The Power of the Arts
This may come as a surprise to those who don’t know me outside of my professional career, but I’m also a professional singer. Music has always been a major part of my life in many different ways. I studied vocal performance in college, and if you’re wondering how I ended up becoming a consultant, the answer is actually pretty simple. I’ve always known I had strong business acumen alongside my creative passions. I’ve never been someone who wanted to fit neatly into one box. I enjoy exploring different skills, perspectives, and ways of making an impact.
Because of that background, I’ve especially enjoyed working with arts organizations throughout my consulting career. While performing arts, fine arts, and creative arts may all look different on the surface, they share something important at their core: creativity, discipline, and storytelling. Studying music from an early age taught me far more than performance alone. The arts require dedication, hard work, collaboration, and vulnerability. They also create space for people to express identity, preserve culture, challenge perspectives, and tell stories that may otherwise go unheard.
There’s real power in that.
Throughout my work with arts organizations, particularly during strategic planning processes, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with countless community members about the impact these organizations have had on their lives. Again and again, people describe the arts as transformational. That has never surprised me because I’ve experienced that impact personally. I live it every day.
Earlier in my career, I also worked in fundraising for an arts organization, where part of my role was helping communicate why investment in the arts matters. It meant telling stories about lives being changed through creativity, education, performance, and community connection. Those experiences reinforced something I’ve always believed: the arts play a critical role in building vibrant, connected communities.
Any arts organization will tell you that sustaining this work takes significant planning, advocacy, and fundraising. Too often, arts funding is viewed as expendable and becomes one of the first things cut. What people sometimes fail to realize is that when access to the arts is reduced, so much more is lost alongside it. Communities lose opportunities for self-expression, cultural preservation, education, healing, and connection. The arts also contribute to local economies by creating jobs, attracting tourism, supporting local businesses, and generating revenue for surrounding communities. When arts funding is cut, those impacts can be felt far beyond the organizations themselves.
Whether through music, theater, painting, writing, dance, or film, the arts give people the ability to tell their stories and connect with others in meaningful ways. Their impact is not always easy to measure, but it is deeply felt.
Every time I work alongside an arts organization, I’m reminded why this work matters. The arts create spaces where people can fully be themselves, experience community, appreciate culture, and engage with stories that connect us to both our history and each other. In a world that often moves quickly past those moments, that kind of connection is incredibly powerful.