Arts Administration Faculty & Staff

Brenda Lee Johnston received her Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management with an emphasis in Dance and a minor in Theatre Arts—Drama from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She held an internship in the Marketing and Public Relations Department at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Following her internship, Brenda filled in during a maternity leave in the Development Department at First Stage Children’s Theater. Her first full-time position was as the Development Manager at Skylight Opera Theatre (now Skylight Music Theatre).  In August 2004, she took on the role of Founding Director of the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center (SMPAC). After six years at SMPAC, she pursued a dual Master’s degree in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University and Innovation and Organization of Culture and the Arts from Universita di Bologna in Italy. Her graduate thesis research was conducted at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History under the guidance of Nina Simon. Her thesis is entitled, “The Roles of Museums in Communities: Social Inclusion & Community Engagement.” She joined the Arts Administration faculty at Butler University after serving as the Executive Director of the Schauer Arts Center and teaching as an adjunct lecturer at UW-Stevens Point. She has performed with Skylight OperaTheatre, Wild Space Dance Company, Katie Sopoci and Michelle DiMeo for DanceWorks Performance Company’s “Art to Art”, Cantare Chorale, and others.

As a child, I taught myself to play piano by reading books. I worked as a collaborative pianist while still in high school, playing for friends in contests, school musicals, local fundraising galas, weddings and church services. After high school, I moved from rural Indiana to the suburbs of Detroit and continued working as a pianist, teacher, conductor, and music director. There, I met my only piano teacher, Dr. José García León (now the Dean of the Yale School of Music). I moved to Connecticut to complete a BA in Music (Piano) under his instruction at the University of New Haven. I was offered a teaching assistantship at the University of Connecticut to support my pursuit of a Ph.D. in Music History & Theory. I continued directing musicals in CT and Canada, and also played for a UConn choir tour in Ecuador.

In 2013, I presented research on my dissertation subject, the Italian composer Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo Respighi (1894–1996) at the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. In 2014, I became that organization’s first President & CEO, filing paperwork to acquire nonprofit status. For the next five years, I served as President, then Artistic Director of WCFH, managing operations and curating and producing all festival events. I secured a research grant to study Olivieri’s scores in Venice, Italy and completed my Ph.D., but I was on a new path as an Arts Administrator. I completed a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Harvard’s extension school and began working as a grant writer for the Boulanger Initiative, the Institute for Composer Diversity, and Conspirare.

In 2017, I moved to Austin, Texas and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin in Music History and Arts Management. In 2020, I became the Managing Director of Golden Hornet, a nonprofit founded by Graham Reynolds and dedicated to reimagining classical music through four innovative new music programs. After shepherding Golden Hornet through the pandemic, I accepted the position of Assistant Professor and Director of Arts Administration at Wagner College in NYC. While there, I authored book chapters with Alika Hope (in _Democracy as Creative Practice_, Routledge) and Rob Deemer (in _A Cultural History of Western Music_, Bloomsbury), and an article for the American Journal of Arts Management. I have presented research at the Women XXI conference in Portugal, Royal College of Music In London, Society for Music Theory, AAAE, among others. In 2024, I moved to Indianapolis and became Professor of Practice in Arts Administration at Butler University’s Jordan College of the Arts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Journal Article:

Brandt, Penny. (2023, Fall). Curating for Diversity: Two Case Studies. In American Journal of Arts Management, 11(3). https://www.artsmanagementjournal.com  

Book Chapters:

Brandt, Penny, and Hope, Alika (2024). Ray of Hope Project. In Democracy as Creative Practice:  Weaving a Culture of Civic Life. Thomas Borrup and Andrew Zitcer, Editors. Routledge.  

Brandt, Penny, and Deemer, Rob (2023). Technologies: Media, Myths, and Movements. In A Cultural History of  Western Music in the Modern Age. William Cheng and Danielle
Fosler-Lussier, Editors. London: Bloomsbury.  

Music:

2019: GAD for drone and percussionist. Traverse City: APAKA Music LLC, 2019.   

Amy graduated from Northern Michigan University with a BS in mathematics and a minor in Computer Science. She worked for 15 years as a computer programmer before staying home with her two children. At Butler, she was previously the administrative assistant for Computer Science and the Faculty Senate before moving to JCA where she is the administrative assistant for the departments of Art and Arts Administration.