Kay Shames

Kay Shames is an arts administrator and the founding director of the Center for Arts and Innovation at Cleveland State University, where she presented and produced programs focused on the arts, creativity and the imagination. The center presented Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel, concerts with commentary, and a large annual Arts Summit at Ideastream and Playhouse Square that celebrated the imagination with interactive panels such as The Creative Mind and Visionaries, and guests including Richard Dreyfuss, LeVar Burton, Rosie Perez, Anna Deavere Smith and Shirley Jones. It also produced the Creative Voices Summit and the Arts Education Day Summit, which brought together Cleveland's cultural, educational and civic communities.

Kay has served as board chair of Ohio Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as president of the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium, the convening organization for Cleveland-area cultural organizations involved in arts outreach.