Innovating Arts Administration: Insights from Rachel Cornish and Kaitlyn Hardiman

Ohio University's Master of Arts Administration (MAA) program is at the forefront of preparing arts administrators for the challenges of tomorrow. Rachel Cornish and Kaitlyn Hardiman are adjunct faculty teaching in the MAA program. They both bring practical experience and academic depth to their courses, offering valuable insights to students about the changing landscape of arts management.

Rachel teaches theater administration. She draws from her extensive background in theater management and emphasizes adaptability and critical thinking. She aims to support students in navigating industry shifts with confidence. Kaitlyn teaches fundraising and development. She focuses on community engagement and highlights the broader impact of the arts in society. By highlighting how the arts can drive social change, Kaitlyn inspires students to think creatively about their role as future administrators. 

Together, Rachel and Kaitlyn embody the MAA program's commitment to innovation. We interviewed them about how they are shaping a new wave of artist administrators ready to make a difference in the changing field. 

There are many paths to working in an arts non-profit. What unique advantage(s) does the Master of Arts Administration program offer current/future practitioners of this field?  

Rachel: Arts non-profits are having to reinvent themselves in a myriad of ways to be sustainable in today’s world.Having a deeper understanding of theory and practice gives our graduates tools they can immediately apply to become invaluable assets to organizations and the communities they serve.  

Kaitlyn: Before the emergence of arts administration degree programs, the roles within nonprofit arts organizations had been traditionally filled by professionals outside of the arts sector who brought skills such as marketing, financial management, and fundraising into the space. The education provided in programs like Ohio’s MAA equips artists with the diverse skill sets necessary to become top-employable candidates for positions within their field beyond the art form itself. Students from the MAA program emerge not only with a deep understanding of art and its cultural significance but also with hard skills such as marketing, financial management, and fundraising that are often gained only through years of on-the-job experience. Additionally, instead of coming into a role with one specific skill set, students are equipped with the knowledge to perform any job they step into with curiosity and excellence.  

The arts non-profit field is changing each day. As an instructor, how do you teach to the needs of today and tomorrow?  

Rachel: Teaching leadership and arts administration for today’s world means that you need to understand how the industry has changed and is changing. Teaching for the future means that I am constantly working to provide students with not just concrete skills but with the ability to analyze a situation, understand its context, and apply critical thinking and creativity to solve whatever challenges they may encounter. You always need to be nimble and flexible with your thinking. 

Kaitlyn: First, I stay current on trends within the field by attending sector-specific conferences, reading academic research journals, listening to podcasts, and following content published by leading organizations. When teaching, I try to articulate three different points of view clearly: 1) The current trends/practices traditionally found within textbooks, 2) My personal point of view on the current trends and how I approach the content within my work, shaped by my own best practices 3) How others within the field view the current trends as positive/negative, and what they are doing differently. I consistently articulate within the classroom that each organization should think creatively and identify its own best practices instead of trying to fit the mold of what everyone else is doing. Using the creative, innovative thinking that artists have, we can re-evaluate traditions, think outside the box, and be the ones that initiate new trends within the field. As the instructor, I serve more as a facilitator in the room, laying the groundwork with current information and creating space for students to use their critical thinking to further elaborate on scenarios and content.This will enable students to effectively navigate the unknowns of future trends instead of relying on the replication of other organizations’ best practices.

How has your background and experience shaped how/what you teach in the MAA program and/or work with students?  

Rachel: My background is in theater production, and I’ve been in the industry for well over two decades now. I attended conservatory programs for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees and founded and ran a theater company in NYC. Because of this background, I tend to teach from a practical perspective of how the industry actually works. My classes are concentrated and challenging bootcamps. The skills that I teach are from real-life examples, and I often bring my own experiences and those from my own industry contacts into my classroom teaching.  

Kaitlyn: In my experience in the field, working primarily with small to medium-sized arts organizations, I have had to create the systems and processes for programs and fundraising. Every position I have held within the sector has been created by me from the ground up, with no template provided and no one telling me how to get the job done. This required me to use my innovative thinking to fill the gaps in the problem/opportunity areas the best way I knew how with the limited available resources. As a consultant in the field, I see many executive directors, staff members, and board members also creating their policies and processes from scratch. Many students will experience this same thing. They will step into an organization that has never done fundraising or properly developed systems for program development, and they will be the ones who will need to figure out how to accomplish the task at hand in a way that makes the most sense for the organization based on capacity and available resources. I bring that same thought process into the classroom by providing best practices insights and scenario-based projects for students to tackle. There is no "right" or "wrong" in my teaching methods and evaluation. Instead, I require students to think creatively, outside the box, to develop their tools and frameworks to accomplish the work.  

What is something about being an arts administrator/working in the field that has surprised you? shaped your thinking? and/or that you see as an important shift?   

Rachel: One thing that has shaped my thinking about theater is watching how much the folks entering the field are pushing for change and how they are thinking about new models of theater organization and structures. I love it—I love to watch the cycle of the field evolve and change with new ideas. It’s constantly changing and shifting whether we want that or not, and I think the generations entering the field now embrace those changes in a joyful way.

Kaitlyn: One of the most surprising aspects I've encountered in the arts administration field is the widespread difficulty in articulating the intrinsic value of the arts and its impact on communities beyond the basic measure of ticket sales or similar output metrics. This realization has profoundly shaped my approach to teaching in arts administration, where I emphasize the critical importance of understanding and communicating the broader societal benefits of the arts. In every course I teach, I stress the necessity for students to go beyond traditional metrics and deeply analyze the communities they aim to serve. This involves identifying underserved populations, recognizing unmet needs, and pinpointing opportunities where the arts can play a pivotal role in addressing specific community issues. The goal is to cultivate a mindset among future arts administrators that sees the arts not merely as entertainment but as a powerful tool for social change, education, and community building. 

My teaching and practice in arts administration are grounded in the belief that the arts are a vital part of the human experience, capable of addressing complex social issues, enriching lives, and strengthening communities. By focusing on these broader impacts and cultivating the skills to effectively communicate them, we can elevate the role of the arts in society and ensure they are recognized not just for their aesthetic value but for their capacity to transform and uplift both individuals and communities. 

Kaitlyn and Rachel emphasized adaptability, critical thinking, and community engagement, underscoring the evolving nature of the arts administration field. As practitioners with diverse backgrounds, they are working with other faculty teaching in the MAA program to inspire students to embrace innovation, challenge conventions, and advocate for the arts as powerful catalysts for social change and community building.

For more information, contact Dr. Christi Camper Moore, Head of Arts Administration campermo@ohio.edu and check out https://www.ohio.edu/fine-arts/master-arts-administration.

Rachel Cornish is an arts administrator who has spent the past two decades specializing in the fine arts in higher education. She has a particular interest in helping organizations use mission-centered communications to build lasting relationships with their constituencies. Rachel teaches in the graduate arts administration program at Ohio University, where she also serves as an Assistant Director for the School of Theater. Rachel also often works as an executive coach and freelance consultant specializing in helping executives develop their relationship management, strategic planning, and public speaking skills.

Previously, Rachel worked as the Director of External Relations for the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts at Ohio University. She was the Founding Producing Director of Tantrum Theater, the professional theater of Ohio University, for which she produced three critically acclaimed summer seasons in Dublin, Ohio. Prior to her work at OHIO, she was the Associate Director of Marketing at Yale Repertory Theatre/Yale School of Drama. She was a Co-Founding Producing Director of Epiphany Theater Company in New York. Rachel is a proud alumna of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama and the theater management program at Yale School of Drama.

Rachel lives with her husband, Matt, a theater historian, and their two young sons in the third-most-famous Athens. When not working, you’ll often find Rachel attending arts events, gardening, reading, and pleading with her children to please practice their cellos.

Kaitlyn Hardiman is the founder and CEO of Oklahoma Arts Management Solutions, a research-oriented consulting firm that works with arts organizations to develop fundraising strategies and program evaluation tools. She is an adjunct professor of graduate-level arts administration and nonprofit coursework for Oklahoma City University and Ohio University. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky, her research focuses on the civic engagement of arts organizations and the formulation of community-based fundraising strategies.