VALUES
I believe in a community development process that is just and fair, democratic, artful, equitable, intentional, and collaborative. My process is rooted in realizing these values as I strive to lift up and work from the unique values of your community.
Whether facilitating a conversation with your community or leading a project, I am in service to help each community discover and name its needs and values together, like a school of fish. I do not enter into the conversation or project with an answer already decided.
Your Community is the Author
The voices in your community and what folks value become critical elements to the design process of each project. We prioritize the value of inclusivity as part of advancing equity and the importance of working to include as many voices as possible in any community development project. I offer a values-based approach in my community development work, which enables the project team to fold broader community desires and needs into the decision-making process.
As a member of the creative placemaking community, I also adopt the values crafted by the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking as the framework for my community development work.
ABOUT
Assembly Arts is led by Teresa Koberstein, a forward-thinking analyst based in Portland, Oregon who can ensure your creative development work is backed by solid research. Teresa weaves ten years' experience as a finance director in the design sector with deep background in research, work as a theater artist and administrator, and service in the nonprofit sector.
Drawing inspiration from her background in a collaborative and improvisational theatre practice, Teresa is enthusiastic about working with clients to create an engagement and planning process that is unique to the needs of your community.
Teresa is an arts management consultant with a Master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University, a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from the University of Oregon, and fifteen years’ experience with arts and cultural organizations. In addition to managing Assembly Arts, Teresa works with Victor Gotesman Performing Arts Facility Planning on business planning and arts facility feasibility study projects.
Previous facility planning experience has included working with Webb Management Services, where Teresa contributed on feasibility studies and business plans for arts facility development. These projects have included, among others, the development of the business plan for a new theater in North Lake Tahoe; researching innovative facility developments of theatres in rural communities as part of a new facility plan in Henderson, North Carolina; a Best Practices study for the renovation of Hancher Auditorium in Iowa; researching innovative taxing policies for subsidizing cultural activities in Madison, Wisconsin; and an analysis of Boulder, Colorado’s capacity for developing a new performing arts center.
Teresa has served as the Board Treasurer for Portland, OR-based ensemble Hand2Mouth Theatre Company, and was the Director of Finance & Operations for Krupp Group, a public relations agency in the fashion industry with offices in New York City and Los Angeles. She is a member of the Association for Cultural Economics International and has presented research at its international conference in Denmark. She earned a certificate in creative placemaking from the National Consortium of Creative Placemaking and New England College.
When she's not dreaming up new community development projects, Teresa can be found taking contemporary jazz dance class at NW Dance Project, painting or sketching, playing the viola, hitting the slopes, or hiking and camping around the Pacific Northwest.
Read more about Teresa's clients, projects, and previous employers here.
Benefit Organization
Assembly Arts LLC is an Oregon Benefit Company subject to ORS 60.750 – ORS 60.770
For a copy of the annual report, please contact Teresa here.