Benjamen Douglas is an activist, scholar, and practitioner of arts management with deep expertise in organizational effectiveness and capacity building, operationalizing racial justice, leading cultural policy and arts funding, and causing systems change.

 

In his current role, at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX), he is collaboratively leading an organizational turnaround that encompasses programs and exhibitions, strategic planning fundraising, membership, capital projects, visitor services, and more, including producing the hall of fame induction ceremony.

 

Benjamen began his career in community-based cultural leadership as the founding director of SonEdna Foundation—a limited-life operating foundation based in Charleston, Mississippi that supported writers of the global African diaspora. Building an organization’s programs, governance, and operations from the ground-up, starting out as a part-time volunteer staff of one sparked a question that has driven much of his work since—what does this organization need, to be able to accomplish its greatest possible impact?

As a result, Benjamen led capacity building initiatives at the Torpedo Factory—the largest collection of working artists studios in the United States. These experiences, along with a fellowship at the Talent Philanthropy Project informed his master’s thesis, People-Powered Performance: Maximizing the Impact of Arts Organizations through Talent Investment.

Next, Benjamen began looking at these issues at systemic level, asking how arts funders can use policy to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. As a result, Benjamen led Upstart, the primary capacity building program at DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This innovative program paired funding, consulting, and training to increase organizational impact. As a result, Benjamen later founded bandwidth projects, which provides consulting and project management for cultural institutions.

Benjamen is currently completing graduate studies in Applied Intercultural Arts Research at the University of Arizona. His scholarly interests include the historic roots and current implications of white supremacy in the publicly-funded arts and culture sector. This scholarship came out of his work chairing the Accomplices Leadership Institute, a program of Arts Administrators of Color that provided training for white arts leaders interested in dismantling white supremacy in the arts.

In arts funding and cultural policy, Benjamen has served as executive director, program officer, grant reviewer, and consultant to government funders, family foundations, a giving circle, and public foundations—including five years at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. During that time, he designed new grant programs and policies, assessed and revised current grant programs, and managed the review, award, and oversight of 400 grants to individuals and organizations totaling approximately $25M. Over two decades, he has developed grantmaking processes for the Rock River Foundation, SonEdna Foundation, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the NextGen Giving Circle; and reviewed applications for funders including the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern AZ, Indy Arts, Creative Greensboro, and MS Arts Commission. 

Each post has also included responsibility for designing and producing a wide variety of programs. Benjamen is especially proud of producing Some Sing, Some Cry by Ifa Bayeza and Ntozake Shange starring Hattie Winston, Nambi Kelley, Phylicia Rashad, and Alfre Woodard in partnership with the National Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture in multiple locations, including the B.B. King Museum and National Black Theatre Festival.

Benjamen is committed to public service through boards and committees, including the 11th Street Bridge Park’s Equitable Development Plan Cultural Advisory Committee, SonEdna Foundation, Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort, Delta State University’s Year of the Arts planning committee, and Amici, the support organization for the Mississippi Metropolitan Opera auditions. He enjoys being a facilitator and guest lecturer on issues like talent development, racial equity, and arts funding for the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium, Arts Administrators of Color, American University, Drexel University, Indiana University, and the University of Arizona.