staff bios
Randy I. Cohen
Vice President of Policy and Research
Randy Cohen is vice president of Policy and Research at Americans for the Arts—the national organization advancing the arts in America—where he has directed research and arts policy information initiatives since 1991. Randy produced the two benchmark economic studies of the U.S. arts industry—Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts, a research and mapping study of the nation’s arts businesses using Dun & Bradstreet data; and Arts & Economic Prosperity, the most comprehensive economic impact study of nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences ever conducted. He established the Institute for Community Development and the Arts, which researches and publishes how the arts address social, educational, and economic development issues; edits the award-winning Monograph series; and publishes numerous reports about local arts agencies, united arts funds, arts education, and public- and private-sector support for the arts. Randy worked in partnership with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities to produce Coming Up Taller—the White House report documenting 225 arts programs for at-risk youth—and with the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the YouthARTS Project, the first national study to statistically document the impact of arts programs on at-risk youth. Randy is a spokesman for Americans for the Arts on arts research and policy issues. He has given speeches in 47 states and regularly appears in arts news stories in publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as on television on the BBC and CNN networks.
Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, Randy worked as a policy and planning specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts; founded the San Diego Theatre for Young Audiences and served as its managing director; and worked in medical research for Stanford and Scripps Clinic. Randy is immediate past chairman of the Takoma Park Arts & Humanities Commission, a municipal cultural agency in Maryland.
E-mail Randy.
