Kate D. Levin oversees the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts program, supporting a range of organizations and activities in the United States and around the world. Current initiatives include management training, public art, and digital technology. She is also a principal at Bloomberg Associates in Cultural Assets Management. Client cities have included Athens, Bogotá, London, Nashville, Newark, and Oakland. Opening Chautauqua’s week on “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” Levin will share work being done through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts program, demonstrating the extraordinary power of art and culture as a form of civic glue.

From 2002 to 2013, Levin served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Managing the largest single arts funder in the United States, she increased support for cultural organizations, and expanded creative sector participation in economic development, tourism, human service, and education initiatives. During her tenure capital funding recipients tripled, while agency-sponsored technology and capacity building projects strengthened non-profit leadership. Levin oversaw the city’s permanent public art commissioning program, and helped develop and promote numerous temporary exhibitions and performances.

The inaugural fellow at the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University and a former professor of English at City College/CUNY, Levin also served in the administration of New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

This program is made possible by The Eleanor Fund Lectureship Endowment.

Deborah F. Rutter is an internationally respected nonprofit executive with nearly five decades of leadership at premier cultural institutions. From 2014 to 2025, she served as the first female president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — the nation’s preeminent cultural center — where she led a period of transformative growth while centering artists in all aspects of the institution’s work. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week exploring “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” by considering what it means to uplift the arts through the work and investment of a cultural center for all of America and all of her peoples.

During her tenure at the Kennedy Center, Rutter expanded the institution’s artistic and educational programming across genres and audiences, developed an innovative exploration of arts and well-being in collaboration with National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts, and established the Hip Hop Culture Council to create new pathways and deepen public knowledge of hip-hop. Notably, she led the planning, design, construction and celebrated 16-day opening festival of the Kennedy Center’s first physical expansion — The REACH — encompassing 72,000 sq. ft. of indoor space and 130,000 sq. ft. outdoor green space to accommodate an increased number of festivals, exhibitions and community impact initiatives.

Rutter began her career at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and went on to lead such esteemed cultural institutions as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. A pianist and violinist, Rutter earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

This program is made possible by The Helen S. and Merrill L. Bank Lectureship and The Dr. Robert R. Hesse Lectureship.