Y Exchange

Y-Exchange is a featured artists presentation on the intersection of performing arts, technology and science co-presented by Kinetech Arts, ODC Theater, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. This public event presents featured artists through 25-min talks followed by 15-min Q&As. It’s held every last Wednesday of the month and free! RSVP today!

About the artists

Clara Hsu is a piano teacher, actor, poet and playwright. She is the director of Clarion Performing Arts Center. In 2019 Clara established Clarion Summer Theater. She produced Love on the Magpie Bridge to celebrate the Chinese Night of Sevens Festival. Her second play, The Piano, a Play-Movie was selected by the 2021 Children’s Film Festival Seattle. Her new play, Neil Armstrong at the Moon Palace will premiere at the end of this summer. Clara won the Jefferson Award for public service in May, 2021. Her latest work, the Gai Mou Sou Rap has gone viral on YouTube.

Tom Skalak joined the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation in 2018 as Senior Advisor to Clara Wu Tsai. The Foundation makes philanthropic investments in science, economic mobility, and cultural production (art, music, film), with a vision to produce transformative impact on societal well-being and sustainability. Tom is Vice President for Research Emeritus at the University of Virginia and was previously the founding Executive Director of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group in Seattle, the Microsoft co-founder’s global science investing group. In these roles, Tom led creative synthesis of research and innovation programs spanning biosciences, environmental sustainability, physical sciences, engineering and technology, arts, design, and humanities. Tom was educated as a bioengineer at The Johns Hopkins University (B.E.S. 1979) and the University of California, San Diego (Ph.D. 1984), was a Resident Artist at the Djerassi Resident.