Who We Are

Spontaneous Celebrations is run by an active and committed staff, board, and volunteer team composed of community residents, students, artists, parents, business-people, activists, and organizers who reflect the diversity of the surrounding communities.

Key Staff

Gerry Lake, our Bookkeeper, grew up in Boston and holds two degrees from Boston College including a BA in Accounting and an MBA. He has over twenty years experience in accounting and financial positions, mostly in financial services. Over the last few years, Gerry has done a lot of work for non-profits including Community Works and Spontaneous Celebrations. He also serves on the board of the Cooperative Artists Institute.

Ed Pazzanese, Accessibility Coordinator, has been involved in various roles with Spontaneous Celebrations since the first Wake-Up the Earth Festival in 1979. He currently serves as our Accessibility Coordinator, ensuring full participation in Spontaneous programs, festivals, and outreach efforts for community members and visiting artists with a wide range of abilities. Ed brings over 25 years of experience with community rooted arts education programs in organizations committed to the inclusion of children, youth, and families with a wide range of abilities. Throughout his many roles in the disability rights and desegregation court order movement, he has provided leadership and support for muliticultural, intergenerational, and inclusive initiaitives focused on the expressive arts. Ed Pazzanese holds a Masters of Science from Wheelock College and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Mass College of Art. He was also a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1990 and the co-recipiant of the first Lifetime Achievement Award from Spontaneous Celebrations for his accessibility efforts. Mr. Pazzanese recently participated in the 2006 Very Special Arts Institute in Washington D.C. where he received a certificate for studies in adaptive arts education and disability awareness.

Mark Pelletier, festival arts instruction with the Manning and Curley After School programs and he coordinates the Lantern Parade and Wake up the Earth festival.

Femke Rosenbaum, the original founder of SC and its many festivals has dedicated her life to the people of her community in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Originally from Holland, as an artist, organizer, and community member, she has brought new meaning to life in the JP area through the festivals that have come to define the neighborhood.

Rosalba Solis, Festival Arts Founder, and La Pinata Director is one of the founding members of Spontaneous Celebrations. She is a native of Mexico and a music and performance teacher at the Rafael Hernandez School in Egleston Sq., Roxbury. She finds time to run her own program, La Piņata, a Latin American Family Cultural Network that operates out of our Center and where she teaches dance and music of Latin America to children from Latin countries. She is also an accomplished tap dancer and teacher.