Creativity as a catalyst for personal, institutional, and societal progress.
This mission has driven my work in domains as diverse as under-resourced public schools, Off-Broadway theatre companies, national service organizations, regional planning commissions, juvenile detention centers, and Research I universities. These experiences have afforded me opportunities to collaborate with MacArthur Fellows, Obie, Tony, and Grammy winners in the development of educational programs and new works. As an educator, I couple openness—rooted in years of music and theatre improvisation—with goal-oriented backwards design. I practice community engagement as a dialogue: a “give-and-take” that—when authentic, reciprocal, and courageous—redresses inequities and yields richer results than the sum of its parts.
I presently serve as the associate director of programming at the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. From 2015-17, I was an inaugural member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ (APAP) Leadership Fellows program. As an artist, reviewer, and consultant, I have worked with the Intercultural Leadership Institute, APAP, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Sojourn Theatre, The TEAM, Lost Nation Theatre, Hamilton-Gibson Productions, Extant Arts Company, and Aquila Theatre. Projects I have led in arts-based community engagement, collaborative programming, and equity have been featured at conferences by the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, Network of Ensemble Theaters, Imagining America, APAP, Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities, International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and Association of American Colleges & Universities. My writings have been published in Arts and Community Change: Exploring Cultural Development Policies, Practices and Dilemmas (Routledge Press, 2015) and Animating Democracy’s “A Working Guide to the Landscape of Arts for Change” series. I received a B.A. with Honors from Bucknell University and M.F.A. from Virginia Tech, where I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, & Globalization. Most recently, my interdisciplinary research has focused on representation and equity in arts philanthropy.
Jon Catherwood-Ginn 