This session focuses on building relationships, partnerships, community building & engagement, and how the arts can be utilized as a community resource.

Guest Speaker: Lauren Fitzgerald

Lauren Elysse Fitzgerald is a cultural organizational strategist, performing artist and, poet. She is the Managing Director of the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI), the founder and Lead Executive Strategist for Strategize/619, a cultural strategy firm, and the Director of the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership (JUMP Nashville). 

She has worked with and performed at several art institutions and theatres such as the Carpetbag Theatre (Knoxville TN), The Walnut Street Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The York Theatre Company (New York, NY), The Weathervane Theatre Company (Whitefield, NH), The Nashville Children’s Theatre, and with the Metro Nashville Arts Commission as the Neighborhood and Artists development coordinator managing the THRIVE funding program for community art projects.