Destiny King came to UNCG’s School of Music from Zebulon, North Carolina —about thirty minutes outside Raleigh—with her oboe and a desire to be a music educator:
“As a high school student, I attended the UNCG Honor Band Festival, and I knew early on that my top college choice was the UNCG School of Music. I always tell people I immediately felt at home there. I was in love with the campus, in love with the Music Building. One of my favorite memories still is walking the bridge from the Music Building to College Avenue on a rainy day.”
But music wasn’t King’s only interest:
“I’ve also always had a love for business, but I knew I wanted to do music, so I needed to find an intersection. I saw that CVPA offered an Arts Administration minor and added it to my degree plan.”
Like many high school students looking for a college—and their parents—King wasn’t familiar with Arts Administration:
“I didn’t really know what it was. I just figured that the administrative people in the symphony were just musicians who weren’t doing music and somehow wound up in the office. But now I know that arts administrators are people who have a strong passion for the arts and a love of the business side of things.”
Through the Arts Administration program, King held several internships, but it was the one at Eastern Music Festival (EMF) that proved to be a turning point:
“At EMF I realized that what I really wanted to do was arts marketing. I love talking about music and because of my background playing oboe and from the classes I’d taken, I knew so much about the pieces that were being played. That really helped with marketing the concerts.”
King’s fellowship led to a full-time job as marketing coordinator at Arena Stage, a Tony award-winning theatre in Washington, DC with audiences of over 300,000 annually:
“My favorite classes at UNCG were marketing and fundraising. Development and marketing go hand in hand, and those classes prepared me for what I’m doing now. They gave me the tools I needed to apply for and get the fellowship at Arena Stage. I head up our work with social media influencers here, and that’s been really fun. We’re building our first show of the season, Damn Yankees, so we’re planning an influencers’ get-together at Nats (Washington Nationals) Stadium. I’m also in charge of the marketing campaign for one show in the season, so I get to work very closely with our Director of Marketing to make that happen. Last year, the show I worked on was A Wrinkle in Time. I worked with local artists to create an art installation in our lower lobby that also served as an audience engagement. I also manage the interns, which is special since that’s how I started out here.”
King says UNCG’s Arts Administration program is preparing students for work in all sectors of the Arts, so she urges them to keep a broad perspective:
“Don’t limit yourself to one kind of experience. Go see all the theatre productions, dance performances, music concerts, and art exhibitions you can so you can learn how marketing is different and the same. I came from a music background and now I’m working in the theatre, but at the end of the day, I’m here for arts education. I care about the arts because they heal. And I think especially in a time right now, especially in DC, this is what people like really need and hold on to—the arts.”
Story by Terri W Relos
Photo credit: Albert Ting
Destiny King’s faculty shoutouts:
I just think Hannah Granneman (Director of Arts Administration) is the best mentor that you can truly have in the program and in life in general. I still reach out to her about things. And I still can’t believe all the things she talked about in class are now my experiences. I hope people realize what a gem she is.
I met Ashley Barrett (Professor Emerita of Music) while attending UNCG’s Honor Band Festival, and she is the only professor anywhere that was so consistently in touch with me throughout the recruitment and application process. She’s retired now and I miss her.
Arts Administration is celebrating ten years at CVPA! Celebrate with us during Homecoming 2025 on October 18th.
