Austin Stewart, Ph.D.

Austin Stewart, Ph.D., is an arts and culture executive with fifteen years of experience advancing philanthropy, operations, and institutional strategy at nationally recognized organizations. He recently concluded his tenure as vice president for advancement of the Aspen Music Festival and School, having directed the successful quiet phase of the Aspen Promises campaign, raising more than $90 million in capital and endowment support and growing annual giving from $8.5 million to $10.5 million. A preponderance of the philanthropic resources developed during this campaign were to meet aspirational growth goals with unrestricted endowment gifts and expand student financial assistance with the naming of legacy programs.

Austin has also served as chief philanthropy and advancement officer of Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia's children's museum, director of planned and major gifts for the Curtis Institute of Music, and director of development for Opera Lafayette, following early roles in foundation and government relations and audience engagement with Michigan Opera Theatre, now Detroit Opera. Having led advancement from inside each of these institutions, he brings a working understanding of what boards and staff experience when a campaign is on the table.

His fundraising effectiveness is marked by many firsts in a portfolio of work where philanthropy meets public funding and civic advocacy. At Curtis he led planned and major individual giving during the final phase of the school's $250 million centennial campaign. In Newton, Massachusetts, he helped secure a watershed $1.5 million in Community Preservation Act funds toward the restoration of an 1873 church tower and its historic chime, a campaign that required a citywide advocacy network, a favorable City Council vote, and a legal path through the Commonwealth's Anti-Aid Amendment. At Please Touch Museum he directed advocacy with City Council, the Mayor's office, and the state legislature on behalf of Memorial Hall, the first Beaux-Arts gallery in the United States, and broke a three-year stalemate on a National Park Service grant, releasing nearly $3 million for urgent capital improvements.

Austin studied vocal performance at the University of Michigan and received a master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin before earning his Doctor of Philosophy in historical musicology from the University of Michigan. He is an alumnus of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Aspen Opera Theater Center.