News

Meet This Year’s MCI Adjudicators

By Hal Partlow, Associate Director of Grants —
On March 28, we kick off our annual grant review panels beginning with Tennessee’s Major Cultural Institutions (MCI). We are pleased to welcome our MCI adjudicators, national arts leaders Anita Walker and Todd Lowe. We are grateful to have their expertise and appreciate the time they are giving to Tennessee. 

Anita WalkerAnita Walker
As Executive Director for the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) since 2007, Anita’s leadership has seen the state make vast improvements for creative nonprofits, cultural tourism, Creative Placemaking and arts education. Anita is the Commonwealth’s highest ranking cultural official, overseeing a range of grant programs, services and advocacy for the arts, humanities and sciences in communities across Massachusetts. She has led advocacy for the MA Cultural Facilities Fund, which has invested $82 million in arts and cultural building projects statewide over eight years. Anita also launched MCC’s Cultural Districts Initiative to help cities and towns attract new visitors and commerce through new arts and cultural activity. She led the creation of a new Cultural Investment Portfolio for more than 400 outstanding nonprofit arts, humanities and science organizations that simplified the state’s support system for the nonprofit cultural sector. Coupled with the MA Cultural Data Project, it is helping organizations better understand their finances and become better advocates for their work and the sector as a whole.

Todd Lowe
Photo by Tim Harris

Todd P. Lowe
Todd P. Lowe, CFA, is President and managing partner of Parthenon LLC, an independent investment advisory firm in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a trumpet performance major at the University of Louisville prior to obtaining a BS in Finance from WKU. Todd is board president of Kentucky College of Art and Design; board chair of Louisville Public Media (WUOL, WFPK, WFPL); president-elect of the board of Fund for the Arts, and a member of the task force designing metro Louisville’s master plan for the arts and cultural sector. He is past chair of the Speed Museum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and South Arts, as well as past chair of the Kentucky Arts Council, appointed by Governors Fletcher and Beshear. He served as treasurer and on the executive committee for National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Todd has served on numerous executive searches in the arts sector and has chaired or co-chaired fundraising campaigns totaling in excess of $100 million for cultural organizations. He lives on ten acres in Simpsonville, Kentucky with his bride, Fran, two cats (Josephine and Samantha), and a well-worn John Deere tractor.