Lincoln Center's Shanta Thake: Bringing the Arts to NYC Streets

Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) Shanta Thake talks about programming at the intersection of art that speaks to the needs of New York City at this pivotal moment, including bringing blood drives, food donations and health and wellness programs to the Lincoln Center’s campus—with live musical accompaniment. She also discusses the Summer for the City festival with its 300 plus free  or “pay what you will” ticketed events from a Second Line to Mozart’s Requiem, from social dancing to an orchestral tribute to Biggie Smalls. We also talk about the complex scope of her job, expanding on Lincoln Center’s commitment to diversity and innovation as central to all decisions, and her centering the artists themselves in conversations about ways  for LCPA to move forward. Finally, we discuss the continuing influence of her two decades at The Public Theater with its determination to create theater with staff, actors, and audience as diverse as the people who ride New York’s subways.