Kate Keeney

Kate Preston Keeney is an arts and nonprofit management scholar and former arts administrator. Her research interests bridge arts management and nonprofit management scholarship with a specific focus on cultural policy, leadership, and organizations. Prior to her appointment at the University of Maryland, Keeney served as Associate Professor and Program Director of Arts Management at the College of Charleston. 

Dr. Keeney is a consulting editor for the Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, Cultural Trends, and is a board member of the international scholarly society, Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts (STP&A). Keeney especially enjoys collaborating with others in interdisciplinary work. Current collaborative research projects include place-based arts branding, program design in the arts, entrepreneurial arts leadership, and arts access afforded by the nonprofit status. 

Previous professional positions include long-range strategic planning and managing the construction of the $100 million Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. Additionally, Keeney has held positions with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Americans for the Arts, the Cathedral Choral Society, and the New York Philharmonic, and served as the second vice president for the South Carolina Arts Alliance.
 

Education/Training
Ph.D., Public Administration and Public Affairs, Virginia Tech
Certificate, Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organization Management, Virginia Tech
M.A., Arts Management, American University
B.M., Viola Performance, James Madison University
 

Areas of Specialization/Interest:
Arts and Nonprofit Management 
Arts Management Pedagogy 
Cultural Policy
Governance and Leadership
Organizations
Qualitative Research Methods
 

Representative Publications

• Keeney, K., Jung, Y., Marschall, Z. and Hawk, G. Public Benefit or Private Gain? A Comparative Analysis of Administrative Pr”actices in Nonprofit Art Museums.” Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 2025.
• Wu, H.C., and Keeney, K. "Advancing a Multi-Actor Model of Artist-in-Residence Practice." Cultural Trends, vol. 1, no. 17, 2024.
• Jung, Y., and Keeney, K. "Mapping Organizational Theories in Arts and Cultural Management Research." In The Oxford Handbook of Arts and Cultural Management, edited by Y. Jung, N. Vakharia, and M. Vecco, Oxford University Press, 2023.
• DeVereaux, C., and Keeney, K. "Conceptualizing Benefit as a Standard Unit of Measure for Third Sector Arts Organizations." Culture and Local Governance, vol. 8, no. 1, 2023.
• Jung, Y., and Keeney, K. "Hidden in Plain Sight: Systems Intelligence in Arts Leadership." Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 2022.
• Wu, H., Burgess, C., and Keeney, K. "The Role of Artists as Co-Creators in Advancing Climate Adaptation Strategies at the Local Level." Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, 2022.
• Keeney, K. "Employing Service-Learning to Reinforce Effective Program Theory in the Arts." Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 328-343, 2019.
• Keeney, K. "Reimagining the University Performing Arts Center in an Era of Competition and Globalization." American Journal of Arts Management, vol. 7, no. 1, 2019.
• Jung, Y., and Keeney, K. "Global Arts Leadership: An Exploration of Professional Standards and Demands in Arts Management." Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 227-242, 2018.