Joy Young, Ph.D., has more than 25 years of experience as a performing artist, arts administrator, and academic. Her 14-year tenure with the South Carolina Arts Commission was highlighted by serving on the executive leadership team as the agency Director of Administration, Human Resources, and Operations. Joy also implemented a variety of programs at the South Carolina Arts Commission to include arts/artist entrepreneurship; nonprofit leadership and organizational development; cultural tourism; statewide conferences and convening; and the AIR Institute. Joy's contribution to the national arts landscape includes service as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, member of Committee for Individual Artists with Grantmakers in the Arts, mentor for the National Association of State Arts Agencies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mentorship Program, and faculty for Creative West’s National Leaders of Color Fellowship Program. She is the national program director for the groundbreaking
ArtsHERE grant program, a collaborative initiative with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other U.S. Regional Arts Organizations. This pilot program aims to expand arts participation in underserved communities nationwide, with a total of
$12.356 million awarded to
112 organizations across the country.Prior to joining South Arts as its Vice President of Programs, Joy served the Executive Director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, a local arts agency, where she increased its grantmaking budget. Amid the COVID pandemic, she developed an artist relief fund which aided struggling artists. Overall, during Joy’s short tenure, she found tremendous success capitalizing on the power of public-private partnerships as a strategy to significantly increase the Cultural Council's reputation and earned revenue.Joy enjoys sharing her experiences from the field in the classroom. As an adjunct faculty member at Winthrop University, Joy prepares arts administrators in the Master of Arts in Arts Administration at Winthrop University to be adaptive leaders. She held adjunct faculty positions at the University of South Carolina and Benedict College. Joy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Arts in Voice Performance, and the Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. Joy has deep experience as an arts leader and in organizational leadership, which informs her research interests in complex adaptive systems leadership and leadership practices in arts organizations.
