The Newberry is pleased to announce that Jill Austin has been named Vice President for Public Engagement. In this role, Austin will lead several areas including Adult Education, Communications, Exhibitions, Public Programs, Volunteers, and the new Beyond Belief public humanities project. She is a specialist in public interpretation and engagement in the arts and humanities, and in arts and culture grant administration and policy.
Austin joins the Newberry with longstanding ties to Chicago’s cultural scene. Prior to her arrival, she was a Senior Program Officer for ten years in the Division of Public Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities. There, she led the development of a new grant program, Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations, which aimed to expand the interpretive capacity of new and less experienced organizations. In addition, Austin advised on a wide array of projects dealing with global and American history and culture, and local history, including the Newberry’s own Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race Riots.
It was Austin’s experience at Chicago History Museum that helped prepare her for the NEH role. Over ten years at CHM, she produced a diverse slate of exhibitions that included The Secret Lives of Objects, featuring objects boasting mysterious pasts; Catholic Chicago; and the groundbreaking Out in Chicago: LGBT History at the Crossroads, co-curated with Dr. Jennifer Brier.
Austin got her start in the field as a program specialist at the Carnegie Museum of Art while earning an MA in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of Pittsburgh. She received a BA in History/Classics from Eastern Michigan University. Austin lives in Chicago.