Lynne McCormack

Background

About Lynne McCormack

I’ve worked at the intersection of arts, culture, racial equity, and community development for over 25 years. I joined Rhode Island State Council on the Arts as the executive director in July 2022 where I lead an incredible team of program staff, in the process of re-imagining the roles and responsibilities of a state arts agency. Prior to this appointment, I was the national program director for creative placemaking at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), leading the integration of arts and culture into community development. Here, I worked across the LISC network to bring technical assistance, financial resources, and program support to local offices in order to build capacity to build inclusive arts and culture opportunities in LISC neighborhoods. During my tenure, over 30 million dollars in LISC real estate lending resources were leveraged toward cultural resource development including cultural facilities, artist housing, and neighborhood infrastructure. I also directed and designed the Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Program, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), that provided learning resources, direct technical assistance, and peer learning opportunities to Our Town Grant recipients. Prior to joining LISC, I served as director of art, culture + tourism in the city of Providence. During my 17 year tenure in city government I worked with five mayors and completed the city’s first comprehensive cultural plan in 2009. And collaborating with incredible colleagues across city government, I forged partnerships that resulted in a summer youth workforce development program, zoning changes, numerous creative placemaking grants, destination arts & music festivals, and increased funding for artists, designers, and organizations through Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), transit, and economic development funds. Over the years I’ve worked closely with Americans for the Arts and The U.S. Conference of Mayor’s on arts advocacy. My work has been recognized by arts, tourism, and social justice organizations. A trained video artist, I earned my BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and continue to employ creative practice and design-based thinking in my work.