psychotherapist, holding Licensed Mental Health Counselor designation for New York State.

Mary Kay Lacey | WOVEN Board Chair

Mary Kay Lacey is a practicing attorney with the law firm Henry|Lacey. Mary Kay was a partner at a major international firm until 2017 with a varied practice that included representing Native American tribes. In 2018 she joined a smaller practice focusing on civil rights in employment litigation. Mary Kay lives in Berkeley, California where she is a Commissioner on the City's Planning Commission and a Board member of the Personnel Board.

Christopher Carter | WOVEN Board of Directors

Born in Albuquerque, NM, and raised in Boston, MA, Christopher Carter infuses a blend of ethnic and urban influences into all of his work. His bold and decisively organic sculptures strongly reflect his African-American, Native American, and European heritage. His assemblages embody power and energy, accentuated by the source materials he selects for his creations. Rarely using anything “new”, Carter fashions a chorus of images composed of recycled woods, metals, glass shards, rope, resins, and a variety of discarded objects, that when brought together seek to depict traditional concepts in an innovative and creative way.

The artist’s latest series, Tethered to the Cradle, has been praised by Curator Jack Rasmussen of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center saying, “Carter teases out his adolescent notions of ready-made forms and dives into the wonder of gravity-governed games. The sculptures exhibit themes of struggle and resilience and draw on the history and prior use of the materials he selects. He carefully enhances their vibrancy and organic qualities.”

Reflecting on his materials and process, Carter states “Objects/found materials in my work function as the mortar as well as inspiration. Found materials sometimes inspire my direction while my process fuels the need for more materials. The works are eclectic because of my penchant for working materials and methods in challenging, often distressing, ways. Pushing materials and objects out of their intended purposes into new and surprising vernaculars. I feel an affinity to each object or material I acquire. It may not be immediately apparent what will become of the object/material but over time it will get sorted as my ideas formulate.”

Carter graduated with an MFA in Sculpture from UC Berkeley and a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He held teaching positions at UC Berkeley, as a visiting professor and lecturer, and at The Art Institute of California, San Francisco, as an instructor.  

Christopher Carter continues to create, exploring new themes and materials in his lifelong pursuit of art. Carter’s home and studio are located in Miami, FL, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

C Bangs | WOVEN Board of Directors

C Bangs art investigates frontier science combined with symbolist figuration from an ecological feminist point of view. Her work is included in public and private collections as well as in books and journals. Public Collections include MoMA & Brooklyn Museum, artist book collections, Institute for Interstellar Studies, Custer Institute, Library of Congress, NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center, The British Interplanetary Society, New York City College of Technology, Pratt Institute, Cornell University and Pace University.

Her art has been included in eleven books and two peer- reviewed journal articles, several magazine articles and art catalogs. Merging art and science, she worked for three summers as a NASA Faculty Fellow; under a NASA grant she investigated holographic interstellar probe message plaques. Starlight, Starbright: Are Stars Conscious? Curtis Press, 2015 and Star Bright? Matloff, Bangs, 2015, investigates consciousness from the point of view of panpsychism both philosophically, historically and scientifically. Both books and accompanying video explore universal consciousness. Harvesting Space for a Greener Earth, Matloff, Bangs, Johnson, Springer, 2014, Paradise Regained, Johnson, Matloff, Bangs, Springer, 2010 and Living off the Land in Space, Matloff, Johnson, Bangs reflect work done as a NASA Faculty Fellow. With Greg Matloff, More Telescope Power (2002), Telescope Power (1993), The Urban Astronomer (1991), Mallove, Matloff, Bangs ,The Starflight Handbook (1989), Wiley.

Klay Enos | Earth Requiem Project Director

Klay Enos is a practicing visual artist raised and based in New York. He has played a variety of roles in creative project development, many of them in his home neighborhood of the Lower East Side. He has worked for the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum, Hunter East Harlem Gallery, Noguchi Museum, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and many Lower East Side, Chelsea, and California-based galleries. Klay has also worked on the administrative staff of Chelsea Opera, Downtown Music Productions, as a designer for an opera at Howl Arts, and as an assistant on operatic and orchestral programs at Opera America, Theatre for the New City, and Clemente Soto Velez. He has curated a group exhibit at Station Independent Projects and shown his paintings in solo and group exhibits in Manhattan and Brooklyn galleries. His essays on visual artists' work have been featured at Tibet House, NYU's Kimmel Stovall Gallery, and Bouduin College. Klay received his B.A. from Alfred University, where he studied English literature and art history.

Valerie Lewis | WOVEN Advisory Board

Valerie G. Lewis has been dedicated to the arts and advancing arts education in New York City for over two decades. Her passions include strengthening individuals and communities through the arts and fostering connectivity through the creative process.

Since 2014, Valerie G. Lewis has served as the Anna-Maria Kellen Executive Director of Third Street Music School Settlement, which is celebrating 130 years of ensuring access to arts education in New York City. Valerie has spent the past decade growing and diversifying Third Street’s programs and strengthening its institutional core.  

Previously, Valerie served as Executive Director of the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus for five years. During her tenure, Valerie oversaw the expansion of BYC’s commissioning and performance program and presented its first two major productions, Tell the Way at St. Ann’s Warehouse and Black Mountain Songs at BAM. 

Earlier, Valerie spent 11 years in successive roles at the Alliance for Downtown New York, North America’s largest business improvement district. There she promoted Lower Manhattan’s rise as a vibrant “live, work, play” community. In the wake of 9/11, she co-founded the award-winning River-to-River Festival to support the healing and revitalization of a devasted community.   

In addition to her role as an Advisory Board Member to WOVEN, Valerie currently serves on the Board of Directors at Solar One, and as an Advisory Council Member to the Anguilla Music Academy.  

Valerie received a Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Delaware and a Master of Public Administration from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. 

Iliya Fridman | WOVEN Advisory Board

Iliya Fridman founded Fridman Gallery in 2013. The gallery presents contemporary art in a variety of media, including sound, video, sculpture, painting and photography, with an emphasis on challenging site-specific intermedia exhibitions and performances. The gallery represents a diverse roster of artists from around the world and participates in leading international art fairs such as Art Basel and the Armory Show. Prior to opening the gallery, Mr. Fridman studied Philosophy and Law, and represented high-tech and creative services companies as a corporate and intellectual property attorney.