Oregon Shakespeare Festival Announces Anyania Muse as New Managing Director: Director of IDEA, People, Culture, and Operations

OSF has promoted Anyania Muse, who joined the nationally influential organization's leadership team in Spring 2021 as its first Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA), to the position of Managing Director: Director of IDEA, People, Culture, and Operations. The groundbreaking new role, in which she will now also oversee the HR, IT, Safety, Physical Plant, and Company Management departments, demonstrates OSF's paramount commitment to integrating IDEA across all of its work and operations, and represents the latest step in Muse's increasingly impactful career in the American theater and beyond.

OSF Artistic Director Nataki Garrett said, "OSF is incredibly fortunate to have someone with Anyania's business acumen, unwavering commitment to the artist, and deep expertise in IDEA. We are reimagining the future of theater right here in Ashland by expanding our platforms, centering our artists, and creating more accessibility for all to participate. These types of bold changes require a leader who not only understands IDEA, but who truly values it and knows that this work is not limited to a department but woven throughout the whole organization. Anyania is truly that leader."

In her work with OSF to date, Anyania (Ahn-ya-nigh-ah) Muse has made innovative use of the organization's available resources and her extensive network to birth a robust, visionary IDEA department, recruiting both talented staff and world-class consultants to achieve ambitious goals. She has been a core team member in OSF's strategic planning process, and has become an indispensable advisor and collaborator to Artistic Director Nataki Garrett and Executive Director David Schmitz, helping navigate the challenges of running a theater during a global pandemic and its vast social and financial repercussions.

Muse was selected as OSF's Managing Director following a national search led by ALJP Consulting, which centers equity, diversity, and inclusion in its work. OSF sought an individual who could be a culture changer, a systems builder, and a leader of iterative progress in the whole organization. As Managing Director, Muse will supervise a variety of high-level operational processes and systems including artist-centric contracting and housing, recruiting and talent acquisition, onboarding, evaluation, engagement, off-boarding of OSF employees, evaluating and updating OSF's equitable compensation system, evolving dynamic benefits structures that provide exemplary support to its workforce. She will strategically oversee the use of information technology in a complex environment and work to make OSF a great place to work for artists, producers and administrators. Continuing her work directing the IDEA department, Muse will further design, communicate, execute and monitor programs and initiatives that actively promote and foster a radically inclusive culture that is an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, and anti-ableist at the company.

OSF Executive Director David Schmitz said, "I could not be more thrilled that Anyania accepted the role of Managing Director, expanding her impact and her scope within OSF. Anyania is a strategic builder who has already had incredible success within the organization, and her vision for creating artist- and IDEA-centric systems and processes within OSF is unparalleled. With this hire, we are placing the most senior operations director at the apex of IDEA, HR, IT, Company Management, Physical Plant, and Safety, which will naturally bring all this work into alignment with our artist- and IDEA-centered vision."

Anyania Muse said, "I'm excited about deepening and expanding the work I've been called to do at OSF. We're establishing systems that are artist and IDEA-centered and that shifts the paradigm of the way we do this work. The chance to operationalize Nataki Garrett's artistic vision is a phenomenal opportunity."

Leandro A. Zaneti, Senior Consultant at ALJP Consulting, said, "We were thrilled to get to know Anyania during the search last spring, and she's already made such an impact on the organization from her position as the Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA). I am excited to see what she will do as the Managing Director: Director of IDEA, People, Culture, and Operations and how she will transform the way we operationalize anti-racist values into the management and administration of the theater."

Prior to starting her work at OSF, Muse was well-known throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for her growing body of work in equity and inclusion. In her most recent role as Director of Equity for Marin County, Muse developed, led, and implemented program initiatives to target and dismantle existing systems of oppression within the County, while helping to build and evolve anti-racist frameworks across 22 departments with over 2,700 employees, including but not limited to the County Administrator's Office, Cultural Services, Children and Family Services, Public Health, and Parks.

About OSF

Led by Artistic Director Nataki Garrett and Executive Director David Schmitz, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) expands access to the transformational power of art and art-making. A global entity and an ever-evolving container for the future that responds to changing tides, the organization is committed to co-liberation through radically inclusive, accessible, and collaborative practices. OSF centers and nurtures artists and multimodal, multidisciplinary work.

OSF was founded in 1935 and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 8 plays and musicals, including both classics and new work. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. In 2020, the organization launched O!, its new digital stage featuring performances of groundbreaking art and mind-expanding discussions that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. O! attracts more than 10,000 views per month from audience members in over 50 countries.

About ALJP Consulting

ALJP Consulting is a Black-owned, mission-driven firm that employs planning and search services to address the contemporary challenges of nonprofit organizations in the arts and culture sector. ALJP centers the values of anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion in its work with organizations and candidates. ALJP Consulting has serviced numerous arts and culture organizations nationwide, including The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, New York Theatre Workshop, Center Theatre Group, Alabama School of Fine Arts, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and more. Visit aljpconsulting.com for more information.

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