2-6-2024
C
hristina L. Beatty is a cultural planner and producer whose deeply collaborative practice is informed by a wealth of experience across the public and nonprofit spheres. Through work in arts administration, strategic management, fundraising, legislative affairs, and community and youth development, she has honed the ability to cultivate cross-sector relationships, developing and implementing strategies for programmatic and organizational success.
Christina currently serves as Project Director for the Freedom Center of Oklahoma City. In this role, she leads efforts to restore the historic Freedom Center building, the 40+ year home of Oklahoma City’s NAACP Youth Council. Christina also leads planning for the forthcoming $26.8 million Clara Luper Civil Rights Center campus, a MAPS 4 project. Before joining the Freedom Center, she served as Manager of Public Programs and Community Engagement for Oklahoma Contemporary. There she created and executed a new vision for expanded public program offerings as Oklahoma Contemporary transitioned to its new, state of the art campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previously, Christina served as Community Arts Director for the Oklahoma Arts Council, managing a portfolio of approximately $1.6 million in grants annually to over 150 grantees producing arts performances, exhibitions, and festivals statewide. She also facilitated the agency’s Cultural District Initiative, supporting communities of all sizes to leverage arts and cultural assets for community development, and managed the Oklahoma Performing Artist Roster and Oklahoma’s New and Emerging Arts Leaders Network.
Past experience includes roles with the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life Initiative, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area and Great Migration Centennial campaigns. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Oklahoma City Black Justice Fund, and completed the Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship.
Christina holds a Master of Arts in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Managerial Studies from Rice University. A fifth generation Oklahoman, she is passionate about the role that art, design and authentic cultural expression can play in illuminating our complex histories and contemporary realities. (349)
Chair of the Day
Janet Vernon
