Anne Bown-Crawford is a new media studio artist, designer, and consultant whose sphere of influence spans from the design of organizational and regional community-building to the development of strategies to link creatives and creative industries with interdisciplinary economic development nationally.

As an artist-in-residence at Google’s Quantum AI Research Labs and a principal with DRAWEVERYWHERE’s Creative Exchange Program, Anne brings an academic and practice-based perspective to the intersection of art, science, and innovation — infusing the cultural heart of the Quantum AI Labs with creativity and innovation, and inspiring staff through thought-provoking, mindful, and compassionate engagement with art and design.

Anne is also currently a consultant for California State Parks program Arts in Parks, designing an Arts in California Parks program that infuses the natural landscape with public art.

Anne has extensive experience in developing policy, networks, and spheres of influence that are regional, state-wide, national, and international. Her work spans the contexts of public school classrooms to running California’s state arts agency via two gubernatorial appointments, and private sector creative industry.

In her service as Executive Director of the California Arts Council, the statewide agency for arts policy and funding, Bown-Crawford promoted the CAC’s mission by designing and implementing interdisciplinary programs and crafting state policy that links the arts and creative education to other industry sectors. Anne has guided the State of California’s Public Art Program, expanded and nourished the CA Cultural District network, and established the California Creative Corps. She has demonstrated statewide leadership as a policymaker and a passionate public and private sector advocate for creative education and creative industry cross-pollination, with international impact endorsing new media/technology settings (FabLearn, Maker Spaces, Art & Technology, STEAM ecosystems) and traditional creative education.

Her work as an artist and designer, as a state policy maker, and in education, prioritizes the economic, educational, and civic benefits of making the arts available to all communities; broadening public access to the arts, reducing barriers to cultural participation, as well as building bridges across communities; engaging all generations and geographies within the sectors of science, technology, public health, and natural resources.