This is arts and culture. Unfiltered. Unscripted. Formerly known as CI to Eye, Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt is a trove of meaningful interviews with executives, artists, and experts across industries. Together with Monica, we'll explore the way innovation, leadership, and joy drive our industry forward.
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October 15, 202643 min
Cory Pattak, Lighting Designer
For Cory Pattak, lighting design has always carried a sense of magic. Over a 20-year career, Cory has designed productions across Broadway, regional theatre, international stages, cruise lines, and more. He is now bringing that same eye for spectacle to a new Pixar-themed production for Hong Kong Disneyland, set to premiere in 2027. In this episode, Cory explains what a lighting designer actually does, and reflects on the mentorship and creative turning points that shaped his path. He also explores the deeply collaborative nature of theatrical design; the balance between individual artistry and serving a director's vision; and why wonder and joy still sit at the heart of his work. --- LINKS Cory Pattak's Work: https://www.corypattak.com/
October 8, 202640 min
Lisa Richards Toney, President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP)
The arts help people feel, connect, and find the courage to act. How can we better harness that power—and communicate it beyond our own circles—to ensure the longevity of our field? For Lisa Richards Toney, her connection to art is deeply personal. From finding her confidence through youth arts programs in Washington, D.C. to studying at Spelman College and working in arts education and management, she has experienced the many ways the arts give people a sense of purpose and possibility. Today, as President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), she brings that perspective to supporting the people who make live performance happen. In this episode, Lisa reflects on how we can build new pathways to sustain our field, better communicate the civic value of the arts, and build mentorship across generations. ----- LINKS APAP: https://apap365.org/ APAP|NYC Conference: https://apap365.org/conference/ APAP's Advocacy Resources: https://apap365.org/advocacy/
October 1, 202635 min
Michele Y. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of Pop Culture
How do you build a museum around a subject that's constantly evolving? As CEO of Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP), Michele Y. Smith is helping preserve what refuses to stand still. With exhibitions spanning music, film, fashion, gaming, and fandom, MOPOP examines pop culture not simply as entertainment, but as a reflection of the ideas, identities, and social changes shaping our lives in real time. In this episode, Michele explores what it means to preserve cultural history while remaining responsive to the present, and why our personal connections to pop culture can become a powerful source of shared experience. ---- LINKS: Museum of Pop Culture: https://www.mopop.org/ Styled by the Streets: Black Women in Hip-Hop Fashion: https://www.mopop.org/exhibitions/styled-by-the-streets
September 24, 202647 min
Joseph Fowler, Head of Arts & Culture at the World Economic Forum
What changes when artists aren't simply invited to perform, but are given a seat at the table where ideas, policies, and solutions take shape? Joseph Fowler has spent his career moving between artistic disciplines, institutions, and cultural ecosystems around the world. After training at The Royal Ballet School and performing professionally as a dancer, his curiosity took him behind the scenes as a director, producer, programmer, and cultural leader—from London and Paris to Dubai. Today, as Head of Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum, he brings artists and creative thinking into conversations about some of the world's most complex challenges. In this episode, Joseph reflects on the evolution that took him from performer to cultural leader, makes the case for creative imagination as an essential tool for solving problems, and explores why technology represents an opportunity as well as a challenge for artists. He also takes us inside the World Economic Forum's arts and culture programming, including the 2026 opening concert in Davos and The Cultural Table—an initiative designed to put artists at the center of conversations with leaders across business and civil society. ----- LINKS: World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/ World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 Opening Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCi_3S3s_60 World Economic Forum Cultural Table: https://www.weforum.org/stories/arts-and-culture/the-cultural-table-how-arts-and-culture-can-drive-global-change-and-collaboration/
September 17, 202649 min
Baratunde Thurston, Writer, Comedian, and Earthling
The future isn't something that simply happens to us. It's something we help create through the stories we tell, the technologies we use, and the choices we make about how to live together. Baratunde Thurston has spent his career exploring what that responsibility looks like across comedy, media, civic life, and nature. Again and again, his work returns to a deeply human question: how do we embrace change without surrendering our agency? His latest award-winning project Life with Machines turns this question on technology, exploring how new tech shapes our lives—and how we might shape it in return. In this episode, Baratunde reflects on what it means to treat 'citizen' as a verb, why conversations about AI demand more nuance, and how we can all take a more active role in shaping our collective future. --- LINKS Life With Machines: https://www.lifewithmachines.media/ How to Citizen: https://www.howtocitizen.com/ American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence: https://americanindigenousdemocracy.com/
September 10, 202646 min
Courtney Burke Summers, Chief Marketing Officer of Vivo Performing Arts
Rebranding a beloved institution requires not only defining what comes next, but building enough trust and shared ownership that both longtime supporters and new audiences see themselves in the future. Courtney Burke Summers recently helped lead the sweeping rebrand of Celebrity Series of Boston into Vivo Performing Arts, launching a new identity designed to better reflect the organization's role in its community. In this episode, Courtney shares what it took to bring people along through that transformation and why meaningful change can only happen at the "speed of trust." She also reflects on the opportunities and challenges of being a nomadic presenter; the value of collaboration across the arts ecosystem; and what most arts organizations are forgetting about the next generation of audiences. ----- LINKS Vivo Performing Arts: https://www.vivoperformingarts.org/ The REACH at the Kennedy Center: https://www.kennedy-center.org/reach/ Libby: https://libbyapp.com/
September 3, 202645 min
Lisa Yun Lee, Executive Director at National Public Housing Museum
What if a museum's job isn't simply to preserve history, but to help us imagine a different future? Lisa Yun Lee has spent her career exploring what cultural institutions can make possible when they understand themselves as civic spaces. As Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, she leads an institution created by public housing residents to preserve their own histories, challenge dominant narratives about public housing, and bring arts, culture, and public policy together in the fight for housing as a human right. In this episode, Lisa traces the winding path that took her from studying religion and German intellectual history to the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the University of Illinois Chicago, and ultimately the National Public Housing Museum. She shares how the museum puts solidarity with public housing residents into practice, why museums should engage both historical fact and lived experience, and what it means to create a cultural institution rooted in radical hospitality and collective joy. Lisa also challenges arts leaders to think expansively about whom our institutions serve and what success looks like—from compensating artists and cultural workers fairly to creating spaces where people can define beauty for themselves. --- LINKS: National Public Housing Museum: https://nphm.org/ NPHM 36 Questions for Civic Love: https://nphm.org/program/36-questions-for-civic-love/ W.A.G.E.: https://wageforwork.com/
August 27, 202633 min
Kim Jakominich, Senior Director of Brand at Barnes Foundation and Calder Gardens
A great exhibition or performance can draw people in, but a strong institutional brand shapes how they understand the experience—and whether they feel invited to return. Kim Jakominich has spent more than 15 years working across publishing, public media, museums, and cultural destinations. Now Chief Brand Officer at the Barnes Foundation and Calder Gardens, she leads an integrated team spanning marketing, communications, publications, design, editorial, and visual resources, helping steward two distinctly different brands while creating a more unified audience experience. In this episode, Kim reflects on the unexpected path that brought her from Minnesota Public Radio to museum leadership, what she learned by realizing she needed mission-driven work, and how the Barnes's philosophy of "seeing art differently" influences everything from visitor experience to brand strategy. She also takes us inside the creation of Calder Gardens, where art, architecture, and nature come together in an experience intentionally "open to interpretation." Kim also shares lessons for cultural leaders on breaking down departmental silos, thinking about brand through the eyes of the audience rather than the organizational chart, and reframing innovation as something more meaningful than chasing new technology. For her, the question is ultimately whether an idea removes barriers, sparks curiosity, and helps audiences discover that art has something to say to them. --- LINKS: Barnes Foundation: https://www.barnesfoundation.org/ Calder Gardens: https://caldergardens.org/ The BrandLab: https://www.thebrandlab.org/
August 20, 202640 min
Ann Morrow Johnson, Global Immersive Experience & Entertainment Leader at Gensler
As our attention becomes increasingly fragmented, the value of being fully present together has never been greater. The most memorable experiences go beyond spectacle and create a clear sense of place, invite participation, and give people something meaningful to feel together. Ann Morrow Johnson has spent her career designing those kinds of experiences. After more than a decade at Walt Disney Imagineering, she now co-leads Gensler's Entertainment practice, applying lessons from theme parks and immersive entertainment to cultural organizations, hospitality, real estate, and other physical spaces. In this episode, Ann Morrow explores why authenticity matters more than showmanship, how shifting from a scarcity mindset to a value-creation mindset can open up new possibilities, and why growing demand for shared, participatory experiences gives cultural organizations plenty of reason for optimism. --- LINKS: Gensler 2025 Immersive Industry Report: https://www.gensler.com/gri/immersive-industry-report-2025 No Proscenium: https://www.noproscenium.com/
August 13, 20261 hr 0 min
Live from TLCC: Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Spoken Word Artist and Cultural Strategist
Join Monica Holt for a live recording of Arts Unscripted with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, an internationally acclaimed cultural strategist, spoken word artist, and Chief of Impact at SOZO. Bamuthi has built a singular career at the intersection of creativity, leadership, and social impact—from performing on Broadway and co-founding Youth Speaks to shaping civic and cultural strategy at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Kennedy Center. Throughout it all, he has approached art not simply as expression, but as a tool for freedom, connection, and collective possibility. Recorded live at the 2026 Tessitura Learning and Community Conference, this conversation explores what it means for arts organizations to be true civic partners. Bamuthi and Monica talk about collective joy, why "budgets are moral documents," the idea of using the arts for non-arts outcomes, and what becomes possible when institutions see themselves not just as producers of shows, but as producers of culture and inspiration. Along the way, Bamuthi reflects on the evolution of his own practice, the role of artists as "edge setters," the grief and resilience that have shaped his recent work, and why—at a moment when inspiration can feel scarce—he still finds hope in the artists and arts leaders who keep choosing this field.
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