Chris Kiley has identified as a creative for most of his life. Growing up in Manchester, New Hampshire, Kiley was surrounded by the arts, and after getting involved in his high school's theatre program, he started considering what it might look like to pursue a career in the arts. During his final year in high school, his theatre teacher helped him prepare audition pieces that later gained him acceptance into Elon University in North Carolina where he earned his BFA from the acting program.
What did your life look like after Elon?
Before coming to Texas Tech, I traveled around the country working as a professional actor. I worked at a small theater called The Post Playhouse in Nebraska, and I spent a year working for the Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Orlando, Florida. Eventually, I decided I was tired of living out of a suitcase and moving from contract to contract, so I decided to move to New York City and create a home base there. I lived in New York from late 2010 until I came to Tech towards the end of 2013. While there, I participated in several productions, but I also began to witness some of the cracks in our industry. There was a lot of talent, but because of the nature of the conservatory-style training we receive in our undergraduate years, a lot of us, me included, need to improve our knowledge of the business side of the creative industry. This led me to look for different master's programs specifically geared toward arts administration.
How did you learn about the arts administration program at Texas Tech?
It was serendipitous. Growing up in New Hampshire I had never heard of Texas Tech, but it came onto my radar when I was researching arts administration programs. Not long after, I ran into a friend of mine, another alum of the program, and he was telling me about this amazing program at Tech, which I had just read about just a couple of weeks before. It felt like fate. He then connected me with Dr. Mark Charney and the rest is history. I found out about the program in April, and I moved to Lubbock to begin classes in August of that same year.
How did the program at Texas Tech help fill in those gaps of knowledge you mentioned earlier?
The core curriculum of the arts administration program at Tech is fantastic. The fact that you spend a full semester studying marketing, funding, and management for the arts was exactly what I was looking for. My goal was to gain the skills to help put a company on a good footing so that they could speak a bit longer term about their mission and vision for the work that I hoped to be a part of. While I was not expecting was to take a course called Advocacy for the Arts, it was part of my core requirements before I took some of the other major core classes. During that time, I learned about the unique intersection between public funding for the arts, politics, and the arts. I ended up going to a workshop called Advocacy Leadership and Professional Development, hosted by Texans for the Arts, where I now serve as the Associate Director.
What has your life looked like after graduation?
I never imagined there would be a place I would know so little about and love so much like the city of Austin. And when I graduated in 2016, I moved to Austin and began banging on the door at Texans for the Arts until they were able to hire me part-time. Eventually, I went full-time and later moved to Associate Director in 2019. My day-to-day at TTFA changes depending on the season. Texas has a unique way of legislating in that they only meet every other year to pass laws and policies. During that cycle, my days are very long, spent doing anything from giving testimony at the capitol to having legislative visits with lawmakers on key policy decisions surrounding public investment in the arts. Additionally, our work as a statewide membership organization provides support to our members across the state year-round. Our goal is to have a well-trained, seasoned, passionate local advocate in every of our hundred-fifty legislative representative districts and 31 Senate districts.
Have you enjoyed returning to Texas Tech as an instructor in arts administration?
It has been amazing. The program already has what I would call great bones. It is well-respected and clearly led me to my professional success. I was excited to return to the classroom and impart some of the ideas inspired by my professional career. The best arts administration programs have their instructors and professors rooted in professional practice. It has been such a treat for me to be able to offer whatever insight I may have from my professional practice and bring that back to the classroom to help enhance the academic learning for graduate students. The field is at a unique place in its evolution. The way we consume culture and the way we consume art is changing. The pandemic has shifted the way people think about community and about shared experiences. The arts are uniquely positioned to be an asset as to how we redefine society in this country. I love that I can return to the classroom as an instructor; I always hope to remain a lifelong learner.