InLiquid’s Art Advisory Committee is a group of outstanding fine art professionals with the intention of increasing the connection and dialogue between working artists in the Philadelphia region and the curators, designers, and gallery owners seeking and presenting new work. The Committee is tasked with determining the qualifications of incoming artist members, ensuring the diversity of InLiquid’s membership, and helping regional artists gain access to the vital career services that InLiquid provides.
Viewers at The Wind Fellowship Exhibition 2021 (Cassidy Argo, "The Fairy Stream")
Debora Charmelus is an east-coast based Haitian-American and multi-hyphenated creative. From event planning to digital strategy, her work is rooted in helping local businesses succeed, cultivating community for national brands, and showcasing creatives through experiential production.
An adaptable connector, creator, and storyteller, Deb uses her multitudinous skills to advocate for marginalized voices and thread together art and grassroots movements via placemaking, programming, trainings, and product creation. A jill of all trades, Debora specializes in assisting national and local small businesses with a focus in hospitality, food, retail, and fine art by using their values to empower their narrative. A problem solver by nature, Debora thrives by creating communities built with all people in mind.
Tu Huynh has 30 years of professional experience in the arts, including the last 20 as the person behind Philadelphia’s Art In City Hall program. He has organized over 300 exhibitions and countless cultural events in the “People’s Building”, transforming nontraditional public spaces into a platform for the arts by providing opportunities, voice, and representation in the most important civic building in Philadelphia. He sees himself as a facilitator and cultural organizer, and his curatorial approach has largely been collaborative, community-minded, and community-driven. The platform has celebrated Philadelphia’s hopes and aspirations, but also numerous contemporary issues, such as gun violence, restorative justice, voting, women’s rights, and the many expressions of Philadelphia’s underserved communities. Beyond City Hall, he recently curated the permanent exhibit at PHL Airport honoring the legacy of the late Reverend Dr. Leon H. Sullivan at International Arrivals Hall and “Remembering MOVE: May 13, 1985”, the tragic history of the bombing on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia.
Tu was born in Da Nang, Vietnam and as a child, escaped with his family to America during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. He grew up in Miami and graduated from the University of Florida. He has been affiliated with various galleries throughout Florida and the Washington D.C. area, and a member of the International Artist Support Group, Vietnamese Artists in Exile project, and a contributor for art events at the Vietnamese Embassy. He has been a writer for an online Vietnamese literary magazine and has served on various advisory boards over the years. His professional experience includes working as an exhibiting and commercial artist, muralist, faux finisher, a contractor to the National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art, and an Assistant Curator/Exhibits Assistant at the African American Museum in Philadelphia before joining the City of Philadelphia.
Thora has actively participated in the Philadelphia art community, holding vital roles at several non-profit arts organizations since 1970. She served as CEO of the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Fleisher Art Memorial, where she created the Challenge Exhibitions (now known as the Wind Challenge) and Fleisher’s Community Partnerships in the Arts program. She also served as the COO at both Philagrafika 2010 and Mural Arts Philadelphia, where she later served as Director of Design Review and managed the development of MAP’s history, Mural Arts at 30. As an independent curator, Thora has organized several materials-based exhibitions in local galleries and created a strategic plan for the Asian Arts Initiative. She also conducted an element of a research project for the Social Impact of the Arts Project at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice.Thora is currently a visual arts management consultant focusing on systems development and program design.
Jennifer-Navva Milliken is the artistic leader of the Museum for Art in Wood and is responsible for the vision and direction of the Museum principally through creating and executing the exhibition programming, facilitating the annual Windgate International Residency program, maintaining the integrity of the permanent collection and research library, and overseeing the Museum’s publishing and documentation activities. She serves on the boards of the Furniture Society and CraftNOW Philadelphia and is a member of the International Council of Museums, ArtTable, and AAMC. Milliken remains in demand as a lecturer and writer due to her expertise in contemporary craft.
Alissa Roach is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and writer based in Philadelphia. She is currently the Art Exhibitions Coordinator at the William Way LGBT Community Center, working to organize partnerships and collaborations with various arts and community spaces around the city. Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, her personal practice often explores diasporic island histories as they relate to memory and technology. Roach has previously shown work in several venues around Philadelphia including Icebox Project Space, Cherry St Pier, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Atelier Gallery, Pilot+Projects and Fleisher Art Memorial. In 2022 she received her BFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art, and also completed a Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.