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President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP)–a membership organization focused on service to the performing arts field–since 2020, Lisa Richards Toney has built a career upon her artistic background as a dancer with pivots into arts education and, most robustly, arts administration. She tells Arts Engines with Aaron Dworkin:

You think about all the things you can reinvent for yourself, what is the business model that you would actually like to be in, who in the field of fields, I'm not just talking about the arts, the field of fields, who would we most like to be like, where do we share things…what are some of the things we can learn from other industries as we build forward?

Her over 20 years of experience includes key administrative roles in organizations like the Abramson Scholarship Foundation, the Pen/Faulkner Foundation, The American Place Theater, The Library of Congress, and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Richards Toney is also currently the Strategic Planning Chair of the Mosaic Theatre Company of DC.

She credits Carol Foster for inspiration and early opportunities. When Richards Toney was 14, Foster gave her the opportunity to manage and organize some components of the DC Youth Ensemble. Richards Toney kept trying out new ventures, like the summer training program at Alvin Ailey School when she was 19. About her drive as a young woman, she says, “How we spend this time says a lot about where we will go.”

Richards Toney has gone from feat to feat throughout her career, always being open to reinvention. How has she been able to create and sustain such a lineage? She claims to be a people person.

Everyone needs a space for self-expression and with me to bounce off my ideas is a cherished act. [...] We all need these safe spaces as leaders, as people, we need a friend, we need people to talk to.

Richards Toney’s current work at APAP has allowed her to utilize the skills she accumulated through following her drive and interest. These many perspectives on the performance arts field have taught her how important service is to its workers and organizations. “We've had to pivot,” she says, “to ensure that our services are relevant and meaningful to the needs that are ever-changing and dynamic in the field.” 

And so, Lisa Richards Toney has seen the arts from every angle–she has gone from “shy girl” who gained a voice through it, to an arts educator working “to ensure that young people develop the confidence and the experiences to basically launch themselves forward,” to an administrator working to meet the needs of both artists and educators with space and resources.  “What I longed for in a career,” she says, “was the chance to use all of my skills.” She has made reinvention an artform.