The Old Globe Names Llewellyn Crain New Director of Development

The Old Globe today announced the appointment of a new Director of Development. Llewellyn Crain joins the executive team to help implement the Globe's strategic plan by leading and growing a comprehensive, modern, and sophisticated fundraising program to support the theatre's 15 acclaimed annual productions and the wide variety of continually evolving and innovative arts engagement programs.

Crain comes to San Diego following a rigorous national search. She is an accomplished senior arts development professional with a track record in building sustainable high-performing development departments, and a demonstrated history of successful interactions with high net-worth individuals and institutional leadership. Crain will oversee an 11-person development department that raises funds for The Old Globe through major gifts, institutional giving, planned giving, annual giving, membership, and special events, and she will serve as the lead executive responsible for maintaining and growing the Globe's base of individual and institutional support, working closely with the managing director and artistic director.

Crain was recently at the Kansas City Symphony where, as Director of Development since 2011, her many accomplishments included exceeding budgeted fundraising goals for several years in a row, including $1.1 million more than budgeted in 2014. She was the lead manager of the Symphony's $55 million endowment campaign, working with board and executive leadership, which has brought in more than $51.2 million to date. She also managed six auxiliary groups that raise over $1 million annually through special events, the Symphony Shop, and other fundraising projects, and a portfolio of approximately 200 donors and prospects.

Her prior appointments included Executive Director of the Kansas Arts Commission, the state arts agency of Kansas; Assistant Director of Development at Kansas State University Foundation's College of Arts And Sciences; Director of Educational Initiatives at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association; and Director of Community Programs at LA Opera. During her Los Angeles sojourn, Crain also served as a writer and critic for several regional media outlets, including KCRW Radio, Ballet International, Los Angeles Daily News, and several others. She has served on many boards and grants panels, including for the National Endowment for the Arts, The James Irvine Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles City Cultural Affairs Department, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and she has advised many other regional and local organizations in both Kansas and California.

Crain received her bachelor's degree in Dance at UCLA, followed by two master's degrees, in Dance from UCLA and Arts Administration from CSU Dominguez Hills, and she completed extensive additional coursework in the Graduate School of Education at UCLA and in the Department of Performance Studies at New York University.

Crain is looking forward to working with The Old Globe's donors and sponsors, whose invaluable support is crucial to the Globe's ability to present a wide range of theatre. Individual philanthropy helps to close the 44% funding gap between the cost of producing a season and earned income from ticket sales, which is essential to create great theatre. The Old Globe is grateful to its audiences and supporters for everything they do and their adventurous and open-minded spirit, which encourages the organization to produce the best in entertaining and rewarding theatre.

"Llewellyn Crain brings to the Globe an extraordinary depth of experience in arts philanthropy," said Managing Director Michael G. Murphy. "We are tremendously excited for her to join us to continue to build upon the Globe's rich history and strength, and to achieve even greater excellence and innovation on our stages and throughout San Diego."

"All of us at the Globe are extremely happy to welcome the talented and visionary Llewellyn Crain to our organization," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "The philanthropists of our region are generous to the arts. They are committed to sustaining the contributions our national-level company makes to the quality of life of an ever-expanding circle of San Diegans. Ms. Crain's deep understanding of contributed income in the not-for-profit sector will grow the ranks of our sustainers to strengthen the Globe in the near and long terms. I look forward to working closely with her and learning from her."

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 80 years. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Michael G. Murphy, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, Allegiance, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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