Kendra Whitlock Ingram named President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

KENDRA WHITLOCK INGRAM

 First person of color to hold title in organization’s 38-year history

Everyone knows just how much Pittsburgh loves the arts.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is the heartbeat of said arts, and theater, so when Kevin McMahon, the CEO of the Trust, announced his retirement after 20 years at the helm, the city had its eyes affixed on who next would occupy such a coveted seat.

The search is over. Complete. And the New Pittsburgh Courier has learned it’s a Black woman who rose to the top.

Kendra Whitlock Ingram has been named President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Her first day is Feb. 1, 2023. She’s the second female and first person of color to hold the title of President and CEO for the Trust. Ingram told the Courier in an interview, Nov. 2, that she identifies as a biracial Black woman.

Ingram is coming from Milwaukee, where she is the President and CEO of the Marcus Performing Arts Center. But she’s not new to Pittsburgh. The Scranton native told the Courier about how impressed she was with Duquesne University’s “pitch” to her about attending the university while she was in high school.

“Duquesne came to my high school and talked about the school of music there,” Ingram said. “I was planning to teach either elementary or high school music. My mom was an art teacher all of her career, my dad was a social worker, and I had an interest in that kind of service work, and I loved music.”

But coming to the big city also exposed Ingram to the 14-block area that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust encompasses, complete with the Benedum Center, Heinz Hall, Byham Theater, and more.

3-TIME GRAMMY®-WINNING SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR WILL BE PLAYING AT THE BYHAM THEATER, NOV. 22.

“If I didn’t go to Duquesne and went to a school that was in a more rural area, I don’t know if I’d be in this business now,” Ingram told the Courier. “So it was a real gift and opportunity, and fortunate that it all worked out.”

Ingram, who earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Duquesne and an MBA from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, attended performances at the Benedum and Byham, and was also fascinated at how the Trust took an area of Downtown Pittsburgh which didn’t have the greatest reputation some 30 years ago and turned it into a destination spot for the arts.

“One of the things that Pittsburghers don’t always know about the Cultural Trust is that we in the performing arts industry see the Cultural Trust as one of the great success stories in the arts and culture ecosystem,” she said. “The revitalization of Downtown and the diversity of programming that they’ve brought to Pittsburgh is something we all strive to do.”

Prior to her work at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, Ingram served as Executive Director of the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver, and Vice President of Programming and Education at the Omaha Performing Arts Center. Ingram also held leadership roles with the Shenandoah Conservatory, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Tulsa Philharmonic.

Ingram serves on the Board of Governors for The Broadway League as well as the Board of Directors for Arts Midwest, National Arts Strategies, LACNA Foundation, and Black Arts MKE, according to a release from the Trust. Last year, Ingram was named to the Milwaukee Biz Times Minority Executives List and this year, was an honoree for the Milwaukee Business Journal’s “Women of Influence.”

Milwaukee is significantly more diverse than Pittsburgh. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Milwaukee has a nearly 39 percent Black population, nearly 16 percent more than Pittsburgh. And the Hispanic or Latino community represents 19 percent of Milwaukee’s makeup; in Pittsburgh, the number is 3.4 percent.

“It’s a really interesting thing in Milwaukee…our mayor, our county executive and our county board chairwoman are all young, Black, under the age of 40 and doing an amazing job here,” Ingram told the Courier. “So, really engaging with that community, our elected officials…and really understanding what this community wanted was a big thing (for the Marcus Center).”

When Ingram was named President and CEO of the Marcus Center, she was the first female leader and first woman of color in the position. Ingram said she made sure the Marcus Center “reflected the diversity of the community, and how do we do that? We do that by the person in the CEO role, people on our board, people working in our staff positions and most importantly, the artists that we have on our stages.”

Ingram said that during her interview process with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Board, they had very “compelling language about how they want to be an anti-racist organization and the most inclusive organization that they can be, and that was really compelling to me, especially coming from an organization who was really committed to that (in Milwaukee). I was also very direct with the Board in the interview process that these values are also really important to me, not only as a leader, but also personally, and those values would carry over into my leadership of the organization.”

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Board Chair Richard Harshman said in a statement that “Kendra’s boundless enthusiasm and breadth of experience managing a broad range of art forms have made her the number one choice to lead the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust at this important time in its history. There are so many exciting Trust projects launching now and on the horizon for which she is uniquely suited. We look forward to welcoming Kendra back to Pittsburgh to help lead the Cultural District as the Trust continues to revitalize Downtown and bring audiences back in large numbers to our theaters, galleries, public art installations, and festivals.”

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