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Encore Awards

Since becoming involved with Business Volunteers for the Arts in the fall of 1994, Cheryl Kellman has been one of the program’s more active participants. During this time, Cheryl has donated her time and professional expertise to several of the City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations including New York Theatre Workshop, Dance Theatre Workshop, Theatre Communications Group, the Center for Safety in the Arts, and International Media Resource Exchange. In the past twelve months alone, she has worked on projects with the Big Apple Circus, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club and the Battery Dance Company.

Cheryl is an Assistant Vice President at Merrill Lynch where she is responsible for the selection, purchase and deployment of software applications. Given the demands of her position, Cheryl’s dedication to the BVA program is all the more impressive. She initially learned about the BVA program while working at J.P. Morgan, where she was struck by the firm’s long-standing commitment to having employees become involved in the community. The idea of volunteerism got Cheryl thinking about her own responsibility as an individual and how she might make a contribution. "At the time, BVA seemed like a good fit for me, which, as it turns out, has certainly been the case. I enjoy the challenge of using my skills in different ways than I do during my normal business day," she commented recently.

With many of her projects Cheryl has drawn upon her extensive knowledge of computer hardware and software. Her particular expertise in the area of system design and implementation has also been an asset on recent projects where she has assessed the needs of her client groups in developing new computer systems. In addition, as a result of working with organizations with varying budget sizes, Cheryl has become particularly adept at finding solutions for projects with very tight, inflexible budgets and seemingly impossibly short time frames. In her own words, this is what Cheryl gets out of the program in return, "The BVA program is a perfect fit for anyone in the business community who is interested in the arts. It makes sense. And besides, it’s very inspiring to experience the behind-the-scenes activities of these truly creative organizations."