Aidan Connolly, Executive Director of Irish Arts Center
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Release Date: 02/12/2026
Baratunde Thurston, Writer, Comedian, and Earthling
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
The future isn’t something that simply happens to us. It’s something we help create through the stories we tell, the technologies we use, and the choices we make about how to live together. Baratunde Thurston has spent his career exploring what that responsibility looks like across comedy, media, civic life, and nature. Again and again, his work returns to a deeply human question: how do we embrace change without surrendering our agency? His latest award-winning project Life with Machines turns this question on technology, exploring how new tech shapes our lives—and how we might shape it...
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Courtney Burke Summers, Chief Marketing Officer of Vivo Performing Arts
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Rebranding a beloved institution requires not only defining what comes next, but building enough trust and shared ownership that both longtime supporters and new audiences see themselves in the future. Courtney Burke Summers recently helped lead the sweeping rebrand of Celebrity Series of Boston into Vivo Performing Arts, launching a new identity designed to better reflect the organization’s role in its community. In this episode, Courtney shares what it took to bring people along through that transformation and why meaningful change can only happen at the “speed of trust.” She also...
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Lisa Yun Lee, Executive Director at National Public Housing Museum
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
What if a museum’s job isn’t simply to preserve history, but to help us imagine a different future? Lisa Yun Lee has spent her career exploring what cultural institutions can make possible when they understand themselves as civic spaces. As Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, she leads an institution created by public housing residents to preserve their own histories, challenge dominant narratives about public housing, and bring arts, culture, and public policy together in the fight for housing as a human right. In this episode, Lisa traces the winding path...
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Kim Jakominich, Senior Director of Brand at Barnes Foundation and Calder Gardens
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
A great exhibition or performance can draw people in, but a strong institutional brand shapes how they understand the experience—and whether they feel invited to return. Kim Jakominich has spent more than 15 years working across publishing, public media, museums, and cultural destinations. Now Chief Brand Officer at the Barnes Foundation and Calder Gardens, she leads an integrated team spanning marketing, communications, publications, design, editorial, and visual resources, helping steward two distinctly different brands while creating a more unified audience experience. In this episode,...
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Ann Morrow Johnson, Global Immersive Experience & Entertainment Leader at Gensler
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
As our attention becomes increasingly fragmented, the value of being fully present together has never been greater. The most memorable experiences go beyond spectacle and create a clear sense of place, invite participation, and give people something meaningful to feel together. Ann Morrow Johnson has spent her career designing those kinds of experiences. After more than a decade at Walt Disney Imagineering, she now co-leads Gensler’s Entertainment practice, applying lessons from theme parks and immersive entertainment to cultural organizations, hospitality, real estate, and other...
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Live from TLCC: Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Spoken Word Artist and Cultural Strategist
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Join Monica Holt for a live recording of Arts Unscripted with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, an internationally acclaimed cultural strategist, spoken word artist, and Chief of Impact at SOZO. Bamuthi has built a singular career at the intersection of creativity, leadership, and social impact—from performing on Broadway and co-founding Youth Speaks to shaping civic and cultural strategy at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Kennedy Center. Throughout it all, he has approached art not simply as expression, but as a tool for freedom, connection, and collective possibility. Recorded live at the 2026...
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Clive Chang, President and CEO of YoungArts (Re-Release)
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Producer's Note: While Arts Unscripted is on summer hiatus, we're re-sharing a few of our favorite episodes from past seasons. Clive was actually the first guest to sit down and chat with Monica. The YoungArts application is open now through October 6th, so it's the perfect time to revisit how Clive thinks about supporting young, multi-disciplinary artists. --- Can legacy arts institutions innovate like start-ups? Clive Chang thinks so. As President and CEO of YoungArts, he’s reimagining how a 40-year-old organization can support today’s multi-disciplinary artists—by questioning...
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Cody Renard Richard, Tony Award-Winning Producer and Stage Manager (Re-Release)
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Producer's Note: While Arts Unscripted is on summer hiatus, we're re-sharing a few of our favorite episodes from past seasons. Cody recently celebrated Tony Award-winning runs with two Broadway productions: Ragtime and CATS: The Jellicle Ball. With CATS set to close on August 8, it's an apt moment to revisit Cody's reflections on the production (and grab tickets while you still can). ----- Great theater starts by creating trusted conditions for talent and creativity to thrive. Cody Renard Richard is a Tony Award-winning producer and stage manager whose career spans Broadway,...
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Carlos Simon, GRAMMY-Nominated Composer, Curator and Activist (Re-Release)
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Producer's Note: While Arts Unscripted is on summer hiatus, we're re-sharing a few of our favorite episodes from past seasons. Carlos Simon is the the inaugural Composer Chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Composer-in-Residence since 2021 at the Kennedy Center. Since we recorded earlier this year, his Good News Mass keeps finding new orchestras and new audiences. With its Midwest premiere on July 31st at Ravinia Music Festival, what better moment to go back and hear how Carlos has built his body of work. ----- Music has the power to move a room. For composer Carlos Simon, that effect...
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Shanta Thake, Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Re-Release)
Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt
Producer's Note: While Arts Unscripted is on summer hiatus, we're re-sharing a few of our favorite episodes from past seasons. Shanta Thake is the vision behind Lincoln Center's free Summer for the City festival happening right now through August 8 in New York. It's a good moment to go back and hear how she thinks about building a season for an entire city, not just a subscriber base. ----- Shanta Thake sees artistic curation as a practice rooted in curiosity and community connection. As the Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Shanta is helping redefine...
info_outlineAidan Connolly knows that institutional growth isn’t just a matter of square footage. It’s a test of values.
As Executive Director of Irish Arts Center in New York City, Aidan is leading the organization through a major expansion and transformation—one that requires not only bold vision, but the discipline to protect what made the institution matter in the first place.
In this episode, Aidan reflects on what it takes to lead values-driven change, how his background in politics shaped his approach to advocacy and stakeholder management, and how arts organizations can become not just presenters of culture, but civic homes for artists and audiences alike.
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LINKS:
Irish Arts Center: https://irishartscenter.org/
WorkLife with Adam Grant: https://adamgrant.net/podcasts/work-life/
The New York Public Library: https://www.nypl.org/
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: https://www.nypl.org/locations/lpa