state arts action network
Council
Sally Gaskill
Sally Gaskill is a 25-year veteran of community arts development, with successive leadership positions in both public and private arts agencies.
Since 2000, Ms. Gaskill has led the Bloomington Area Arts Council (BAAC) as its executive director. The BAAC is a regional arts council that supports artists and arts providers in south central Indiana, and owns and manages the John Waldron Arts Center in downtown Bloomington. She has worked to increase programs and services by doubling the staff, and has initiated projects such as One Book One Bloomington, the BAAC Arts Leadership Awards, and a major economic impact study of the nonprofit arts industry.
Ms. Gaskill currently serves as vice president for public policy for the Indiana Advocates for the Arts, a statewide nonprofit organization. She teaches a course on cultural policy for Indiana University's arts administration graduate program. She recently participated in a restructuring of the Indiana Arts Commission’s Regional Arts Partnership program, and serves as a consultant to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
From 1993–2000, Ms. Gaskill served as executive director of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester (NY). While there, she facilitated a regional cultural plan that resulted in strengthening the cultural industry. She established major new initiatives that linked arts to community development, including an arts-based summer jobs program for inner city youth and a neighborhood-based public art program. Under her leadership, the Arts Council received awards from the New York State Alliance of Arts Organizations, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Arts & Business Council. She's also taught for the arts leadership program at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.
Her career began as a grantmaker for two public agencies: the National Endowment for the Humanities (1978–1982) and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts (1983–1985). She learned management skills as executive director of an orchestra in Boston (1985–1988), and subsequently as an arts consultant for Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many local and state arts agencies throughout the country as a senior consultant with ArtsMarket Consulting (1988–1992).
Ms. Gaskill earned an M.A. in arts management from American University (1984) and a B.A. in history from Colorado College (1976). She lives in Bloomington, IN, with her family. She is a musician and a member of the Bloomington Chamber Singers.
