The Theatre Admin Consulting (TAC) Program provides support for A.R.T./New York's organizational member companies to help them address and overcome challenges facing their organizations or seize on new opportunities as they approach critical junctures in their development. These challenges and opportunities might include organizational structure, staffing, long-range planning, board development, transitions in leadership, implementing anti-oppression practices, marketing and audience development, disability equity, accounting and quickbooks just to name a few areas of interest. Since each of these issues is unique to each organization, the program requires a customized planning process with each organization’s own culture and needs in mind.
Upon completing the consultation, the participating organizations emerge stronger, more focused, and have the tools necessary for future evolution. To better understand the type of work this program can support, read more about some of our past partner consultants listed below.
TAC is designed to help our members navigate issues which cannot be addressed through other avenues of learning or in a group environment such as a workshop or roundtable discussion. Before applying for TAC support, we encourage you to search our Digital Resources HUB and check out our upcoming Workshops and Roundtables to ensure that the support you’re seeking isn’t already being offered in another format.
In some instances, A.R.T./New York staff may require participation in other workshops (such as Organizational Planning & Process) as a prerequisite to accessing consulting services through the Theatre Admin Consulting Program.
The TAC Program evolved from A.R.T./New York’s Harold & Mimi Steinberg Theatre Leadership Program (TLP). For any additional questions or inquiries on the TAC Program, please email [email protected].
How TAC Works
(The Six Steps of TAC)
Client (Organizational Member) Applies to TAC by providing some information about the challenges and/or opportunities they are hoping to address through consultation. This information can be submitted in one of three ways. Choose whichever format is most convenient for you:
Anne Dunning (She/Her) became principal associate at ARTS Action Research in 2004 after several years in administrative roles at the Danny Grossman Dance Company in Toronto. She has considerable experience as a facilitator, strategic planner, evaluator and educator. She was founding chair of the Canadian Dance Assembly, chair of Dance/USA and chair of freeDimensional and she has served on advisory committees for Dance/NYC and the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation’s Strategic Initiatives program. She has taught for Humber College’s arts administration program and been a guest speaker at the University of Toronto and NYU. Before becoming involved in the arts, Anne studied biology at McGill University in Montreal, where she received a BSc in ecology, evolution and behavior.
Nello McDaniel (He/Him) is the Principal Director for ARTS Action Research and supervises all project activity and publication development from AAR's office in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to ARTS Action Research, Nello was Executive Director of the Foundation for the Extension and Development of the American Professional Theatre, an arts consulting company based in New York. From 1978 to 1982, he managed the Presentation and Touring Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Program. Prior to that, he was Chief Operating Officer and Performing Arts Director for the Western States Arts Foundation. In 1993, he was named Fulbright International Fellow to consult with the New Zealand Arts Council and numerous New Zealand arts organizations.
Becky Baumwoll (She/Her) is an NYC-based artist, administrator, and educator. She studied International Relations and Art at Tufts University, then founded Broken Box Mime Theater (BKBX) in 2011. She is BKBX’s Artistic Director, Executive Producer, and a performing company member. Becky has developed curriculum with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP), the New School, and others. She has served on several grant committees with A.R.T./New York, as well as various accessibility, diversity, and leadership cohorts. She is a 2020 BRIClab artist and 2021 ITAC Innovator.
Sarah Benvenuti (She/Her) earned her B.M in Music Education from Mercyhurst University and M.A. in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Having worked at Future Tenant Art Space, Arena Stage, Curious Theatre Company, and The Civilians in Brooklyn, she founded Benvenuti Arts, specializing in fundraising and management consulting for small and midsize nonprofits. Benvenuti Arts has worked with over 75 clients since its founding in 2014. Successes have included increasing fundraising income by 50% in one season; the creation of short and long-term fundraising plans; paying down large accumulated deficits; and the successful execution of fundraising events. Benvenuti has sat on various panels concerning arts management, real estate, emerging leadership, and creative partnership, and works with individual artists to help them fundraise directly for their art.
(She/Her) is the Director of Development at TDF, the country’s oldest performing arts service organization dedicated to making theatre and dance accessible to all. Prior to TDF, Whitney was the Director of Development at Theatre for a New Audience, a modern classical theatre in Brooklyn. Ms. Estrin began her fundraising career in Philadelphia, working with The Arden Theatre Company, Theatre Exile and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. She has also worked with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where she managed a $7 million capital campaign to open their new support facility. She was a member of the Board of Trustees for SPACE on Ryder Farm for six years, and was a founding member of Shakespeare in Clark Park, a free outdoor Shakespeare Festival in West Philadelphia. Whitney is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia School for the Arts. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Drew University and an M.F.A. in Theater Management from Yale School of Drama.
Amy Fiore (She/Her) is Managing Director for Sobel Bixel Consulting specializing in board and staff training/retreats, strategic planning, project management, fundraising plans and implementation, and interim leadership. Prior to JSC, Amy served as the Executive Director for Only Make Believe, Director of Development and Managing Director for TADA! Youth Theater, and served in leadership roles at esteemed Manhattan-based theaters including MCC, The Vineyard, and The Public. Arts clients have included Willie Mae Rock Camp, NJ Intergenerational Orchestra, Culture for One, and Rosie’s Theater Kids. In addition to her work in non-profit arts administration, Amy has been an adjunct professor of Managing the Arts and Marketing the Arts at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and guest lecturer at various universities and conferences. Currently, Amy also serves as the Director of Development for the Story Pirates.
Grounded in the conviction that how we work matters as much as what we create and why, FORGE NYC is a boutique arts consultancy that helps organizations and independent artists take the next step in their work. Through our process-oriented consulting engagements, productive developmental workspaces, and well-curated resources, we train makers to measure the real costs of their projects, to communicate the value of their work, and, ultimately, to forge a path to success. We see ourselves as coaches as much as consultants. We are proud to bring our expertise to the table, as we encourage and enable our clients to build their own skills. Our goal is to teach you the tools to master your present challenges and meet those ahead with confidence.
Our Values Process: We attend to why systems take shape and how projects come together, knowing that the best way to succeed is to define success. Inclusion: We curate cohorts and conversations where people of all backgrounds can offer their perspectives, where everyone’s voice is valued, and compassion can be found in challenge as readily as in care. Generosity: We offer open curiosity, authentic engagement, and respectful deference to makers and their work, and expect the same from the artists and organizations we serve. Accountability: We commit to showing up for our collaborators with clearly communicated agreements, goals, and boundaries because we believe they nurture respect: for the work, for the team, and for the individual. Wholeness: We see the people and organizations we serve as complex beings whose strengths and difficulties must be reckoned with in relation to each other and their emergent whole.
Chie Morita (She/Her) is a Co-Founder of FORGE, focusing on producing, general management, strategy, resource generation, and burnout prevention. She also seeks creative solutions to everyday debacles as the Deputy Director at Town Stages, and as a board member for The Musical Theater Factory. Chie served as the Managing Director of the 3-time-Drama-Desk-Nominated New York Neo-Futurists from 2013 to 2016 and as General Manager for their January 2017 Prime Time production, The Great American Drama. In New York, Chie has worked with Broadway Producer Joey Parnes (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, End of the Rainbow), the Off-Broadway institutions The Public Theater and Ars Nova, and such independent artists and ensembles as Heather Christian and the Arbornauts, Esperance Theater Company, UglyRhino, Fresh Ground Pepper, Panicked Productions, Extant Arts Company, and art.party.theater.company.
Greg Taubman (He/Him) helps stories find their form and storytellers hone their craft—primarily as Co-Founder and Partner at FORGE, a boutique consultancy dedicated to helping artists and makers take the next step in their own work. Believing that imagination is the wellspring of empathy, Greg is forever investigating the creative process and its power to engender and deliver a communal sense of meaning. By providing cultivated spaces to work in, tailored tools to master, and expert perspectives to tackle, Greg emboldens creators of all kinds to articulate the ineffable and make visible their inner truths.
As a freelance director and dramaturg, Greg has worked with institutions including The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Society, and Theater of War. His Greek and Latin translations appear in Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things, Joanne Akalaitis' Bad News...i was there, The Public's Bacchae, Extant Arts' Antigone/Progeny, and the forthcoming In Loving Memory of the Dead. As an educator, Greg has taught and directed students at Stanford, Columbia, LIU Post, and Uncommon Schools. He holds a BA in Classics from Princeton (Summa Cum Laude) and MFA in Directing from Columbia.
Other projects in development include his non-fiction book Such Stuff: The Essential Value of Art & Dreams, the Arcsong story-cycle, and a theatrically-inspired tarot deck.
Rebecca KellyG [she:her] is a Healing Sound Artist and Equity and Justice Strategist & Facilitator rooted in anti-racist practices. She supports individuals and groups in challenging oppressive conditioned beliefs, embracing accountability, and cultivating self-care for our personal and collective liberation. As a former civil rights attorney, Rebecca’s approach is informed by experience in structural and institutional advocacy and understanding of oppression. As an artist and facilitator, her methods are led by heart, inquiry, and intuitive communication. With over a decade of experience in the arts and social change, she engages in this work through workshops, public speaking, immersive sound experiences, consulting, and retreats. Some of her prior clients include Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theatre Communications Group, and New York State Council on the Arts. For a full list of Rebecca's collaborations and offerings visit www.rebeccakellyg.com
Sam Morreale (they/them) is an early career Artistic Producer, Director, and Facilitator who approaches work with a dramaturgical lens rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression. They are an avid supporter of art for social change and gravitate towards stories and people that uplift the lives of those who have been caught in the margins of society. Sam works to reckon with and readjust the theatrical cannon by re-centering QTBIPOC voices as a space-making advocate for these voices, particularly from within predominantly and historically white institutions. After receiving a BA from Wesleyan University in Theater and Science Studies, Sam moved on to work with New York Stage and Film at Vassar College, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, and the Theatre Communications Group. Sam understands their career path as one which continues to push institutions to spaces of deep listening in order to ensure that their actions align with social justice and the movement for progressive change. Sam has had the opportunity to be an advocate at A.R.T/NY, Boston Court Pasadena, Center Theatre Group, and New Harmony Project among others.
Beth Prevor (She/Her) is a co-founder and Executive Director of Hands On, an arts service organization that advocates for access to the cultural arts for the Deaf community and audiences with disabilities. For the last 35+ years, Hands On has been providing access for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities of NYC through sign language interpreted theater at some of NYC's most prestigious theaters including The Roundabout Theater Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and The New Victory Theater. As Executive Director, Beth works with arts organizations to ensure inclusion for all by providing marketing, community engagement and audience development strategies. As a disabled advocate, Beth is active as an advisor to many groups including, The Shubert Accessibility Committee, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, The Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC). She has led workshops on accessibility and the arts for organizations around the country including the Kennedy Center's LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) Conference, Americans for the Arts, The National Arts Marketing Project, the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and Theater Communications Group (TCG). She is the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center's Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Lifetime Achievement award.
Naomi Ramirez has over twenty years of experience in financial management and oversight. She has worked with many organizations and companies over the years creating systems to track financial data in accordance with accounting standards and specific organizational needs. Once implemented these systems allow for ease in reporting for financial planning. Her perspective encompasses the day to day minutia of data entry and bigger picture concerns of budgets, cashflow, and audits. She has put together board governance manuals and financial procedure manuals. She has worked with theater and dance companies, scholarly associations, theatrical production companies, theatrical agents, artists, and various other nonprofits and companies. She taught Finance for the Arts at S.U.N.Y. Purchase NY and believes anyone can learn the ins and outs of financial data management and how to read financial reports. She is also an artist, creating and producing her own artwork and curatorial projects. She brings this passion to her consulting. She wants to see organizations thrive!
Maya Shah (She/Her) is a marketer, community gatherer, and a creative hype woman. Starting out in the theatre sector as all of the above, she deeply prides herself on being able to curate spaces for the audiences to feel at home and a place where they can see their own stories reflected on stage. If it means bringing in friends by hand, busing in neighborhoods, or ensuring that full houses are reserved just for the culture - she’ll do it.
Throughout the pandemic, she led tough conversations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion and led workshops on virtual audience building and marketing strategically through A.R.T/NY.
Currently Maya works for NYC & Company, the official destination marketing arm for New York City. She very proudly amplifies and lifts up all of the happenings in the five boroughs and, most importantly, from her own community.
Kirsten Sweeney (she/they) is an autistic advocate working to advance disability equity in the arts & culture sector. They are the Accessibility and Inclusion Manager at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where they lead all work related to accessibility at the museum, including running the museum's Image Description Project and developing Smithsonian-wide guidelines for virtual accessibility. In addition to their work at Cooper Hewitt, Kirsten serves as Co-Chair of the Museum, Arts, and Culture Access Consortium (MAC), providing guidance and leadership on accessibility best practices to cultural organizations throughout New York City, and is also a member of A.R.T./New York's Disability Advisory Council. She has designed curricula and led trainings and consultations on a number of topics, with a particular focus on: disability & accessibility basics, image description writing, equitable hiring and employment, and accessible program design.
