Kristin Patton, Research and Consulting Partner (she/they) is Founder and Lead Facilitator of Ensemble Consulting. At critical inflection points, Ensemble Consulting meets arts organizations where they are and catalyzes desired transformation through collaborative design, effective and inclusive group process, and expert project management. Specialties include organization development, re-envisioning governance, and strategic thinking and planning. Kristin grew up in a theater family. Highly formative was experiencing as a child actor the “greater than the sum of our parts” alchemy that transpires when ensemble theater making is well supported. Even more formative was observing the difference an excellent stage manager makes in creating the conditions and holding the space in which artistic transformation can happen. Kristin’s first calling was as stage manager for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and OSF/Portland, Portland Repertory, Portland Opera, the Clarence Brown, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Performing Arts Chicago, and BAM. Expanding the definition of stage to include whole organizations, Kristin brought the stage manager’s toolkit to the nonprofit, philanthropic, and corporate sectors. Prior to founding Ensemble Consulting, Kristin served as longtime board Secretary and Arts Program Consultant of Woods Fund of Chicago and as Vice President and Secretary of investment firm SMCO, Inc, where she provided leadership in corporate governance, client relations, operations management, and strategic planning. Kristin holds an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is certified in Group Process Facilitation through DePaul University, and is a DEI Facilitator with the Nova Collective. kristin@ensembleconsulting.org 

 

Nick Rabkin, Research and Consulting Partner (he/him) is Principal at reMaking Culture, a consulting, research, evaluation, and planning practice focused on arts education, cultural philanthropy and policy, and innovation and engagement in the arts. Nick spent four exciting years as the executive director of Chicago’s Organic Theater Company, a pioneering ensemble grounded in improvisation and original work, that produced some of the most iconic shows in Chicago’s storied theater history. He left Organic to become Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first Black mayor. He moved on to the MacArthur Foundation, where he was the senior program officer for the arts and culture. He developed research chops as director of the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago and as a senior research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. He was on the teams that developed Chicago’s first cultural plan (1986) and its second (2012). He led a team for Slover Linett Audience Research, where he is a fellow, that helped Cornell University develop a plan for the arts. Another recent project developed a music program for immigrant children in a Chicago church. His writing includes Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century; Teaching Artists and the Future of Education; and studies and reports for clients including the Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. nickrabkin@gmail.com 

 

Logan Jones, Project and Data Manager and Graphic Designer (he/they), is Associate Facilitator of Ensemble Consulting and Managing Director of About Face Theatre. Logan has frequently collaborated with multiple theatre companies while utilizing his artistic and technical skills, impressive organizational capabilities, and highly collaborative working style. He has worked with Ensemble Consulting as Facilitator and Project Manager on various leadership transitions and organizational development projects since 2015. As a stage manager and production manager, he has helmed multiple productions for About Face Theatre, American Theater Company, The House Theatre of Chicago, Windy City Playhouse, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 13Exp, and the American Music Theatre Project, among others. Logan has a BA in Theatre and BA in Modern Languages from Kansas State University and is a graduate of the Axelson Center Bootcamp for Nonprofit CEOs at North Park University.