ASHLAND, ORE.: Oregon Shakespeare Festival has promoted Anyania Muse, who joined the theatre’s leadership team in spring 2021 as its first director of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA), to the position of managing director: director of IDEA, people, culture, and operations. In this new role, she will oversee the human resources, information technology, safety, physical plant, and company management departments. She will supervise a variety of high-level operational processes and systems, including artist-centric contracting and housing, recruiting and talent acquisition, onboarding, evaluation, engagement, off-boarding of OSF employees, evaluating and updating OSF’s equitable compensation system, and evolving dynamic benefits structures that provide exemplary support to its workforce. Continuing her work directing the IDEA department, Muse will further design, communicate, execute, and monitor programs and initiatives that actively promote and foster a radically inclusive culture that is an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, and anti-ableist.
“OSF is incredibly fortunate to have someone with Anyania’s business acumen, unwavering commitment to the artist, and deep expertise in IDEA,” said OSF artistic director Nataki Garrett in a statement. “We are reimagining the future of theatre right here in Ashland by expanding our platforms, centering our artists, and creating more accessibility for all to participate. These types of bold changes require a leader who not only understands IDEA, but who truly values it and knows that this work is not limited to a department but woven throughout the whole organization. Anyania is truly that leader.”
In her work with OSF to date, Muse has made innovative use of the organization’s available resources and her extensive network to build a IDEA department that has recruited both talented staff and world-class consultants to achieve ambitious goals. She has been a core team member in OSF’s strategic planning process, and has become an indispensable advisor and collaborator to Garrett and executive director David Schmitz, helping to navigate the challenges of running a theatre during a global pandemic and its vast social and financial repercussions.
Said executive director Schmitz in a statement, “I could not be more thrilled that Anyania accepted the role of managing director, expanding her impact and her scope within OSF. Anyania is a strategic builder who has already had incredible success within the organization, and her vision for creating artist- and IDEA-centric systems and processes within OSF is unparalleled. With this hire, we are placing the most senior operations director at the apex of IDEA, HR, IT, company management, physical plant, and safety, which will naturally bring all this work into alignment with our artist- and IDEA-centered vision.”
Added Muse in a statement, “I’m excited about deepening and expanding the work I’ve been called to do at OSF. We’re establishing systems that are artist- and IDEA-centered, and that shifts the paradigm of the way we do this work. The chance to operationalize Nataki Garrett’s artistic vision is a phenomenal opportunity.”
Prior to starting at OSF, Muse was well known in the San Francisco Bay Area for her growing body of work in equity and inclusion. In her most recent role as director of equity for Marin County, Muse developed, led, and implemented program initiatives to target and dismantle existing systems of oppression within the county, while helping to build and evolve anti-racist frameworks across 22 departments with over 2,700 employees.
OSF was founded in 1935, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 8 plays and musicals, including both classics and new work. As of 2019, OSF’s budget was close to $42.3 million.
