Brett Crawford
Associate Teaching Professor | Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES
Brett Crawford has presented lectures and workshops on marketing, audience engagement, audience development, business models and methods.
Biography
Dr. Crawford has worked extensively as a professional arts manager, primarily in theatre, and as a professor in both arts management and theatre history. The highlights of her private sector work include serving as Managing Director of three institutions: Imagination Stage, an arts education and professional theatre located in Bethesda, MD, Rep Stage in Columbia, MD, and St. Bart’s Plahouse in New York City. She also served as the production manager for the Horowitz Center for the Arts in Columbia, MD and as a stage manager for over 100 productions across the US. She is a member of Actors Equity Association. She has held myriad independent management, marketing and consulting engagements in theatre, film, and arts festival work in PA, NY, GA, TN, TX, and MD.
Her academic areas of specialization include creative theories, marketing, audience engagement, strategy and management systems, technology and the arts, and the history of American theatre. She co-authored Raising the Curtain: Technology Success Stories from Performing Arts Leaders and Artists (Wiley, 2024). Current research and pending publications include a monograph on Nonprofit Entrepreneurial Leadership (under review), contemporary interventions of transformational digital technologies in the arts, and a history of women producers on Broadway from 1900 to present.
She currently serves as the executive director for the Arts Management and Technology Laboratory, a Research Center in Heinz College. AMT Lab serves the field through active research and engagement into the technology solutions artists and institutions are utilizing in their workdays and public programs. Recent national research studies include Using Artificial Intelligence to Increase Engagement with Public Art and Emerging Digital Pathways for Fundraising.
She has presented invited lectures and workshops across the United States and internationally on marketing, audience engagement, audience development, business models and methods, technology and the arts, and production management to audiences including guests of the Department of State, Arts Presenters, the University of Helsinki, and the Center for Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Transformative Consumer Research.
Prior to coming to CMU, she served as an assistant professor and program director of the graduate Arts Management program at American University.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Arts Management
Audience Engagement
Technology and the Arts
Strategy and Management Systems
Creative Theories
History of American Theatre
Media Appearances (6)
DOGE cuts at National Endowment for the Humanities hit Carnegie Museums, Phipps and more
WESA radio
2025-04-17
This article examines the cuts to the National Endowment of Humanities (NEH) in Washington and the impact in Pittsburgh. NEH has given $3.5M over the last five years to local entities including CMU. "There is a lot of pain” including “a sense of loss and grief,” said Brett Crawford (Heinz College).
New book offers guidance to those in the performing arts on how to use technology to achieve success
EurekAlert! online
2024-03-13
“Getting to opening night requires managing people, money, and materials,” says Crawford, associate teaching professor of arts management at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the faculty chair of the arts management and entertainment industry management programs, jointly delivered with the College of Fine Arts. “Great art requires a great business model that includes using technology in smart ways.”
As the Warhol looks to branch out with Pop District, critics say it threatens museum’s mission
90.5 WESA radio
2023-12-18
Of the Warhol, she added, “The fact that they’re thinking about it more than just in terms of what the pre-pandemic tools were in the toolbox is really smart.” Brett Crawford, a professor of arts management at CMU’s Heinz College, agreed. “Increasingly, museums want not to be seen as a preservation space but as a community collaborator and partner,” Crawford said.
Is AI-Generated Business Video Ready for Prime Time?
InformationWeek online
2023-05-30
AI-created video is burdened with many of the same issues that afflict other types of AI-generated content. The two most important drawbacks are related to how, and on what platform, the AI technology was trained on, says Brett Crawford, associate teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. “Due to systemic racism, AI often generates insensitive, biased, and even racist or misogynistic content,” she warns.
[Spotlight] CMU students help ELDI evaluate the feasibility of an artist residency program in Sts. Peter and Paul Church
East Liberty Development online
2023-03-06
“I think one of the big pieces that none of us knew was how many actual artists are living in the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh and how great of an impact an arts residency opportunity could have,” said Dr. Brett Ashley Crawford, associate teaching professor for the MAM program.
Pittsburgh performance troupes still face pandemic challenges
90.5 WESA radio
2022-07-11
Arts attendance is down 10 or 20 percent nationally, said Brett Crawford, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of arts management.
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Industry Expertise (1)
Performing Arts
Education (3)
University of Maryland: Ph.D., Theatre, History, Criticism, Women's Studies 2000
Texas Tech University: MFA, Theatre Management 1992
Northwestern University: B.S., Theatre Arts 1987
Links (5)
Languages (2)
- English
- French
Articles (1)
Maxine Elliott: An actress-producer with cultural savvy and money on her mind
University of Maryland, College Park ProQuest Dissertations & Theses2001
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