Welcoming Maurine Knighton and Shanta Thake to the Mertz Gilmore Foundation Board

Two leaders in philanthropy and the arts, Maurine Knighton and Shanta Thake, bring their commitment to excellence and innovation in the arts to the Mertz Gilmore board. 

We are thrilled to share the appointment of two new board members, Maurine Knighton and Shanta Thake. Maurine and Shanta join the Mertz Gilmore Foundation board at a time when so many of our institutions face uncertain futures, and our work to ensure creative expression is embraced and protected is as urgent as ever.

We are incredibly grateful to our entire board, and are excited to have the wisdom, experience, and vision of Maurine and Shanta informing our work moving ahead.

Maurine Knighton is the chief program officer at the Doris Duke Foundation, overseeing the foundation’s five national grantmaking programs: Arts, Environment, Medical Research, Child Well-Being and Building Bridges. Maurine joined the foundation in 2016 as program director for the arts, leading the development and oversight of grantmaking programs to support artists and organizations in the contemporary dance, theater, jazz and presenting fields and working to advance efforts to make the performing arts more inclusive, innovative and equitable. Prior to the Doris Duke Foundation, she was the senior vice president for grantmaking at the Nathan Cummings Foundation and held many other nonprofit and philanthropy roles, including in the arts.

Shanta Thake is the Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she spearheads all artistic programming and artist development activities, welcoming new and returning audiences and championing genres historically underrepresented on campus. Complementing the work of the ten resident arts organizations who share the Lincoln Center campus, Shanta’s programming engages thousands of artists from across the globe each year. Previously, she was the Associate Artistic Director / Director of Artistic Programs at The Public Theater and Director of Joe’s Pub for a decade prior. She also serves as Co-Director of globalFEST, the world music festival whose mission is to foster cultural exchange and increase the presence of world music in communities nationwide.