01 · CityParks Foundation · SummerStage · New York
Theatrical work across the city.
Director, Theatrical Programs from 2006 to 2014. Created and launched CityParks Theater and helped expand SummerStage to 17 sites across all five boroughs.
An industry leader helping arts organizations build the capacity to make ambitious work possible — with the people they serve.
The Old Globe · AXIS plaza dance
Photo Rich Soublet II
The person
Let me help you make it possible.
AXIS Day of the Dead, Celebrating Community Voices and AXIS Leap Day · Photos Rich Soublet II
Something has been on your mind. Maybe it is a new program, a new direction for your organization, a deeper relationship with your community, or a vision you know has potential but are not quite sure how to begin.
More about me →My approach
I work with arts and cultural organizations at moments of possibility and change, helping them turn ambitious ideas into work that lasts. For more than two decades, I have built organizations and partnered with institutions, artists, and communities around three simple questions: Who is this for? Who is missing? And what has to change inside the organization to make it real?
Recognition
Published, quoted, and invited to speak nationally.
Case study published by the Yale School of Drama; profiled in the Wall Street Journal; featured in American Theatre Magazine and KPBS; panels at the Folger Shakespeare Library and UC San Diego.
- Yale School of Drama
- The Wall Street Journal
- American Theatre Magazine
- KPBS
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Theatre Communications Group
The work
Bring him the work you want to make possible.
01 · Call when
You want to deepen your connection with the audience and community, shift the organization's culture, pursue artistic ambition, build a program, or lead change — and you need the strategies, structures, and partnerships to move it forward.
02 · The expertise
The unique ability to increase organizational relevancy by identifying key stakeholders, practicing deep listening, building consensus, and mobilizing a plan to maximize participation and achieve desired outcomes. Built on decades of experience working with non-profits, both nationally and internationally, leading teams and launching new initiatives with cultural institutions.
03 · The results
A practical direction, a plan for the resources the work needs, clear responsibilities, a path for programmatic vitality and organizational longevity.
Method
“He listens into the core of the situation and distills what he has heard to its essence. He devised programs that brought into community the precise things the community itself said it needed.”
Impact metrics
Operating scale from named institutions — not aggregate estimates.
30,000+
Participants a year across Public Works, the Mobile Unit and the Public Shakespeare Initiative.
The Public Theater
0 → 50,000
People a year through Arts Engagement — built and led at The Old Globe.
The Old Globe
100,000+
People reached through theatrical programming and public-engagement initiatives across all five boroughs of New York City.
CityParks Foundation · SummerStage
20 years
Across producing, arts engagement and institutional leadership.
Before it was a practice
The Public Theater · The Old Globe · SummerStage · CityParks Foundation · Public Works · Mobile Unit · Joe's Pub · Under the Radar · Public Shakespeare Initiative · Civics Is Sexy · US Peace Corps, Ethiopia ·
The engagement
How the work moves.
Two movements, one engagement. We identify the institutional needs and clarify its position.
Movement 01 · Orient
Jupiter
Agree on the priorities, who needs to be involved, and the decisions to make before work begins.
Movement 02 · Build
Orion
Develop the program, partnerships and working practices needed to put that direction into action.
Read the engagement in full →
The four services, the two movements in detail, and how an engagement begins.
Part of the Arts Engagement department Freedome founded.
Civic Vitality
Public space into civic vitality.
02 · The Old Globe · San Diego
A department reaching outward.
Freedome built the Arts Engagement department, developing its team and programs across libraries, parks, detention facilities and community centers.
03 · The Public Theater · New York
The public on the stage.
Public Works, the Mobile Unit and the Public Shakespeare Initiative — community-cast, free, and held together through institutional change.
Communal Joy
Joy has to be shared to last.
The work gets stronger when people can name what matters, help shape the story, and see their knowledge change the room. I call that shared authorship — participation as engagement, and access as integral to belonging.
See the Communal Joy →
Selected track record
What he has already built.
Selected roles in producing, departmental leadership and public programming. Consulting engagements remain confidential unless a client chooses otherwise.
2022—2024
The Public Theater
Director of Artistic Programs & Associate Artistic Director
Oversaw institutional programs including Joe’s Pub, Under the Radar, Public Works, and Mobile Unit.
2015—2022
The Old Globe
Associate Artistic Director & Director of Arts Engagement
Built Arts Engagement from zero to 50,000 people served annually and co-authored the institution’s Social Justice Roadmap.
2006—2014
CityParks Foundation · SummerStage
Director, Theatrical Programs
Created and launched CityParks Theater and helped expand SummerStage to 17 sites across all five boroughs.
Now
Civics Is Sexy
Co-founder · Chief of Strategy and Impact
Using arts, culture, and storytelling to strengthen civic literacy, participation, and connection.
Service
United States Peace Corps, Ethiopia
About
The people belong in the decisions.
The people a program serves should help shape it, from the first decisions through the public work.
Read about him →Ambitious work becomes possible when the people it is for help make it.
What are you trying to make possible?
Write directly
hello@freedomeconsults.comTell Freedome about your organization, the work or decision ahead, and where you need support. Please do not send confidential materials through this first note.
Consultation
Book a free 30-minute consultation →Choose an available time, or use the inquiry form if you need to explain the work first.
Freedome
Freedome Bradley-Ballentine · Arts & civic practice
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