KANSAS CITY, Mo, May 19, 2020: After a nationwide search initiated in January 2020, Charlotte Street Foundation is excited to name Christine Boutros as its Grants and Awards Programs Manager. Boutros is the first to fill this newly created position. “We are so thrilled to bring Christine on board at Charlotte Street. Her previous work demonstrates a strong commitment to accessibility, excellent problem-solving skills, and fantastic collaborative relationships. She is an exciting and strong addition to our Programming team, and we believe we’ll be a better organization for all she will bring to the table,” says Amy Kligman, the Executive/Artist Director of Charlotte Street.
“I’m excited to be returning to my adopted home of Kansas City and for the opportunity to support artistic and cultural life through Charlotte Street, a most treasured and valuable Kansas City organization,” says Christine. “One of my favorite things about KC is the inviting and engaging artistic community and its ability to connect and be relevant.”
Christine Boutros returns to the Kansas City art community after serving as Associate Curator of Education at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu, Hawaii. Before that, Boutros spent six years in the education department at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. As Grants and Awards Programs Manager, Christine will manage all aspects of Charlotte Street’s prestigious award programs including the Visual Artist Award, Generative Performing Artist Award, Byron Cohen Award, and the Art OMI Scholarship. Christine will also work closely with the Spencer Museum of Art to administer the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts-funded Rocket Grants program when the program resumes in 2021.
As Grants and Awards manager, Boutros will oversee the important position of identifying, recruiting, and securing jurors for all grants and awards to ensure that jury process continues to promote Charlotte Street Foundation’s core values of risk-taking, openness, collaboration, and excellence, and work to ensure equity and accessibility in Charlotte Street’s selection processes for Kansas City’s artists. To increase awareness and accessibility of Charlotte Street’s awards and grants, Boutros will work with staff and community partners to plan and manage outreach sessions and strategies for all grants and awards.
As an educator and arts advocate, Christine works to create inclusive environments to ensure all people in the community have equitable access to the arts and cultural programming. Christine’s career trajectory has taken some unexpected turns. Beginning as a Quantity Surveyor in Melbourne Australia, Christine moved into Project Management and spent a decade working in the construction industry. Her last year in construction was spent consulting for the Victorian Department of Education and Training. Had it not been for this experience she may not have considered swapping her drafting table, hard hat, and management software for a career in education. Christine taught in elementary education for several years. She developed an interest in social and emotional learning and practiced a holistic, interdisciplinary pedagogy to encourage and promote autonomy and lifelong learning. It was not until 2013, when Christine immigrated from Melbourne, Australia, that she discovered museum education.
Her foray into museums began at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art as the Educator for Community Programs and expanded into the role of Manager of Community and Access Programs. At the Nelson-Atkins, Christine approached museum arts education and programming in consideration of Inclusive Design and Universal Design for Learning to create and implement accessible programming with artists and communities in Kansas City. Following the Nelson-Atkins, Christine took the position of Associate Curator of Education at the Doris Duke Foundation’s Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design in Honolulu to promote the understanding and research of Islamic art, history and culture for all ages through educational programming and artist residencies. Christine has a double degree in Planning and Design and Construction and Property from the University of Melbourne as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from La Trobe University.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street identifies the needs and fuels the evolution of an ever-changing multidisciplinary arts ecosystem, acting as its primary provocateur. Charlotte Street cultivates the contemporary, the exceptional, and the unexpected in the practice of artists working in and engaging with the Kansas City art community. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $1.1 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
Download the PDF announcement here.
