Sara Leonard
Deputy Director
(401) 222-3882
Sara.leonard@arts.ri.gov
Sara R. Leonard (she/her) is the Deputy Director for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). With more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, extensive work with arts and cultural organizations, an MA in Arts Administration (Goucher College), and a BA in Theatre (Davidson College), Sara has devoted her career to strengthening the capacities of arts and cultural organizations to fulfill their missions and be vibrant and vital parts of their communities. Before joining the RISCA team, Sara served as Director of Capacity Building for New Chapter Coaching (Columbia, Mo.) after spending 10 years as an independent arts management consultant and researcher specializing in strategic and operational planning, audience building, board development, and leadership & team building. Her professional career as an arts administrator began at Amherst College (Amherst, MA) where she served as the Manager of Concert Programming, Production, and Publicity.
Sara co-authored the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2015 report When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance. She and her collaborators also performed the Planning Study and Pilot Test for the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for the NEA. These projects build on her award-winning graduate research, which developed a community-generating approach to audience development for the nonprofit arts.
In addition to working directly with cultural organizations, Sara has lived her commitment to capacity building in the cultural sector by offering workshops for national, regional, and local conferences and organizations. She is also an adjunct faculty member and graduate thesis advisor for Goucher College’s MA in Arts Administration program.
Outside of work, Sara can be found cooking, baking, crocheting, and participating in the arts as both an audience member and enthusiastic amateur creator/performer. You’ll also find her hanging out with her husband Nate and their two awesome kids, Charlie and Penny.
