A native Midwesterner, Aaron attended Butler University for his undergraduate degree and worked for several years in social services before beginning graduate school. He holds a Master’s and Doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For the past decade, Aaron has been at the forefront of integrating the arts into academic institutions and presenting innovative creative experiences. He served as the inaugural Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for Arts@TheCore at Carolina Performing Arts, and then as Director of Engagement. After several years as the Director of Programming for the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, Aaron returned to the south as Director of Georgia Tech Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this role Aaron led the organization through the Covid-19 pandemic, creating the award-winning Skyline Series of outdoor performances in the middle of a parking lot and bringing innovative VR and other technology-based installations to campus. He joined the Duke Arts team in April 2023.
We recently spoke with the newest team member of Duke Arts, Director of Programming Aaron Shackelford. Aaron shares how his arts programming career started, experiences that have impacted his work, his creative practice and what led him to Duke Arts in this insightful Q&A.
aaron.shackelford@duke.edu