Russell Willis Taylor has recently completed a two-year engagement with the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where she was interim VP of Arts and Leadership. This work included leading a multi-art form portfolio and helping to expand the Indigenous Arts program and Indigenous Leadership Program at the Banff Centre. Prior to that she was President and CEO of National Arts Strategies from January 2001 to December 2014, and has extensive senior experience in strategic business planning, financial analysis and planning, and all areas of operational management. Educated in England and America, she served as director of development for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art before returning to England in 1984 at the invitation of the English National Opera (ENO) to establish the Company’s first fund-raising department. During this time, she also lectured extensively at graduate programs of arts and business management throughout Britain. From 1997 to 2001, she rejoined the ENO as executive director and oversaw the restoration of the London Coliseum.
Russell has held a wide range of managerial and Board posts in the commercial and nonprofit sectors including the advertising agency DMBB; head of corporate relations at Stoll Moss; director of The Arts Foundation; special advisor to the Heritage and Museums Board, Singapore; chief executive of Year of Opera and Music Theatre; judge for Creative Britons. She received the Garrett Award for an outstanding contribution to the arts in Britain, the only American to be recognized in this way, and served on the boards of A&B (Arts and Business), Cambridge Arts Theatre, Arts Research Digest and the Society of London Theatre. She was part of the founding team with Diana, Princess of Wales, for the National Aids Trust in the UK.
Russell’s work leading or advising cultural institutions includes all art forms: Multi-year partnership between National Arts Strategies and the Getty Museum Leadership program; work with the Metropolitan Museum of Art developing and delivering the first all departmental training initiative; strategic planning work with the British Museum, board member and strategic advisor to the English National Ballet; work with over 60 contemporary art organizations in North America and Europe; work with contemporary music and commissioning organizations; extensive work in theatre and music presentation. Her work in Scotland includes work with the Lothian and Edinburgh Development Council, Scottish Opera, The National Theatre of Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland, Creative Scotland and the Lyceum Theatre.
Russell currently works as a strategic consultant and serves on advisory boards with the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Alyth Development Trust, Hospitalfield Trust, Chair of Fractured Atlas and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Russell was honored with the International Citation of Merit by the International Society for the Performing Arts, presented in recognition of her lifetime achievement and her distinguished service to the performing arts. She has written a number of articles on arts and nonprofit management and policy issues in arts, society and culture, as well as a book on fundraising for museums commissioned by the British Government. In 2018, she and her husband moved to Alyth in Perthshire, Scotland, a beautiful and welcoming town