I work where art, people, place, and systems meet.
I am a cultural strategist, nonprofit leader, and curator with more than twenty-five years of experience building exhibitions, programs, partnerships, spaces, and organizational systems that help cultural work take root.
My practice began in the studio, where I explored objects, memory, inheritance, and the ways material carries personal and cultural history. Those questions expanded into curatorial work, public programming, creative-economy strategy, and nonprofit leadership. Across each area, I am interested in how meaning is shaped and supported: who has access, whose knowledge is recognized, how cultural labor is valued, and what structures allow artists, institutions, and communities to grow together.
I have led work spanning contemporary-art exhibitions, artist residencies, public programs, community arts spaces, professional development, fundraising, communications, evaluation, strategic planning, Main Street development, public events, and cross-sector partnerships. What connects it all is a commitment to making complex ideas legible and to building structures that continue creating value after a single exhibition, event, or initiative has ended.
My leadership experience includes setting organizational direction, translating research into plans, strengthening fundraising and information systems, and working across staff, boards, funders, municipalities, artists, businesses, and community partners. I move comfortably between institutional strategy and project implementation—aligning vision, resources, relationships, and the practical structures needed to carry work forward. Explore my approach to nonprofit strategy and organizational systems.
I live and work in the Philadelphia region.
Areas of Practice
Curatorial Practice
I develop exhibitions and public programs that connect artistic practice with interpretation, place, participation, and institutional context. My curatorial work often begins through sustained relationships with artists and expands through writing, education, partnerships, and audience engagement.
Creative Economy + Place
I build connections among artists, cultural organizations, small businesses, public spaces, and civic systems. This work has included artist opportunities, cultural facilities, local economic-development strategy, public programming, community partnerships, and long-term planning.
Research + Strategy
I design the structures that help organizations function and grow, including strategic plans, fundraising systems, databases, evaluation frameworks, communications strategies, workflows, partnerships, and governance practices.
Artist Support
I have worked directly with artists at many stages of their careers through studio visits, exhibitions, residencies, commissions, workshops, teaching opportunities, professional development, and one-on-one advising.
Education
Certificate in Nonprofit Management
LaSalle University and the Foundation for Delaware County
Master’s in Fine Art, Studio Art/Metal
Graduate Minor in Art History
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bachelor’s in Fine Art, Metalsmithing + Jewelry
Minor in Art History
Maine College of Art
Résumé
Download Clare Finin’s résumé.
Contact
Explore ways we might work together, use the Contact Page to discuss an opportunity, or connect on LinkedIn.