Former Director, SNAAP
Sally Gaskill
“It has been the crowning achievement of my career in the arts to steer the development of SNAAP over its first dozen years. From the earliest days of figuring out how to launch an online survey of arts alumni to ultimately working with over 300 colleges, universities, and arts high schools – it’s been a laboratory of learning for sure. I’m grateful to my longtime colleagues at Indiana University and to the SNAAP board of directors. It would be hard to find a finer group of dedicated leaders.”
Sally Gaskill is an arts administrator who has worked in leadership positions in the arts for four decades. From 2008 to 2021, she focused on the arts in higher education by serving the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) at Indiana University as Director (2012 – 2018), Consulting Director (2018 – 2021), and Associate Director (2008 – 2012).
Prior, she led the local arts councils in Bloomington, Ind. and Rochester, NY and worked as a grantmaker for the state arts council in New Hampshire and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. As a consultant, she developed cultural plans for communities nationwide and evaluated over 100 nonprofit arts organizations as a site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has taught cultural policy for the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and Indiana University. Memorable independent projects include working with John Cage for Harvard University and with a group of eight composers and the estate of Kurt Vonnegut to create the Vonnegut: Requiem, a choral work.
Sally is a musician and sings with Voces Novae, a chamber choir. In her so-called retirement she serves as President of Voces Novae, as well as a board member of Constellation Stage + Screen, Bloomington Rotary, and the Black Ancestors Awareness Campaign of Weston, MO. She serves as the Indiana representative of the Creative States Coalition and works on arts advocacy strategies with other arts leaders in the state.
She earned a B.A. in history from Colorado College and an M.A. in arts management from American University.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Arts and Design Alumni
The authors of this report, Dr. Rachel Skaggs, Dr. Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard and Dr. Jeff Barbee, provide insight into arts and design graduates whose work is — or before the pandemic was — in the arts, design, or creative realm by examining their working lives, economic lives, and the skills that they needed to attain or update during the first two years of the pandemic in the United States. This report was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
