Ben Cameron, Program Officer for the Arts of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to speak December 4, 2012

Ben Cameron, one of the leading voices in the arts in the United States will speak on Tuesday, December 4 at the WJCT Public Broadcasting Studios in Jacksonville.

A partnership presentation of the St. Johns Cultural Council and the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, this important arts and culture event will focus on the role of arts and culture in establishing Northeast Florida as a nationally recognized Cultural Tourism destination.

This is a must attend event for staff, board members and key volunteers of arts, culture and heritage organizations and those individuals and businesses interested in cultural philanthropy and sponsorship.  There is  TED Talk by Mr. Cameron on The Power of the Performing Arts available on youtube.

 There will be a meet and greet reception beginning at 6:00 pm with the speech set for 7:00 followed by a question and answer period.

WJCT Studios are next to Everbank Field in Jacksonville.

Ben Cameron

Program Director for the Arts

In 2006, Ben Cameron assumed his current position as Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York, NY. In that capacity, he supervises a $13 million grants program focusing on organizations and artists in the theatre, contemporary dance, jazz and presenting fields.

 Previously, he served for more than 8 years as the Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the American nonprofit professional theater, significantly expanding its programs, membership base and grantmaking activities. Prior roles include his work as Senior Program Officer at the Dayton Hudson Foundation, Manager of Community Relations for Target Stores (supervising its grantmaking program) and four years at the National Endowment for the Arts, including two as Director of the Theater Program.

Mr. Cameron has addressed gatherings of arts communities in Dublin, Ireland; Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; Zwolle, Netherlands; London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland and Montreal, Canada, among other international sites, as well as national gatherings of the theatre, chamber music, dance, and choral music fields in the United States.

He has served on a number of nonprofit boards, including those of the national Arts and Business Council, American Arts Alliance and Grantmakers in the Arts. He has received honorary degrees from DePaul University in Chicago and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, in addition to an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. In 2007, he was one of five recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to his not-for-profit work, he has lectured on theatre aboard both the Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 as an Oxford Lecturer on four separate cruises, has appeared during 13 different seasons as a panelist on the opera quiz feature on the Live from the Metropolitan radio broadcasts from New York, has twice ridden his bicycle from Minneapolis to Chicago to raise money for AIDS relief services, and serves as a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.