PORTLAND, ORE., and NEW YORK CITY: Veteran arts leader Cynthia Fuhrman, currently the managing director of Portland Center Stage, has been appointed vice president, executive search with Tom O’Connor Consulting Group, LLC, a New York City-based consultancy that supports arts institutions and leaders with organizational strategy and executive search. She begins at the job March 21.
Fuhrman has been the managing director of Portland Center Stage since 2017, following tenures as chief operating officer and director of marketing and public relations. She was previously COO of eyescream interactive and held marketing and public relations roles with Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Cynthia was part of the team that brought OSF to Portland in the 1990s, where they would eventually be established as Portland Center Stage.
She serves on the board of Theatre Communications Group, the publisher of American Theatre, as well as on the Save Our Stages steering committee, and was a founding member of the national Professional Non-Profit Theatre Coalition, formed as the COVID pandemic descended to form a strong lobbying collective for support for the arts during the crisis and beyond.
“Cynthia’s experience in executive leadership, her longtime commitment to equity in the arts, and her national contributions to the advancement and resilience of our field make her the ideal person to join us and lead this division,” said O’Connor in a message to clients.
For her part, Fuhrman said in a statement: “My belief in the impact of the arts and the unique role we play in deepening connections and impacting change is something I’ve carried throughout my career. Seeing how people have turned again and again to the arts to weather the isolation and frustrations of the pandemic, and how our sector responded in so many innovative ways to that need, inspired me anew to want to commit to strengthening our capacity to be both the solace providers and the change agents needed right now. Joining the Tom O’Connor Consulting Group gives me the chance to work with a fantastic group of strategists as we support our clients in their goals of building more equitable, responsive and sustainable organizations in service to their communities. I could not be more excited, and grateful for this moment of kismet.”
Founded in 2015, the Tom O’Connor Consulting Group is a fully remote company with team members spanning the country and the globe. Select clients have included Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Carnegie Hall, Cincinnati Opera, Huntington Theatre Company, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Next Chapter Podcasts, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and more.
Portland Center Stage at the Armory is the largest theatre company in Portland and one of the largest regional theatres in the U.S.
