Ray Boyle was the former Development Director for GAFFTA. She brings a decade of non-profit experience with her, always working with organizations that encourage dialogue, justice, activism, and collaboration through community participation. Since 2005, her attention has been focused on creating multidisciplinary, integrated art spaces and experiences that build and bridge communities.

In 2007, while teaching English in Syria, she laid the foundation for a community based art center focused on open-dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures through artistic expression. Ray moved to Lebanon in 2008 where she quickly allied herself with a number of prominent artists and activists working on various issues in Beirut. Working with the influential gallery and publisher, Art Lounge, she authored the book, “Mood Swings II,” detailing the after-dark culture of Beirut from a critical design perspective.

Upon returning to the US in 2009, she became the Administrative Director of Portland City Art where she co-produced large scale, community minded art shows and fundraisers. She also worked as the Program Coordinator for the inaugural year of PDX Bridge Festival, Program Director for an after school arts and science program, and served on Advisory Councils for the Right Brain Initiative, Portland Ad Federation, and ADX, a local workshop and creative incubator. As an independent curator, she organized a collaborative Middle Eastern/American art exhibition in Portland called, “Mirrors,” that employed social media and networking, art therapy, and abstract art environments to create a space for understanding.

She moved to Oakland in 2011 and worked as Development Coordinator at The Crucible, a non-profit industrial arts education center, until July 2012. In the Bay Area, she has worked closely with local art cooperatives and has held management positions on large scale art projects with Burning Man, What the Festival?!, Movement Play Microfestival, and Otic Oasis 2.0.