Draft:Lee Bynum

Lee Bynum (born February 16) is an American artist-scholar whose research concerns digital innovation and equitable practices relative to the performing and visual arts and popular culture. Since 2023, they have been the Chief Education Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Early life
Bynum grew up in Henrico, Virginia. Their parents were educators and they have three younger siblings. They trained in music, theatre, dance, and visual art from a young age and had several opportunities to work professionally during childhood. Bynum subsequently attended Columbia University, where they studied the history of Black theatre and music.

Career
After college, Bynum worked as a playwright and composer in theatre, opera, dance, and film in New York and California, before relocating to Hong Kong. Upon returning to the US in 2011, Bynum embarked on a career in philanthropy, becoming a grant-maker at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. There, they funded artistic and educational programming in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa, specifically in technological innovation or equity and access. Bynum supported the work of influential scholars, artists, and activists, including Bryan Stevenson, Stanley Nelson, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, and others. Bynum also made Mellon’s first initial grant to National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Bynum went on to hold leadership roles at Columbia University, The Harmony Theatre Company, The Dream Unfinished Orchestra, American Composers Forum, TakeRoot Justice, The Black Feminist Project, Diaspora Community Services, We Are 2042, and Luna Composition Lab.

A prominent thinker on broadening diversity and access, Bynum advised leaders of arts and academic organizations across the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. They published nearly forty articles and book chapters on these topics. Bynum also was a contributor to The New York Amsterdam News on comic books, film, and TV from 2018 to 2020.

In 2022, Bynum became Vice President, Impact at Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis.

Other Work
As a social media influencer and host, Bynum has led two prominent industry podcasts: the critically acclaimed The Score for Minnesota Opera; and Art Class, the first official podcast of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In this capacity, they have interviewed hundreds of noteworthy figures, including Wu Tang Clan, Monét X Change, Denyce Graves, Big Freedia, Toni Morrison, Anthony Davis, Hilton Als, Lawrence Brownlee, Nia Franklin, Janinah Burnett, Tanya Fields, Shawn Martinbrough, and Julia Bullock.

With Nkeiru Okoye, Bynum has written an adaptation of Michael Morpugo’s popular children’s novel, Dear Olly, for Opera North. Bynum also has composed music for numerous theatre, opera, dance, film, and educational projects.

Personal life
In 2013, Bynum married composer and performing artist Damian Norfleet.

Bynum was educated at Columbia University. Studying under historian Manning Marable and writer Amiri Baraka, Bynum earned a BA, MA, MPhil, and PhD, and went on to teach at Columbia. They currently are on the faculty of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, where they teach the ethics of grant-making.