Living Arts Names Laura Scales As New Executive Director

The native Metro Detroiter and Michigan State University faculty member was selected to lead the arts education nonprofit.

Living Arts announced today it has named Laura Scales as its new executive director to lead the Detroit-based arts education 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Starting June 1, 2021, Scales will carry out the organization’s mission to ignite creativity in the lives of Detroit youth through the performing, visual and media arts.

Scales is a lifelong supporter of the arts and has worked in professional stage and production management the past 17 years. Scales currently serves as an academic specialist faculty member at Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre. Before joining MSU, she served as the production manager for the Theater and Performance Studies Program as well as the Chicago Performance Lab at the University of Chicago. As a Metro Detroit native, Scales said she’s excited to return home to lead an arts organization that values diversity, equity and inclusion and provides artistic opportunities for youth.

Over the past 20 years, Living Arts’ 40 teaching artists have partnered with schools, organizations and communities to deliver high quality arts education experiences to Detroit youth ages 3 months to 18 years. Coming out of the pandemic, Scales said it will be more important than ever for these students to have creative outlets.

“Having been through this year, I can’t imagine going through it as a young person,” she said. “We’re here to help them process this year and to unpack it through art and expression. I want them to dance it out and draw it out. I want them to write about it, to sing about it, to illustrate it, and I think Living Arts is uniquely qualified to help students do that — not just in Southwest Detroit but across the metropolitan area.”

Living Arts formed a search committee of parents, teaching artists, staff and board members and partnered with Koya Leadership Partners to assist with recruitment. The community-led effort included support from The Kresge Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The five-month long hiring process resulted in a competitive pool of diverse and qualified candidates. 

Living Arts Board Chair Matt Nahan said Scales emerged from the candidate pool as a perfect fit. “As an artist, small business owner and production manager, Laura's transferable skills lay the ideal foundation for an arts executive. Her experience managing, budgeting and working closely with artists, producers and institutional stakeholders to bring creative vision to life on stage and in schools makes her the ideal person to lead the next phase of Living Arts.”

Scales earned her bachelor’s degree at The Theatre School at DePaul University. While in Chicago, Scales served as the production manager for Emerald City Theatre Company, where she oversaw the mainstage and touring productions. She was the production management apprentice at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Her stage management highlights include roles as the resident stage manager at the Dorset Theater Festival in Vermont and stage manager for the Human Festival in Chicago.

Former Living Arts Executive Director Alissa Novoselick said Scales is the right leader to take the Living Arts to new heights. “I look forward to watching and supporting her vision to elevate the transformational role that the arts play in young people's lives,” Novoselick said.

Living Arts is supported by a $1.1 million budget, thanks to individual, corporate, and foundation partners, and was named the 2019 Best-Managed Nonprofit by Crain’s Detroit. Scales said she’s inheriting a strong nonprofit and is grateful to the leaders who laid the foundation. 

“My hope is that we can be a destination for arts education, and that we can get our quality programming and expertise from our teaching artists into classrooms and homes,” she said. “Even if they’re not actively pursuing art on a daily basis, we want to encourage students, parents and the community to live through art.” 

For media inquiries contact Living Arts Board Chair Matt Nahan at boardpresident@livingartsdetroit.org.