Lisa Donovan is a Professor in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Previously she served as Director of the Creative Arts in Learning Division at Lesley University and Associate Professor. Lisa has broad experience working as an arts educator and administrator in a variety of arts organizations including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Berkshire Opera Company, Barrington Stage Company, Boston University's Theater, Visual Arts and Tanglewood Institutes and University of Massachusetts' Department of Theater. She also served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education.
Lisa has published widely on arts integration and rural arts education. This includes her work as editor/author of a five-book series on arts integration published by Shell Education. Her rural research: Leveraging Change: Increasing Access to Arts Education in Rural Areas was featured by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her latest book, Teacher as Curator, is being published by Teachers College Press.
Lisa is spearheading several projects that foreground the use of the arts as a strategy for regional change—funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Department of Education, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and Barr Foundation. She leads the Creative Compact for Collective Impact and the Berkshire Cultural Asset Network. She serves as Co-Director of the Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network (BRAINworks), and oversees the MCLA Institute for Arts and Humanities.
Lisa was honored with the 2015 Lesley University Sally K. Lenhardt Professional
Leadership Award, the 2016 Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Faculty-Senior Class Faculty Appreciation Award and the 2017 Massachusetts Art Education Association Friend of Arts Education Award. She was voted Best Professor in 2017 as part of the Berkshire Eagle’s Best of the Berkshires competition and was a finalist in the 2018 1Berkshire Trendsetters Award for Creative Economy Standout. Recently, she was selected for the Fulbright Specialist Roster.
She teaches across the country and internationally in Japan.
Let's Connect!
Dr. Lisa Donovan
Professor, Arts Management
Director, MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities
Co-Director, Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network
Fine & Performing Arts Department
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
413.662.5581
375 Church Street
Bowman Hall, Room 322D
North Adams, MA 01247