Janet Sarbaugh is senior director of the Arts & Culture Program for The Heinz Endowments. Under Janet’s leadership, this program has focused on three major goals: expanding opportunities for arts learning and participation, building regional creative capital and advancing Pittsburgh as a cultural center. Highlights of her work in these three areas include continuing development of the Pittsburgh Cultural District; operating support programs for major institutions; establishing initiatives to advance small arts organizations and multicultural arts groups; and encouraging new efforts in civic design, arts education, artist training and arts in community settings. The program distributes approximately $8 million annually.
From 1982 to l992, Janet was a program officer for the then-jointly operated Heinz Endowments and Pittsburgh Foundation. She worked on arts, human services and education projects, as well as served as a liaison for the satellite funds. Prior to entering the foundation field, Janet was an intern with the Council on Foundations and an assistant to the president of Chatham College in Pittsburgh. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga.; a master’s in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a master’s in public management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Janet serves on the board of Chorus America and is a member of the Arts Education Partnership Steering Committee and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. She was a member of Gov. Ed Rendell’s Transition Team on Arts and Culture and has previously served on the boards of Grantmakers in the Arts, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Americans for the Arts and Leadership Pittsburgh. She has received awards from City Theatre and Pittsburgh Dance Alloy for leadership in the Pittsburgh arts community. In 2003, she was named Pittsburgh’s number one cultural force by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
