People of Long Now

Danielle Engelman joined the Long Now team in 02006 to research, develop and implement the first Membership program for the organization, working alongside the Executive Director and Lead Technologist at that time. Danielle brought her deep experience in the art and education spheres, along with her commitments to community engagement and individual intellectual growth to the project.

Membership has played a key role in the organization’s development of the ideas and practices around long-term thinking. Spanning the globe, Long Now members increase the velocity of idea spread and collectively are Long Now’s largest donor.

Working closely with co-founder Stewart Brand, Danielle soon leveraged her years of expertise as a producer of art and speaking events to expand the reach and impact of the organization's monthly talks, the Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Together with the Long Now team, she strengthened the business processes, project management systems and professional relationships to build the impact of this series - the cornerstone of Long Now's library of ideas around long-term thinking.

Now known as the Long Now Talks, these live events and their media reach a large global audience, expanding the culture conversation through their use by educators, policy makers, leaders and the public. These talks and ideas developed by Long Now are a freely available educational resource thanks to the generosity of Long Now members, donors and sponsors.

As Director of Programs, Danielle continues to develop public programming and large scale events for Long Now. Amongst others, she produced Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings, Jem Finer’s Longplayer, Misha Glouberman's Terrible Noises for Beautiful People at Ann Hamilton's tower at the Oliver Ranch, the Mechanicrawl, the annual Lost Landscapes of San Francisco with Rick Prelinger and Alicia Eggert's This Present Moment installation in San Francisco.

Outside of Long Now, Danielle is engaged with local art, ideas and experiences. She was one of the project managers for the installation of site-specific sculpture Defenestration by Brian Goggin, and worked with the Burning Man Project, the SF Fringe Festival, and numerous other art groups in the Bay Area. As co-creator and producer (with the Laughing Squid team) of the living artist series The Tentacle Sessions, she supported each speaker's deep inquiry into artistic practice and philosophy. A lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Danielle studied Ancient Near Eastern Art and Architecture at U.C. Berkeley.