PITTSBURGH, PA October 19, 2017 – The Heinz Endowments today announces the appointment of Shaunda Miles as Program Officer for Arts and Culture. Ms. Miles’ work will focus on arts and culture grantee initiatives.
Ms. Miles will help develop and implement a range of arts grantmaking activity related to visual and performing arts. The Endowments supports grantmaking in three primary emphasis areas - Creativity, Learning, and Sustainability – with particular attention given to the work of nonprofits that crosses over into one or more of the emphasis areas.
She will foster a slate of arts grantees that contribute to the Endowments’ aim of empowering creative citizens, organizations and places, and work to further creative equity in the Pittsburgh region.
“Shaunda Miles brings enormous creative expertise to our Arts & Culture team at The Heinz Endowments,” said the Endowments’ Vice President of Creativity Janet Sarbaugh. “She has on-the-ground arts management, programming, and publicity experience, as well as a deep dedication to the creative community in our region. Her energy and enthusiasm are a wonderful addition to The Heinz Endowments.”
With over a decade of nonprofit executive and arts management experience, Ms. Miles was most recently a publicist for Blake Zidell and Associates, a Brooklyn-based public relations firm representing artists, arts institutions and festivals.
As the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s director of public relations from 2013-16, she headed both national and local public relations campaigns, including the North American premiere of Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck Project, which generated more than $10 million in direct spending in the city. Ms. Miles served as vice president of programming and cultivation at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, where she managed all artistic and educational programs, and oversaw a $1 million programming budget.
Ms. Miles has worked for theater companies across the country, including The Goodman Theatre of Chicago, Second Stage Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse and Cornerstone Theater Company. She also founded demaskus, a nonprofit, service-oriented collective of artists and administrators who produce theatrical projects sharing stories of the marginalized.
Ms. Miles earned an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where she studied under Pulitzer winner August Wilson, and a Master of Fine Arts in theater management from Yale University’s School of Drama.
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For information contact:
Scott Roller
The Heinz Endowments
412.338.2619
sroller@heinz.org