Artist of the Month

Click here to return to directory of artists.

---

Creativity & Arts Spotlight : Leslie Taylor

First Executive Director of the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts

For the first time in Emory’s artistic history all of the major arts presenters will assemble simultaneously under the roof of the Schwartz Center for the Creativity & Arts Soiree: Celebrate Emory’s Creative Campus, the official launch party of the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts (CCA). Emory’s neighbors, the public, employees, members of arts-related and Emory Friends groups are invited to mingle with fellow arts enthusiasts, preview the upcoming arts season, and participate in hands-on activities. The Soiree organizers encourage the Emory community to RSVP to 404-712-9214 or creativity@emory.edu by Thurs., Sept. 4 at 5 p.m.

The establishment of the CCA is the newest phase of transformation for the arts at Emory. The CCA’s multifaceted approach to making creativity and arts central to the Emory experience includes giving grants to Emory employees and students, commissioning, presenting, co-sponsoring, and collaborating. Leslie Taylor, Executive Director of the CCA and Associate Professor and Chair of Theater Studies Department, explains that the Center aims to “encourage student involvement with the arts, provide support for faculty and staff creative research projects, advocate for space and facilities on campus that allow for interdisciplinary exploration, engage a lively array of visiting artists, commissioned work and artists-in-residence, and explore the nature of creativity through research, symposia, and conversations.”

Taylor, the inaugural director of the CCA, has extensive experience in teaching, design and management. She has designed sets and costumes for over 100 productions. Currently Chair of the Theater Studies Program at Emory University, she also served as the Artistic Director for Theater Emory's 2000-2001 season. She is the resident designer for Theater Emory, and has designed for the GA Shakespeare, the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Alliance Theater, Georgia Ensemble Theater, and Theatrical Outfit. Her work has been seen at Opera Theater St. Louis; GEVA Theater in Rochester, NY; Merrimack Theater; Portland Stage Company; Indiana Repertory Theater; and Off-Broadway. On Broadway she was the Associate Designer with Ming Cho Lee on the Tony award-winning production of K-2 and The Glass Menagerie starring Jessica Tandy. She was also the Associate Designer for The Odd Couple starring Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. In 1983, she received a Maharam Award for her work on K-2 and has had her work chosen as “Best of Atlanta” by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Creative Loafing. She received her BA with Honors from Wellesley College, her MFA from New York University School of the Arts, and a post-graduate study from The League of Professional Theater Training Programs.

A Few Questions with Leslie:

Q: How do you feel that your creative skills as an artist enhance your ability to do other tasks like chairing an academic department?
A: I think that being a designer has honed several creative skills that have aided me in other areas. Designing for theater requires a flexibility of mind, an ability to collaborate and to be unafraid of stupid/crazy/wonderful ideas. You also need to be able to organized, organized and more organized.

Q: In the world of theater, what do you consider your primary creative interest?
A: My primary area in theater is set and costume design, though I have done a speck of directing and writing and would like to do more. Theater Emory has provided opportunities for stepping into other areas that is unusual in the work of professional or academic theater.

Q: If you could excel at any other art form what would it be and why?
A: I would be a chef. My bookshelves at home are filled with books about eating, cooking, the history of cooking, cookbooks, books about culinary manners and matters. They are what I read for relaxation and cooking is what I do when I have time.

Q: Where do you see the CCA in 5 years and what does that mean for Emory's standing in the arts and academia?
A: In 5 years the CCA will have a thriving artist in residence program, will have an annual interdisciplinary/disciplinary focus that showcases faculty work as well as other national and international artists, and continue offering programming and support for students. I think this visible commitment to creativity and the arts will place Emory in the top echelon of schools that recognize the importance of the arts to a liberal arts institution and as a vital area for research.

Q: Just for Fun: Where is your favorite place in Atlanta to see theater? In the world?
A: Besides the obvious--Theater Emory, I like to see theater in offbeat spaces, so I am very fond of Out of Hand Theater, since they often perform in non-theater venues. I also like the intimacy of the Hertz Stage at the Alliance. To just pick a place in the world, that's hard. Since I design, my relationship with theater spaces is skewed by my having to work within them. I think it is difficult to pick a space, since it depends so much on what is inside of it at any given

Edited by Jessica Moore
Communications Coordinator
Arts at Emory

Return to Top

---