Six Questions for Judilee Reed, Incoming President and CEO of United States Artists

A few weeks back, United States Artists (USA), the Chicago-based arts funding organization that provides unrestricted support to cultural practitioners, named Judilee Reed as its new president and CEO.

Reed will assume the role in May after serving as the program director for Creative Communities at the William Penn Foundation, where she oversaw the funder’s arts, culture and public spaces grantmaking programs. Prior to her tenure there, Reed led the Thriving Cultures Program at the Surdna Foundation, and served as executive director of the grantmaker Leveraging Investments in Creativity.

At USA, Reed will oversee an organization that has awarded more than $36 million in direct support to over 750 artists since its inception in 2006, primarily through its signature annual fellowship program, which awards $50,000 in unrestricted funds. USA also spearheaded the $25 million COVID relief fund for artists and has recently embarked on new partnerships with Disability Futures (along with Ford and Mellon foundations), Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship (Knight Foundation), and Rainin Artists Fellowship (Rainin Foundation).

I first spoke with Reed almost two years ago while conducting research for IP’s white papers on giving for theater and music, so when USA’s announcement hit my inbox, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to reconnect and see what she has planned. I caught up with Reed as she was bracing for the latest winter storm to hit the East Coast, and we discussed her career trajectory, influences, and why she’s excited about her new job.

What made you decide you wanted to work in the nonprofit sector?

It wasn’t a specific decision. I grew up in New Hampshire, where there were very few big art institutions that I could access, and so a lot of the art that I experienced was by craft artists and musicians whose work was an integral part of a community defined by the land and the people.

Like most folks who enter into four-year art programs in college, I found that those clear divisions between commercial and nonprofit sectors were described through the pedagogy of the school. I thought that when I graduated with a BFA in a degree in art history, it meant that I should be working in a museum or a gallery. Now, when I see the not-for-profit and the commercial and the community settings in which artists’ practices are socially and economically valued, I see it as being fluid by necessity.

So while it was never a conscious choice to work in the not-for-profit sector, it’s where I’ve landed, and I’ve worked to recognize and make those connections across sectors more fluid. It’s a starting point, and hopefully not an ending point.

Who are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences, both professionally and personally, have been artists—specifically those artists who’ve shown me ways of understanding the world through their creative practices.

There are a lot of them to list, but I’ll just name a couple that came right to mind, and that includes choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Ralph Lemon, and a wonderful L.A.-based contemporary artist who’s also a high Buddhist priest named Hirokazu Kosaka. Sonya Kelliher-Combs is an Alaska-based visual artist, and the time that she’s given me to understand her creative practice has had a big influence on how I think about art. I’d also cite Joy Harjo. She’s an incredible poet and musician, but it’s her poetry that really speaks to me. 

These are just a few of the really important artists that have informed how I think about my role in the field of arts and culture. Oftentimes, art is reduced to an object or a final presentation on stage. But in each case, these artists connected me to so much more by offering a view of the world through their perspective.

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the field in the last two years?

I think that there are two big influences—the call for racial justice and the continued impact of COVID. The interesting thing about these two influences is their intersections, as it’s forced philanthropy to think not only about the catastrophic impacts of COVID on people and sectors that we invest in, but also how to respond generously and strategically in a way that advances the goals of racial equity and justice. I don’t think we’ll go back to the way we were doing our work previously.

You’ll be assuming the role of president and CEO of United States Artists in May. What are you most excited about?

What I’m most excited about is just working with an incredibly talented team of people who provide direct support to artists across the country while recognizing the essential role that artists play in communities and beyond. It’s a new perspective on some themes that have been central to my work over the last 10 years, and I felt incredibly fortunate to be able to take on this new perspective and to work with a group of folks who have been doing fantastic work.

What was the last great book you read?

The last great book I read happens to also be the last book I read, and that’s “Gordo: Stories,” by Jaime Cortez. It’s a book that’s situated in a migrant worker community in California. It’s the story of a young boy who comes of age in a family that is both documented and undocumented that works on a farm. It’s just an exquisitely built novel and a wonderful read.

Any parting thoughts?

I’m about to make this leap after working for two important philanthropies over the last 10 years back into the not-for-profit space. The thing that keeps coming back to me as I’m managing this transition is how important it is for philanthropy to make as transparent as possible its work because it makes for better and stronger partnerships between investors and practitioners.

It’s something that foundations have really taken to heart over the last few years, and I think it resonates back to some of these calls for social and racial justice to make power structures more transparent. But as I’m making this transition, I can see it from a very practical lens of what it looks like from the not-for-profit perspective in how to work effectively with philanthropy. And we know that both sides of the ledger have to work well to be successful in fulfilling these goals that seek to improve conditions in a variety of sectors and areas.