Bio

I am an organizer on pay and labor equity in the arts. I have worked for over 15 years as a freelance artist and arts non-profit administrator, including as director of development for Collaboraction Theatre Company and my current role as associate director of programs at Lawyers for the Creative Arts, a legal service organization. These experiences as an arts worker deeply inform my work as an arts advocate. My essays on labor and pay equity have inspired systemic change in the theatre industry, and the Theatrical Designer Pay Resource that I launched in 2018 has been used nation-wide by designers to promote pay transparency and start conversations around pay equity. I am a co-founder of On Our Team, which successfully organized for pay transparency on the job sites of Playbill, BroadwayWorld, and the League of Chicago Theatres. In 2021, I was honored to receive the Michael Merritt Arts Advocacy Award.

My pay equity consulting process is used by BLVE Consults to create pay equity plans and policies that work for non-profit and for-profit arts organizations of all sizes.

As an artist and costume designer, my credits include Collaboraction, Silk Road Rising, Goodman Theatre, Teatro Vista, Signal Ensemble, American Blues Theater, Steppenwolf, First Folio Theatre, Next Act Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Windy City Playhouse, and American Theater Company among others.

Contact me.

info@elsahiltner.com