Freedome Bradley-Ballentine

Let me help you make it possible.

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.

Maybe it is quieter than that: a sense that the way you have been working will not carry you where you need to go.

Whatever brought you here, that is where we start.

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?

The questions are simple. The answers are where it gets interesting. My practice spans strategy, programming, organizational development, civic engagement, and community building. What we build together starts with your organization, your people, and what you are actually trying to make. It has to be equitable, sustainable, and deeply responsive to the people you serve. That is what makes it last.

WHERE I HAVE DONE IT

I have done this work from inside some of the country's most respected cultural institutions.

At The Public Theater, as Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programs, I provided strategic and artistic leadership across the Mobile Unit, Public Works, Joe's Pub, Under the Radar, the Devised Theater Working Group, and the Hunts Point Children's Ensemble.

At The Old Globe, as Associate Artistic Director and Director of Arts Engagement, I founded the theater's Arts Engagement department and built it into a lasting bridge between the institution and communities across San Diego. I also helped develop the Globe's five-year Social Justice Roadmap, advancing equity, access, belonging, and anti-racist practice throughout the organization.

At CityParks Foundation, I created and launched CityParks Theater, the first free citywide theater festival since Joe Papp, and helped bring SummerStage to 17 sites across all five boroughs.

I also co-founded Civics Is Sexy, where I serve as Chief of Strategy and Impact, using arts, culture, and storytelling to strengthen civic literacy, participation, and connection.

WORKING TOGETHER

What I love most is building the ensemble: people arrive as strangers and leave able to make something together. In Ethiopia, making plays in a countryside town, I watched art change lives; later, creating programs in correctional facilities, I have seen it save lives. With seniors in Southeastern San Diego, I have seen it pull people out of isolation. More than twenty years in, I know that art and a healthy civic life help us build a better society.

I ask hard questions early, and I ask them because I am curious about what you are building. That curiosity comes from two decades inside institutions, my Peace Corps service in Ethiopia, and degrees from New York University and Sarah Lawrence College.

Expect a collaborator who is delighted by your work and rigorous about it. We will get clear on what you actually want to accomplish, strengthen the programs and partnerships that will get you there, and line up the people, structures, and strategies that will hold it up.

Whether you know exactly what you want to build or only that something has to change, I am here to help you figure it out and make it possible.

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