At age 19 Jamie Bennett thought he had gotten his big break.
A drama major at Columbia University, he jumped at the chance to stage manage a summer production of “Macbeth.”
To pay his bills, he found a job in the university’s office of alumni affairs. It turned out to be that job—not hearing Lady Macbeth fret about the “damned spot”—that sparked Mr. Bennett’s career path to support the arts instead of directly participating in them.
“I figured out early on that my talents lie as an audience member,” he says. But he is more than someone who merely applauds as the curtain drops: He has devoted much of his career to helping advance the arts through his jobs in government and private foundations that focus on cultural affairs.
Last week Mr. Bennett, 40, made the next step in that journey when he assumed the position as executive director of ArtPlace America, an organization focused on making culture a central economic and social force in America’s cities, towns, and rural areas.
Mr. Bennett’s blend of experience fit with the scope of the group, a collaboration of 13 foundations, which have awarded more than $42-million in grants, and six banks, which have provided $12-million in loans for projects. The group also works closely with several federal government agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Bennett’s previous employer.
“He has distinguished himself as someone who can manage a big tent,” says Jeremy Nowak, ArtPlace’s interim director and former president of the William Penn Foundation, one of the group’s supporters. “Jamie is the guy who can move the ball forward, given the complexity of what we are trying to do.”
No ‘Plop Art’
As chief of staff and director of public affairs at the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Bennett held a front-row seat when ArtPlace America was created in 2011 after a meeting of foundation leaders organized by Rocco Landesman, the former head of the NEA, and Darren Walker, who is now president of the Ford Foundation (and at the time was overseeing cultural grants there.)
“The ambition is a big one: How do we fundamentally change the relationship around how arts organizations operate within their communities?” says Mr. Bennett.
Too often, he says, conversations about the arts start with the idea that when resources are scarce, cultural organizations offer little more than “decoration and frill.”
ArtPlace seeks instead to highlight what arts groups can offer communities by helping, for example, to turn vacant lots into performance spaces and drawing people to see exhibits in neglected neighborhoods, spurring commerce and building ties among people who otherwise might not mingle.
“Instead of talking about what the arts need, talk about what the arts can do for you,” Mr. Bennett says he often urges colleagues.
A grant from ArtPlace helped created a museum of art and storytelling in the heart of a New York housing project that serves people who lost a permanent place to live. Another grant was used to establish indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces in the unpopular downtown of Modesto, Calif., to help spark revitalization there.
Mr. Bennett says ArtPlace eschews “plop art,” in which a sculpture or other artwork is simply erected after a building or larger project wraps up. Instead, ArtPlace supports groups that seek to be part of the planning process, integrating the arts into urban and rural projects, such as the renovation of 30th Street Station, the major train depot in Philadelphia.
Like Stage Managing
Mr. Bennett sees the job as a natural extension of his stage-managing and fundraising work, in which he can use his behind-the-scenes abilities to push the arts forward. He also acknowledges that the job will involve learning in new areas, such as urban planning.
One of Mr. Bennett’s first tasks will be to help finalize the group’s new strategic plan, to be unveiled in March. ArtPlace’s future includes doing more research to determine the impact of its support and probably selecting a few geographic areas to focus on in depth.
The arts are integral to forming communities where people want to put down roots, says Mr. Bennett. He cites a study the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, one of ArtPlace’s supporters, did in partnership with Gallup to look at why people become attached to the places where they live. Social offerings, openness, and aesthetics topped the list.
“If we want to build complete communities where people become invested and care about their neighbors, then we need the arts,” he says. “You absolutely need a house and a Bed Bath & Beyond to fill it. But you also need things to do with your neighbors and strangers to understand who we are collectively and individually.”
Jamie Bennett, executive director, ArtPlace America
Education: B.A., drama and theater arts, Columbia University
Career highlights: Director of public affairs and chief of staff, National Endowment for the Arts; chief of staff, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Office of the President of Columbia University; philanthropic adviser and administrator, Agnes Gund Foundation
Salary: $230,000
Favorite recent arts experience: “Appropriate,” a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, at Washington’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Book hes reading: This Town, by Mark Leibovich, which Mr. Bennett is reading for a book club he started in which all the books are about Washington or set there
