BARNES FOUNDATION NAMES VALERIE V. GAY DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT, CHIEF EXPERIENCE OFFICER
The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has appointed Valerie V. Gay as its new deputy director for audience engagement and chief experience officer. Gay most recently served as executive director of Philadelphia’s Art Sanctuary and has nearly twenty years of experience in nonprofit administration. She will be responsible for expanding the organization’s diversity and inclusion initiatives and will take up the post in April.
“Art Sanctuary has been a community partner of the Barnes for six years, and over that time, I’ve admired its work in public, community, and family programs,” Gay said in a statement. “It’s a great honor to lead these programs, and I look forward to working with my Barnes colleagues toward the goal of deepening our connections with Philadelphia’s diverse, multicultural communities.”
Before joining Art Sanctuary in 2012, Gay served as the assistant dean for institutional advancement and as the director of development and alumni affairs at Temple University’s College of Education. In 2006, she established Fortress Arts Academy, a nonprofit that provides arts and skill-building lessons to children and adults in underserved communities, and in 2017, she cofounded Davis Gay + Associates, a firm providing support for nonprofit and social-venture organizations seeking to solve societal problems. That same year, she helped start EVER Ensemble, a collective of women musicians that performs diverse musical genres, from classical to hip-hop.
Commenting on the new hire, the executive director and president of the foundation, Thom Collins, said: “Val’s background and service to the Philadelphia community align seamlessly with the Barnes’s democratic and inclusive ‘art for all’ philosophy. She will play a crucial role in deepening the Barnes’s connections with our visitors and the community at large, and I look forward to working closely with her to amplify our impact within Philadelphia and beyond.”
