Shannon Daut

Shannon Daut is the national director for the US Regional Arts Organizations (US RAO), a newly created position that fosters collaborative efforts between the six RAOs to serve communities across the country through the arts. Her career has included executive leadership roles at regional, state and local arts agencies. From 2016-2023 she led the Cultural Affairs Division for the City of Santa Monica, California, where she integrated the arts into all aspects of life in the community. In that role she conceptualized and led the implementation of Acknowledge and Reframe Together, a program that produces public art and civic memory projects that center community voices, and Art of Recovery, which supported artistic efforts that addressed the city’s recovery needs. Previous to that role, she was the executive director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts. While there, she reimagined and reinvigorated the leadership role of the agency in state policy, from tourism and economic development to education and Alaska Native cultural advancement. Prior to moving to Alaska, Daut was deputy director of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF, now Creative West), where she oversaw the organization’s work in cultural policy development and building technology systems that served the arts field. Daut has also served on the boards of the National Performance Network, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and WESTAF. She received her bachelor’s degree in communication arts/film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her graduate degree in communication/rhetoric from the University of Colorado-Denver. (Board term 2025-2026)