Lesley Hunter Joins HERE as New Managing Director

Lesley Hunter has joined HERE in the newly created role of Managing Director. She succeeds Meredith Lynsey Schade, Producing Director, and Brenna Thomas, Director of External Affairs, whose departures this year have provided an opportunity for restructuring at the institution. Hunter's appointment comes at the end of a broad search for a Managing Director who will work in a new leadership model with Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting.

"This is an amazing turning point for all of us," says Lesley Hunter. "I am excited to take on this new leadership role with HERE and to have an opportunity to match my passion for supporting the arts with such a stellar organization, and in the company of such great artists."

"We are very honored to have Lesley join the HERE community," Kristin Marting said. "The creativity, warmth and experience she brings will be an exciting addition to our team."

Lesley Hunter is an experienced musician, dancer, arts educator, arts manager, program creator, and project manager with over twenty years of experience working in the performing arts, arts education, and management. Her work with such organizations as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Arts Administrators of Color Network, Black Curators Dance Performance, and Arts and Education Roundtable demonstrate her service to the arts community. She has served as an arts program curator, developer, manager, and coordinator for programs throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

Ms. Hunter spent many successful years as a music teacher and marching band director in Central Virginia, and as a Dance and Music Instructor for numerous non-profit organizations in New York City. She has taught all genres and levels of music and dance, and has provided private instrumental instruction and lessons, including teaching general music and theory.

With an MBA in Performing Arts Management from New York University, Ms. Hunter has turned her passion for music, dance, and theatre into transformative leadership for the arts. She consistently strives for opportunities to apply her gifts in a way that will bring the arts to all BIPOC communities.

ABOUT HERE

The Obie Award-winning HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director) was named a Top Ten Off-Off Broadway Theatre by Time Out New York and is a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performances viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theatre, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art.

HERE's standout productions include Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, James Scruggs' Disposable Men, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Robin Frohardt's The Pigeoning, and Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, and Looking at You by Rob Handel, Kristin Marting and Kamala Sankaram.

Since its founding in 1993, HERE and the artists it has supported have received 18 Obies, 2 Bessies, 5 Drama Desk nominations, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, 4 Doris Duke Awards, 7 Tony nominations, and 2 MacArthur Fellowships.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: WWW.HERE.ORG