Laken Sylvander
Phone
+1 314-616-8057
Education
Fulbright Scholar: Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Critical Studies in Art & Culture
August 2019-May 2020
Washington University in Saint Louis [WUSTL]
B.A. cum laude: French, Women Gender & Sexuality Studies
August 2013-May 2017
Gephardt Institute Civic Scholar (March 2015-May 2017)
School for International Training [SIT]
Migration & Transnational Identity, Rabat, Morocco
(August - December 2015)
Singapore American School [SAS]
August 2006-June 2013
COMMUNICATIONS
WRITING, EDITING AND TRANSLATION (COPY, NEWSLETTER, ETC.) SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND CONTENT PLANNING/PRODUCTION., FRENCH FLUENCY.
CREATIVE
MUSIC PRODUCTION (ABLETON), PHOTOSHOP, SONGWRITING, PHOTOGRAPHY (DIGITAL & FILM), PRODUCTION (PHOTO, VIDEO AND LIVESTREAM), VIDEO AND PHOTO EDITING.
LEADERSHIP
PUBLIC SPEAKING, MENTORING, ORGANIZATION, RESEARCHED PRESENTATION & DELIVERY.
Work Experience
April 2021-present
July 2021-present
July 2022-April 2024
February 2020-February 2021
ARCHIVAL RESEARCH, DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT
NYC, 05/2021-present
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Serving as liason between directorial and production team for an upcoming feature-length documentary film and our archival press contacts, ranging from CNN to Univision to private arthouse film makers internationally.
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Building database of all archival content for delivery to editorial team, requiring a detailed understanding of the format and content of each piece of video, photography, illustration etc.
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Communicating on behalf of Clemente with interview contacts, editors and advertisers, journalists, and artists involved with the project.
DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
EARTHDANCE ORGANIC FARM SCHOOL
St. Louis, USA/remote
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE 06/2021-12/2021
DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER 01/2022-present
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Development role: duties as manager are strategic and operational; ensure that all tasks related to fundraising - managing our donor database, planning and executing events that generate revenue and/or deepen relationships between donors and the farm, generating new major gift leads - happen efficiently and successfully
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Work closely with members of our board, our CEO & Founder, and the Director of Development to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with major private donors & sponsors, and to map existing philanthropic ecosystem of the region to better collaborate with organizations with shared values, and to attract donors and sponsors as the region’s priorities evolve.
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Pivoted our fundraising model towards community-centered fundraising that has challenged hierarchies & unbalanced relationships in traditional fundraising practices to bring equity framing to philanthropy and community engagement.
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Communications & marketing role: duties s manager are largely operational & in close collaboration with development: execute web & graphic design needs on a regular basis, manage social media content strategy and distribution, advise on all public communications whether they are volunteer, donor, member or press-facing.
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Storytelling: It has been my priority during my tenure at EarthDance to synthesize our voice across multiple platforms, and to heighten our use of video for narrative storytelling and advertising of our equitable education programs.
DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT & REBRAND LEAD
St. Louis, MO, USA (07/2022-present)
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trubel&co is expanding its educational offerings to St. Louis for the first time. Therefore my role in consulting in fundraising & development for the new non-profit education platform is to familiarize and introduce leadership to opportunities for sponsorship, partnership, and private fundraising in culturally-responsive STEM & geospatial interest groups in St. Louis.
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Duties as development consultant involve establishing introductory meetings with potential partners - especially in education & STEM sectors based on my professional/philanthropic network; locate & execute regionally-specific grant applications on behalf of trubel&co, facilitate strategic partnerships.
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PRIVATE FUNDRAISING
DUTCH NATIONAL OPERA & BALLET,
Amsterdam, NL
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Communications oversight and writing to major donors of Opera and Young Patrons Circle (e-mail, mail & social updates on premieres, invitations, payments, and private events)
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Management of Young Patrons Circle email inbox and all customer-service communications directly with patrons regarding tickets, subscriptions, gala updates, refunds and changing of booking. Social media content writer for the Young Patrons Circle Instagram & Facebook
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Producer of copy for web, with regular updates to online messaging to reflect urgency of donation needs throughout period of crisis/pandemic
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Confident changing tone between target groups (Opera Patrons and Young Patrons Circle), and between mediums (newsletter, invitation, social media, web)
Creative Experience
June 2018-present
June 2022-present
November 2018
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT MENTOR
Cairo Croon
St. Louis, USA/remote
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Ongoing creative direction with independent musical artist Cairo Croon on all visual collaborations, developing partnerships with St. Louis network of visual artists and other musical collaborators, as well as performance opportunities in St. Louis and southern Illinois.
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Concept development and production of 10-track, “sonic ink-blot” album RORSCHACH; project channels the the artist’s identity as a queer man progressing through therapy; served as producer, vocal engineer, co-lyricist and collaborating vocalist
DESIGNER DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT
Pebble by S. Burack
St. Louis, USA/remote
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Duties as consultant involve research into St. Louis-based arts grants, residency opportunities, & academic/artistic research opportunities (e.g. review of Fulbright/National Geographic application for the designer); & introductions amongst St. Louis & regional artist/design community for potential partnership & collaboration.
AD CAMPAIGN, FEATURED MUSICIAN
Aux Corps Anonymes x Badara Official
Paris, France
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Selected as the featured musician and music consultant for a social media campaign for Paris-based “Aux Corps Anonymes” luxury menswear label.
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Directed by Badara Official [@badaraofficial]. Modeled the genderless collection in a series of videos for instagram in which I performed my music, which was shared to over 115k followers worldwide. This project was created in collaboration with a team of content creators for Canal+, France.
