Invitation to Hear Ben Cameron Speak on October 30th
Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 @ 5:29 pm
The Pratt Community is invited to attend a talk by Ben Cameron. He will be speaking to second year Arts and Cultural Management graduate students as part of their class in Art, Culture and Social Policy in room 213 at Pratt Manhattan, 144 West 14th Street, on October 30th, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30, followed by a question and answer session. Ben is a dynamic and insightful speaker, who addresses issues and trends facing the arts. His bio is below.
In 2006, Ben Cameron assumed his current position as Program Director, Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York, NY. In that capacity, he supervises a $17 million grants program focusing on organizations and artists in the theatre, contemporary dance, jazz and presenting fields.
Previously, he served for more than 8 years as the Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the American nonprofit professional theater, significantly expanding its programs, membership base and grantmaking activities.
Prior roles include his work as Senior Program Officer at the Dayton Hudson Foundation, Manager of Community Relations for Target Stores (supervising its grantmaking program) and four years at the National Endowment for the Arts, including two as Director of the Theater Program.
A former theatre professional, frequent public speaker and arts activist, Mr. Cameron has served on numerous nonprofit boards and currently is a member of the national Grantmakers in the Arts board. He has received honorary degrees from DePaul University in Chicago and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, in addition to an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. In 2007, he was one of five recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from UNC.
In addition to his not for profit work, he has lectured on theatre aboard the Queen Mary 2 as an Oxford Lecturer on three separate cruises, has spent 12 seasons as a panelist on the opera quiz feature on the Live from the Metropolitan broadcasts from New York, has twice ridden his bicycle from Minneapolis to Chicago to raise money for AIDS relief services, and served for three years as a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.