Russell F. Lewis III
Founder & Concept Architect
Russell F. Lewis III is a West Michigan-based civic entrepreneur and concept architect with a career spanning shopping center management, media, cultural programming, and platform development. He is the founder of Ruedas de Colores de las Américas (RCA), a pan-Latino cultural platform built on the conviction that the vibrant mobile art traditions of Latin America — Panama’s iconic Diablo Rojo buses, Colombia’s chivas, Brazilian transit art, Caribbean bus culture — deserve the same fine art recognition that transformed street art from city walls to museum galleries.
Russ brings to RCA a rare combination of large-scale event production, institutional relationship-building, and entrepreneurial experience. During a 25-year career in shopping center management — including work within the Taubman Company portfolio and oversight of more than five million square feet of commercial space — he developed a distinctive discipline in creating cultural experiences within public commercial environments. He founded Symphony Week in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and produced the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first performance outside its traditional venue footprint, demonstrating that world-class cultural programming can reach audiences in unexpected places.
An independent thinker by nature, Russ has consistently worked at the intersection of community, commerce and culture. He co-founded House Trader, a San Diego real estate magazine later acquired by a Cox Communications entity, and served as a co-convener of Michigan’s 2010 Governor’s/MSU Food Infrastructure Report and Good Food Expo. He lived in Rio de Janeiro and is a Vietnam-era U.S. Navy veteran having served in Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines.
RCA reflects what Russ calls “the next logical step” in the recognition of mobile art as a legitimate fine art form — a platform that honors the artists, connects diaspora communities to their visual heritage, and positions Latin America’s bus art traditions for the global cultural stage.
José Manuel Simián
Cultural Strategist
José Simián is a multicultural digital strategist, storyteller, writer and public speaker. He is Director of Marketing at design and technology firm Huge, and previously worked as Director of Digital Strategy for Capgemini North America. He has been a speaker at SXSW, a guest on NPR, and the host of several podcasts.
Between 2007 and 2016 he hosted and produced Contraportada, a weekly interview segment with Latino artists and intellectuals on 24-hour New York City news cable station NY1 Noticias. His writing on arts, culture, sports and politics has been featured on New York Daily News, NPR, Sports Illustrated Latino, Ad Age and Etiqueta Negra.
Born in Utah, José grew up in Chile, where he got a law degree, worked as a lawyer and taught jurisprudence before moving to New York City, where he’s resided since 2004.