Funding the Arts and Fostering Community from DC to Texas: John Abodeely, CEO, Houston Arts Alliance

In this episode, I speak John Abodeely, CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance. In our conversation, we discuss his career path, creating equity in the arts, and how he’s working to help the creative community of Houston cope with the pandemic.

We discuss how he’s worked to improve arts education access in his past positions at Americans for the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and the President's Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and his current work as CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance. 

About John:

John Abodeely is Chief Executive Officer of Houston Arts Alliance (HAA). Joining HAA in November of 2017, he brings a strong background in arts and arts education policy as the  Acting Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, service as Manager of National Partnerships for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Manager of Education at Americans for the Arts.

As CEO of Houston Arts Alliance, John directs strategy in grantmaking, civic art development, and new programs. He is committed to developing the organization’s service to the arts community, in partnership with board, staff, grantees, investors, and other stakeholders.

At the Presidents’ Committee, an advisory body to the White House on cultural issues, John was instrumental in the expansion of Turnaround Arts, a program that leverages the unique power of arts education to improve non-arts outcomes in a cohort of the nation's most struggling schools. During John’s tenure, the program successfully scaled from eight schools to sixty-eight. In April 2016, the Committee led sent the first federal cultural delegation to Cuba, immediately following the President's own historic trip. As the Trip Director for the delegation, Abodeely organized ten bilateral meetings with senior Cuban government officials and arranged for high-visibility U.S. artists to tour artist studios, explore schools, visit youth arts programs, and perform on stage with Cuban musicians. As a result of the delegation, embedded press and ongoing, bilateral artist and preservation exchanges helped to further the President’s goal of normalizing relations with Cuba.

John has taught education policy at the graduate level, and served on boards and various review panels. He is a graduate of Amherst College with a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in Biology and Fine Arts, and holds an MBA from John Hopkins University.

About the Houston Arts Alliance:

Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is a local arts and culture organization whose principal work is to implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments. HAA’s work is conducted through contracts with the City of Houston, overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. HAA also executes privately funded special projects to meet the needs of the arts community, such as disaster preparation, research on the state of the arts in Houston, and temporary public art projects that energize neighborhoods.

In short, HAA helps artists and nonprofits be bold, productive, and strong.

Alliance website: https://www.houstonartsalliance.com/

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).