staff bios
Randy I. Cohen
Vice President of Local Arts Advancement
Randy Cohen is vice president of the Local Arts Advancement department at Americans for the Arts, the nation's advocacy organization for the arts. Randy is charged with ensuring that every community and arts organization in America is served by a local arts agency—and that every community in America is an environment where the arts can thrive. Combining the strengths of research, advocacy, professional development, and member services, Randy leads a team of 15 who strengthen the nation’s network of 4,000 local arts agencies.
A member of the staff of Americans for the Arts since 1991, Randy is among the most noted experts in the field of arts funding, research, policy, and using the arts to address community development issues. He published the two premiere economic studies of the arts industry—Arts & Economic Prosperity, the national impact study of nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences and Creative Industries, a statistical mapping study of the nation’s 650,000 arts businesses. Randy led the development of the Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, a major initiative launched in 2006 in partnership with Robert Redford and the Sundance Preserve. The Roundtable is an annual convening of national leaders who focus on issues critical to the advancement of American culture. In the late 1990s, Randy collaborated with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities to create Coming Up Taller, the White House report on arts programs for youth-at-risk, and the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the YouthARTS Project, the first national study to statistically document the impact of arts programs on at-risk youth. Randy is a sought after speaker who has given speeches in 48 states, and regularly appears in the news media—including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and on CNN, CNBC, and NPR.
Randy’s background includes working as a policy specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts, founding the San Diego Theatre for Young Audiences and serving as its managing director, and working in medical research for Stanford University and Scripps Clinic. His board work includes the Takoma Park Arts & Humanities Commission, a municipal agency which he chaired for three years. Randy lives with his wife and two children in Takoma Park, MD.
E-mail Randy.