Sneak Peek: Shanta Thake Podcast

Shanta Thake: Luckily for me, there was a new vision set for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts before I arrived by the board and the staff that was here. How do we become an innovative arts organization and build those muscles around innovation? And diversity, equity and inclusion. And not just as like part of our plan but as truly integrated. So those tenets being really part of every single conversation we have. So that was already in place when I got into this role about nine months ago. And that was a great space to step into. And I think, one of the things that I'm doing is also bringing artists really centrally into that conversation. So we really believe that artists have to be at the center of what we're doing, and are always showing us a way forward. And so if we can just bring artists more core to our planning, to our execution, to our curation and making Lincoln Center really a home for them from artists across every spectrum. Then they will in turn be able to welcome their community to Lincoln Center in a way that feels really organic and true to who they are as an artist. And then asking the question from that point of what does New York City need right now that only the performing arts can provide? And how do we meet that need? And that's been a really fun conversation to be in with everyone. And some of that is you know what New York City needs right now is we have a citywide blood shortage. The answer doesn't come back necessarily in the way you anticipate, but I think understanding that we have all of these incredible spaces, we have to be able to use our resources fully. And so we do these blood drives where we have students from Juilliard playing while people come in and donate. We've done food donation sites. We've also hosted graduations and naturalization ceremonies. And really trying to step in to people's whole lives, not just the entertainment section of their lives, or this sort of secondary piece of entertainment only. But really thinking about how can we make everyone's whole life infused with this joy and hope that the performing arts can provide.