Services Offered
How I Can Help You
With 20 years’ experience leading arts organizations, I know both the incredible joy and deep challenges you face every day. My work with you will be in service of your goals, doing all I can to help you be successful. Some of my areas of expertise include:
- Business Modeling & Budgeting
- General Management
- Scenario Planning
- Facility Planning & Expansion
- Staff Development & Retention
- Executive Coaching
- Facilitation
Guiding Principles
Organizational strategy, capacity building, and facilities planning for arts and culture, grounded in the principles of:
- Honesty: we tell each other the truth, even if it's messy
- Empathy: we work to understand where others are coming from
- Resilience: we plan for the unexpected
- Equity: we are inclusive, using fairness and justice to guide our decisions
About Me
Education & Family Life
Jon Faris (he/him) is a Chicagoan, a Northwestern University alumnus (and avid Wildcat sports fan and football season ticket holder), a dad to an incredible nine-year-old daughter, partner to his wife of 14 years, and a snuggler and voice for their 13-year-old chocolate lab.
Work Experience
Jon's current and recent clients include Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, American Blues Theater, TimeLine Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theatre Company, and the Producer's Association of Chicago Theatres in Chicago, Illinois, and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Jon also recently co-designed and facilitated a staff retreat for the international team at IDP Foundation, based in Chicago with staff in the UK and Ghana.
In addition to his own consulting work, Jon partners with AMS Planning & Research to support their clients undertaking facility development and strategic planning. Current and recent clients with AMS include Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida, The Old Globe in San Diego, California, the City of Panama City, Florida, and the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture in Chicago, Illinois.
Jon was most recently the Head of Production Operations for Category41, an immersive and experiential entertainment studio that creates experience-driven entertainment at the intersection of digital and physical. Category41’s experiences immerse audiences in surprising and visceral universes that shift how we see, feel, and interact with the world around us. At Category41, Jon worked with creative teams to execute projects from inception to operations, which includes business modeling, budgeting, and production and operational management.
Previously, Jon was the Managing Director at Writers Theatre in Chicago for fourteen years, where he led the design and construction of its new state-of-the-art theatre center, designed by internationally renowned architect and MacArthur Fellow recipient Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects. In addition to leading the WT’s facility project, Jon partnered with Executive Director Kate Lipuma to lead the company’s day-to-day operations, working closely with the organization’s leadership team to develop strategy and support the marketing, fundraising, production, finance, facilities, education, and artistic departments.
Prior to that, Jon was the managing director of Uma Productions, an award-winning theater company in Chicago, and worked at Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the Coordinator of The School at Steppenwolf and Executive Assistant.
Service & Volunteering
Jon guest lectures on arts management at Northwestern University and DePaul University and serves on the alumni advisory board for NU’s Theatre Management Module program. He has served as a parent representative on the Local School Council at Swift Elementary School and currently serves on the Committee for an Anti-Racist Swift, which seeks to build an affirmative and representative space for all races where everyone at Swift is empowered to take a stand against racism and injustice. Jon is a member of Theatre Communications Group, Americans for the Arts, and the Association of Arts Administration Educators.
Contact Me
Let's Connect!
Send me a note to tell me about your needs, goals, and how I can be of service to you.
