Sara R. Leonard

Sara (she/her/hers) is an arts management consultant, researcher, and educator specializing in audience development, strategic planning, and leadership & team building. With more than fifteen years of experience in nonprofit management, extensive work for and with arts organizations, an MA in Arts Administration, and a BA in theatre, Sara brings knowledge, humor, and skill to her clients as she develops the capacities of nonprofit arts organizations to fulfill their missions and be vibrant and vital parts of their communities. Her clients nationwide represent a diversity of artistic disciplines from theatre to fiber arts, presenting and producing organizations, arts councils and more.

In addition to working directly in partnership with client organizations, Sara furthers her commitment to capacity building in the cultural sector by offering workshops, presentations, and webinars for national, regional, and local conferences and organizations, including Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, South Arts, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation’s Audience Building Roundtable, Georgia Presenters, Maryland Presenters, and others. Her most frequently requested workshops are on audience development, creating plans that really work, and team and leadership building. During the COVID pandemic, Sara has become sought after to present up-to-date research, analysis, and real-world guidance on engaging arts audiences during this time of unparalleled change.

Sara complements her work with clients by doing research both independently and in cooperation with MBK Analytics, with whom she co-authored the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2015 report When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance. Sara and her collaborators also performed the Planning Study and Pilot Test for the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for the National Endowment for the Arts. 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 her consulting work, Sara is an adjunct faculty member and graduate thesis advisor for Goucher College’s MA in Arts Administration program where she teaches Managing Performing Arts Organizations; she teaches Nonprofit Management to Goucher’s undergraduates. Sara has also served on the adjunct faculties of Westminster College and Drury University in Missouri.

Education

MA, Arts Administration, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD

BA, Theatre, Davidson College, Davidson, NC


Arts administration has long relied on conventional wisdom and the “truths” of our field that are passed down in the trenches. They are based in the experiences of great practitioners, but the realities in which they are grounded are shifting more quickly than the conventional wisdom is. We need to complement the rich traditions that have stood the test of time with new methods, up-to-date research and knowledge, and fresh perspectives on best practices in order to serve our artists, arts organizations, and audiences successfully.