Our Biography
We help artists and communities of color build relevance and resilience in a fast-changing world.
From civic engagement and audience development to strategic planning and community-centered programming plans, all of our services are rooted in equity, justice, and anti-racism.
About Bryan
My name is Bryan, I use he/him pronouns, and I am a creative producer, arts marketer, and civic organizer.
I believe that culture matters to everyone, but our institutions don’t serve everyone. We can change that, if we change who we center.
I find joy in connecting communities in bold, creative, and unexpected ways. I started CNTR ARTS to place Black folks, BIPOC folks, Queer folks, and Trans folks at the center of conversations in our world. Together, we can envision a world that is more just and more equitable, designed with all of us in mind.
More about Me
Bryan Joseph Lee (he/him) is a Southern-born Queer Black man who believes in making space for art. He is a creative producer, civic organizer, and the founder of CNTR ARTS, a creative agency that centers artists, activists, and communities of color through artistic producing and strategic consulting.
Most recently, Bryan served as Director of Public Forum at The Public Theater in New York City, where he investigated civic organizing and cultural changemaking at one of the nation's leading off-Broadway theater companies. As an artistic curator, his work centers the experiences of Queer, Trans, and BIPOC communities on stage and in our world. Bryan has also independently produced and programmed several Black Queer artists at venues like La Mama Theater Company and The Shed in New York City. In 2021, Bryan was named a Producer-In-Residence with The Shubert Organization, and is incubating multiple commercial projects with Black Queer artists that defy genre.
Before The Public Theater, Bryan led marketing and communications at Round House Theater, a regional theater company based in Bethesda, MD. There, he oversaw earned revenue and institutional marketing with a specific focus on cultivating diverse audiences through relationship building. During his tenure, Round House increased subscription and single ticket revenue by 51% and achieved the highest-grossing and highest-attended seasons in their 40-year history. Bryan has also worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Prince George's African American Museum, Source Festival, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
As a consultant, Bryan has guided numerous cultural placemaking initiatives around the world, including current city-wide partnerships in New York, NY; Newark, NJ; and Washington DC; and international projects in Alexandria, Egypt and Perth, Australia. Bryan is a frequent speaker on the topics of building relevance and resilience for arts organizations, and has delivered keynote speeches at the PAC Australia Conference in Sydney, and the Creu Cymru Annual Conference in Wales. Through his work, Bryan supports arts organizations and community partners as they develop equity-based strategies for social cohesion and civic development through the arts.
Bryan was a 2018 Global Arts Management Fellow at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, and was named a 2016 Rising Leader of Color by Theater Communications Group (TCG). He holds a degree in International Relations and Theater from Dartmouth College.
Ask Big Questions
Who’s not in the room? And who should be? What conversations are already happening in our communities, and how can we lend our resources to support them?
CNTR ARTS begins every partnership by asking the biggest questions possible—of ourselves, our collaborators, and the ecosystems we serve. We lead by listening, centering the artists, organizers, and cultural workers to whom we hold ourselves accountable.
Connect the Dots
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Our name is a promise: to create a new center in the arts. One that corrects for generations of erasure and exclusion by uplifting the voices of Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Indigenous, and Disabled artists and audiences—and by reminding us that our stories are both deeply specific and universally human.
CNTR ARTS imagines a cultural ecosystem where every organization, regardless of scale or geography, has the tools and courage to build the abundant future our ancestors dreamed of.
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CNTR ARTS stands on the shoulders of artists, organizers, and thinkers who have shown us what it means to create with purpose. We’re guided by people and movements that remind us that culture is a living system—shaped by relationships, not transactions; by process, not product.
We draw insight from organizers, cultural strategists, and systems thinkers whose work bridges art, equity, and social transformation. Writers like adrienne maree brown, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison remind us to lead with imagination. Cultural leaders like Carmen Morgan and The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond remind us to stay accountable. Visionaries like James Baldwin, Angela Davis, and toni cade bambara remind us that the arts are inseparable from the world we’re trying to build.
Our work is emergent, bespoke, and deeply human. Every engagement is shaped by active learning, reflection, and reciprocity—not a formula. Few consultants have had the privilege of working at the local, national, and international level across so many artistic disciplines. That perspective allows us to connect patterns, share lessons, and help our partners see themselves as part of something larger: a global creative movement rooted in possibility.
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Activist and writer adrienne maree brown teaches us that everything is connected—and the small is all. Every story we tell, every policy we write, and every audience we invite reflects the systems we want to transform.
CNTR ARTS helps organizations bridge the gap between their internal mission and the external world, connecting artistic practice to civic purpose. We work alongside teams to design strategies that build relevance, belonging, and trust between cultural institutions and the communities they serve.