Guest Speaker: Randy Cohen

Randy Cohen is Vice President of Local Arts Advancement at Americans for the Arts, the nation’s advocacy organization for the arts.  Randy is charged with ensuring that every community and arts organization in America is served by a local arts agency—and that every community in America is an environment where the arts can thrive. Combining the strengths of research, advocacy, professional development, and member services, Randy leads a team of 17 who strengthen the nation’s network of 5,000 local arts agencies. 

A member of the staff of Americans for the Arts since 1991, Randy is among the most noted experts in the field of arts funding, research, policy, and using the arts to address community development issues.  In January 2010, Randy released The National Arts Index, the first ever annual measure of the health and vitality of arts in the U.S.   He published the two premier economic studies of the arts industry—Arts & Economic Prosperity, the national impact study of nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences; and Creative Industries, an annual mapping study of the nation’s 680,000 arts establishments and their employees.  Randy led the development of the National Arts Policy Roundtable, an annual convening of leaders who focus on the advancement of American culture, launched in 2006 in partnership with Robert Redford and the Sundance Preserve.  In the late 1990’s, Randy collaborated with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities to create Coming Up Taller, the White House report on arts programs for youth-at-risk; and the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the YouthARTS Project, the first national study to statistically document the impact of arts programs on at-risk youth. 

Randy is a sought after speaker who has given speeches in 48 states, and regularly appears in the news media—including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and on CNN, CNBC, and NPR.

Randy has been a policy specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts, founded the San Diego Theatre for Young Audiences and served as its managing director, and worked in medical research for Stanford University and Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation. He was chair of the Takoma Park Arts & Humanities Commission for three years during which time the Commission completed a cultural plan, established the city’s Poet Laureate and public art programs, and planned a million dollar conversion of the city council chambers into a performing space.  Randy lives with his wife and two children in Takoma Park, Maryland.