This week on The Art Career Podcast, Emily McElwreath speaks with Rachel Fine, Executive Director of Yale Schwarzman Center.

Recorded on-site at Yale, this conversation explores what it means to build cultural infrastructure within a major institution today — from developing artistic partnerships and stewarding creative communities to expanding access and engagement across disciplines.

Together, they discuss Rachel’s leadership journey from the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to Yale, and the evolving role of university-based cultural centers as spaces where art, performance, wellness, and community converge.

As Yale Schwarzman Center continues to grow as a commons for university life and a hub for creative exchange, this episode offers insight into how institutional vision can shape meaningful, artist-centered programming at scale.

About Rachel Fine: Rachel Fine joined Yale Schwarzman Center as Executive Director in October 2022, following her tenure as Executive Director and CEO of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. There, she played a key role in establishing The Wallis as a major cultural institution, building dynamic artistic partnerships, advancing initiatives around equity and access, and leading a $55 million campaign that more than doubled the organization’s endowment. A concert pianist by training, Fine studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of California, Irvine, and later attended Yale for graduate work in musicology. Prior to The Wallis, she served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. Her broader leadership experience includes roles with the Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, The Juilliard School, and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management.

About Yale Schwarzman Center: Yale Schwarzman Center is a commons for university life where art, culinary, and wellness experiences converge to build bridges, nurture creativity, and foster kinship and belonging. Through unexpected connections and collaborations, and inspired by the Center's architecture, artists and members of the Yale and New Haven communities engage with creativity through programming that ranges from the intimate to the grand.

Follow Yale Schwarzman Center: HERE

Website: https://schwarzman.yale.edu

Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources

If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show.

Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig

Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

On Season 8, episode 4 of The Art Career Podcast, Emily sits down with Dr. Ace Lehner to discuss trans visual culture, the politics of representation, and so much more

Their conversation explores how images construct identity, how institutions shape visibility, and what it means to challenge dominant frameworks of seeing. As both a scholar and an artist, Ace brings depth, clarity, and lived insight to questions that sit at the center of contemporary culture.

Emily and Ace talk about photography, authorship, power, and the responsibility that comes with representation - and why rewriting visual narratives isn’t just theoretical, but necessary.

Recorded at: Creative Legion in Hudson, NY

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Dr. Ace Lehner is an interdisciplinary visual culture scholar and artist whose work focuses on trans and queer visual culture, race and representation, photography, performance, and modern and contemporary art. Their writing has appeared in leading journals including Art Journal, Visual Studies, Cultural Politics, and Media-N, among others. Lehner recently guest edited the first-ever issue of Art Journal dedicated to trans visual culture and is currently developing a book project, Trans Representations: Decolonizing Visual Theory in Contemporary Photography, based on their award-winning dissertation research.

Lehner’s artistic practice spans photography, installation, and performance, examining the relationship between representation and identity. Their project Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure has been presented in solo exhibitions at Brewer Harris projects and Practice Gallery, as well as in group exhibitions at the Fleming Museum and the Wassaic Project with additional exhibitions at institutions, including the International Center of Photography, El Museo del Barrio, and SOMArts.
A recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship, Lehner has delivered public talks and organized conference panels internationally. They have worked in museum education for over two decades and pioneered the first Queer Tours at the Museum of Modern Art. Lehner is currently a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont.

Dr Ace Lehner's Website: http://ace-lehner.com

Follow Ace: https://www.instagram.com/ace_lehner_projects

Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources

If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show.

Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig

Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

About Blake Cooper Griffin: Blake Cooper Griffin is an actor, advocate, speaker, and entrepreneur whose career bridges film, television, and public life. Known for emotionally layered performances and wide-ranging screen roles, he has worked opposite Academy Award winners and led projects across genres, from prestige drama to thriller and comedy. Off-screen, he is the founder of Brainworks Team, an education and mentorship company helping students nationwide build academic strength and self-authorship. A national surrogate for three U.S. presidential campaigns, Griffin has spoken widely on identity, democracy, and the power of personal reinvention. His work and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Washington Post, NPR, and HuffPost. The Story of You: A Life Rewritten is his nonfiction debut.

About the book:

Part memoir, part guidebook-for anyone standing in the middle of change, when the old version of life no longer fits and the next chapter remains uncertain.

Actor and advocate Blake Cooper Griffin traces the quiet wreckage-and unexpected grace-of personal reinvention. From a Southern childhood marked by silence and shame to building a screen career in Hollywood and speaking on national political stages, he reveals what it took to stop performing a version of his life-and start truly living it.

Blending emotional depth with practical clarity, The Story of You invites readers to reframe the narratives that have held them back. Each chapter delivers cinematic storytelling, hard-earned insight, and a re-authoring question designed to move readers forward-not with perfection but with power.

This isn't about having the answers. The Story of You is about reclaiming the pen, stepping into the unknown, and daring to write what comes next-with intention, clarity, and heart.

Pre-order The Story of You: A Life Re-Written: HERE

Follow Blake: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/blakecoopergriffin/?hl=en

Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠

Visit ⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources

If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show.

Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig

Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic