Andrea Lawson is the Music, Dance, Community Engagement Director, and also works with African American Heritage Development & Cultural Tourism for the North Carolina Arts Council, a State agency of the Department of Cultural Resources. She has been with the Arts Council for 13 years. For ten and a half years she was the Performing Arts Director which included Theatre, Music and Dance. Andrea’s constituents are music, dance and presenting organizations, local arts council, and individual artists of North Carolina. She conducts three grant panels a year, consults with arts organizations, and participates in different council initiatives throughout the state. In the fall of 2013, she taught the undergraduate Theatre Management course at NC Central University in Durham, NC.

Ms. Lawson is dedicated to arts administration mentorship and continues to speak with students at university arts management/administration programs and summer internship programs such as, University of NC-Greensboro, Elon University, NC A&T University, Virginia Tech, and Eastern Carolina University (ECU), and the American Dance Festival (ADF).

Before her work at the NC Arts Council, Andrea was the Managing Director and Development Director of the Freed Center for the Performing Arts at Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio. There she managed a 550-seat performing arts venue, technical and scenic staff, box office staff, student volunteers, and contracted with 10 headliners each season. Some of her most rewarding experiences at Ohio Northern were developing and teaching two undergraduate courses: Intro to Arts Administration and Grant Research &Writing. Prior to Ohio Northern, she was the Public Relations Manager for the African American Dance Ensemble, Chuck Davis, Founder and Artistic Director from May 1996-May 1999.

Andrea holds a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts, Arts Administration from Virginia Tech, where the MFA program director and her master teacher was George Thorn. A Bachelors in Arts in Music from Cleveland State University, where she studied viola privately with Cleveland Orchestra member, Lucian Joel.