stevenwolff100.gif

Steven Wolff

Principal

Steven A. Wolff, CMC, is the founding Principal of AMS Planning & Research Corp. and Audience Insight LLC. He works from the firm’s Connecticut headquarters. For 25 years, Steven has provided counsel to leading arts and entertainment enterprises in the planning and development of capital facilities, strategic initiatives and arts market and consumer research. Steven has participated in the development of more than $3 billion of new and renovated capital facilities for the arts. Steven has been instrumental in the planning of many of the most significant arts center projects in North America, including the proposed performing arts center at the World Trade Center site, the just opened AT&T (Dallas) Center for Performing Arts, the Dr. Phillips (Orlando) Performing Arts Center, and many others. Steven has guided projects through all stages of development from project definition through needs assessment to site selection, financing and project implementation and operation. In the area of strategic planning, research and management counsel, Steven has conducted assignments in program design and evaluation, management audits, long-range strategic planning and market research for national philanthropic foundations, including many national foundations, leading producers, presenters and national service organizations. Steven developed PAC Statssm, an international benchmarking initiative for major performing arts centers used by more than 30 of the largest performing arts centers in the US and aboard and leads innovative strategic planning efforts for clients from Harlem’s Apollo Theater to the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs. AMS’s research practice, Audience Insight is an acknowledged industry leader in arts consumer and market information whose clients include performing arts centers, symphony orchestras, commercial theatrical producers, presenters, children’s theater companies, ballet companies, museums and other arts agencies. Steven is on the faculty at the Yale School of Drama, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater administration, and teaches Decision Support. He is a frequent keynote speaker at national conferences and a guest lecturer at many major universities, including the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to founding AMS in 1988, Steven was a manager in the New York office of London-based Theatre Projects Consultants. He is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and holds the designation Certified Management Consultant (CMC). Steven served as an officer on the Board the nationally-known Westport Country Playhouse (2001 – 2006) and on the Executive Committee of the New York Yacht Club (2002 – 2008). He is currently a board member and chair of the Arts Committee of the Fairfield County Community Foundation and on the board of the Mount Snow Academy.