Vinson Valega
As a full-time freelancer and longtime resident of New York City, he has always been attracted to compelling ideas told through creative storytelling as a jazz musician, media producer, and activist. As a nonprofit leader, he has been at the forefront of research on artists gathered from front-line grassroots sources.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics in 1987, Vinson moved to New York to trade commodities. Quitting that job after a few years to travel around the world, he returned in the mid-90s to study jazz performance at the New School as a drummer/composer. Around that time, he also began booking live jazz ensembles for corporate and private events through his newly minted music agency, Just Jazz.
In 2003, his activism took off when he began blogging and making original jazz recordings accompanied by his own liner notes focused on social change. Then in 2009, he turned his music label, Consilience Productions, into a nonprofit that used music to increase civic engagement.
As his music career was taking off, he simultaneously began working as a project manager on large-scale public art commissions by his life-work partner - and Institute for Sustained Creativity (ISC) Executive Director - Sharon Louden. Since then, together they have installed more than 10 museum and permanent sculpture installations across the country.
Simultaneously, in 2014 after graduating from a video journalism program at the Columbia University School of Journalism, he founded Vinson Media Production, a video production company dedicated to telling important personal stories using moving images. In 2016 he added to his portfolio of creative skills by becoming a Squarespace specialist, designing beautiful mobile-friendly websites for creatives, non-profits, and small businesses.
Vinson lives and works in New York City.
Interests
Nonprofit Leader. Jazz Musician. Activist. Squarespace Website Designer. Project Manager.