About: Rory MacPherson

Rory MacPherson brings nearly twenty-five years of experience in the nonprofit arts field to Trudel | MacPherson. Complementing Rory’s broad knowledge of diverse arts disciplines is his in-depth expertise in planning, developing and assessing strategies for building participation in the arts. In the last five years he also has helped develop and document collaborative, city-wide efforts to expand and improve arts education for young people. Rory has managed national grants programs, overseen consulting contracts, organized and operated professional conferences and coached numerous arts professionals about effective practices to increase cultural participation.

Prior to commencing his consulting work in 2010, Rory was a member of the Arts Program staff at The Wallace Foundation for almost 20 years and was Senior Program Officer for nine years. His contributions there included designing, implementing and monitoring the Foundation’s grant programs for arts organizations and state arts agencies, and guiding research and communications strategies built around those sets of investments. He co-managed the Foundation’s two programs supporting efforts to build participation in the arts, the Wallace Excellence Awards and the Arts for Young People Initiative.

Before joining The Wallace Foundation, Rory was an arts writer and editor, serving as arts and music editor of FAD Magazine, contributing editor for Pronto Magazine and, during his tenure as assistant to the director of the NEXT WAVE Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), he was associate editor of On the NEXT WAVE Magazine and contributing editor for the NEXT WAVE Festival Journal.

Rory serves as a member of several advisory committees for national arts efforts including the New York Steering Committee of the National Arts Marketing Project of the Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group’s Theatre Facts Advisory Committee. Rory has also worked professionally as a musician and radio announcer and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Siena College, Loudonville, NY. He was a winner of a New York State Regents Scholarship.

 

Learn more:

• Read about our other principal, Mary Trudel.
• Find out more about our collaborators.
• Read testimonials about our work.