SUU names Raymond Grant as Distinguished Fellow on campus

Published: September 15, 2010 | Read Time: 3 minutes

Raymond T. Grant has been named Southern Utah University’s Distinguished Fellow for Creative Engagement and Acting Director of the Utah Center for Arts Administration. Grant, 52, is credited with heading the successful 2002 Olympic Arts Festival and is the former executive director of Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort. In 2004 he was named by Salt Lake Magazine as Utah’s Best Arts Visionary. He will take his post immediately and report to SUU’s Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Brad Cook.

In announcing the appointment, Dr. Cook said, “Ray’s creative talents, business skills, and leadership work in creative industries position him to lead the Utah Center for Arts Administration in new and exciting directions.” “In his capacity as a distinguished fellow at SUU, I especially look forward to Ray’s contribution to the university’s commitment to students through its new experiential education focus in Creative and Innovative Engagement – one of five engagement tracks at SUU,” Cook continued.

Grant will lead the Utah Center for Arts Administration, a professional service of SUU’s College of Performing and Visual Arts, by providing consulting and training services to a wide range of commercial and not-for-profit organizations. He will also work to advance, animate, and stimulate leadership in the creative economy among the university’s faculty, staff, community partners, and constituents. Grant will work closely with SUU’s recently announced Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), the College of Performing and Visual Arts, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, arts education initiatives within the Beverley Taylor Sorenson College of Education and Human Development, and the campus-wide Experiential Education Initiative.

“I look forward to working with the gifted students, faculty, and staff at SUU and the community of Southern Utah to further the role that creativity and innovation play in the life of the university and the economic life of the region and state.” said Grant.

Grant has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in the arts, education, business, and creative industries having served as director of the Tisch Center for the Arts and general manager of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City. He also headed performing arts and film programming for the Disney Institute, a division of The Walt Disney Company. He has consulted with and produced events in some of this country’s most important cultural and entertainment institutions including Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, New York's Central Park, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Grant, a licensed music educator in the State of Utah, serves as a North American correspondent for the Arts Management Network. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) degree from the University of Kansas – School of Music and a master's degree in Arts Administration from New York University. He has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

The Utah Center for Arts Administration is a professional organization of the SUU College of Performing and Visual Arts. It provides a wide range of consulting services and training for commercial and not-for-profit cultural organizations, their boards, and managers. The Center champions the role that the arts, education, and culture play in the economic life of all communities. The Center’s dedication to Creative and Innovative Engagement affords SUU graduate students the opportunity to use the critical skills they develop at SUU in professional environments. SUU offers the only terminal degree - graduate level program in arts administration in the state of Utah.

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