Colleen Houston Email & Phone Number

As CEO & Artistic Director at ArtWorks, Colleen leads a 28-year-old award-winning arts nonprofit that employs artists and youth apprentices to work on transformative community public art across greater Cincinnati. ArtWorks actively partners across the region with neighborhood change-agents and civic leaders bringing art to all, elevating civic pride and quality of life for residents and those who visit. ArtWorks’ budget is $3.4 million with 24 full time staff and 300+ seasonally employed artists. Over 2 million is paid to artists in salaries annually and all artists and youth apprentices are paid a living wage. ArtWorks is a critical part of arts landscape and local economy investing in transforming the region to be a vibrant, welcoming, and inclusive place to live.As CEO, Colleen moved ArtWorks headquarters to Walnut Hills, a culturally diverse neighborhood, positioning ArtWorks at the forefront of a new burgeoning arts district. In Walnut Hills, Colleen opened the V2 Gallery, the only gallery in the region supporting youth and emerging artists towards their first group exhibit. She led the organization's first ever capital campaign raising $11.7 Million to purchase and renovate vacant property and a historic building, now transformed into a creative campus. Colleen has prioritized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by creating board approved plans and publishing key performance indicators that are moving the organization forward, including key shifts in leadership composition for the ArtWorks Staff and Board of Trustees. She has been highly focused on company culture and recognition for staff, increasing salary, benefits and focusing on policies, earning community wide recognition including a Silver award for inclusive workplace from Ellequate and a 2023 Inclusive Culture Award from Leadership Council for Nonprofits, and she signed the Hamilton County Pay Equity Pledge to her commitment to close the gender wage gap.

Colleen served as a senior executive and external officer, overseeing a department of 9 team members, developing public and private partnerships with communities, corporations, nonprofits and local institutions to create award winning and dynamic youth-focused public art programming, averaging 30 major projects annually. She served on the planning committee for BLINK, one of the largest light, art and projection mapping events in the nation and helped produce the magical community light parade showcasing the creativity of over 3000 community members and 45 light installations for local, regional and international artists.

Responsible for the oversight of three areas of dynamic programming within the organization that dramatically changed and impacted Greater Cincinnati by improving the cultural and economic vibrancy of the region: - ArtWorks ArtRx: connected art with healthcare environments and individual patients, their families, and healthcare professionals, impacting the lives of 1000+ children and families; 250 works of art created each year. - ArtWorks Public Art: created innovative and inspiring works of public art that transformed the Greater Cincinnati Area into a gallery while providing job opportunities for youth and professional artists with over 100 existing works of permanent public art and over 2500 artists employed. - ArtWorks Creative Enterprise: Supported 72 creative entrepreneurs with training through CO.STARTERS and mentorship through Big Pitch, helping to launching 10 businesses annually and infusing capital to grow creative businesses.

In this role Colleen oversaw the development of 20 major projects annually, employing 175 artists with a team of two full time employees. Colleen influenced the shift in programming towards public art outcomes and launched the highly successful ArtWorks mural program in 2007 in partnership with the City and Mayor, painting 57 public murals in 32 Cincinnati neighborhoods and 5 nearby cities. She also launched SpringBoard program at ArtWorks, a business planning and development program for artists, artisans, and creative entrepreneurs.

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Social And Public Art

Cincinnati Usa Regional Chamber

Mayerson Academy

Racial Equity Institute

Leadership Council For Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Leadership Training Institute Of Greater Cincinnati