Catching Up With Former Intern Nathan Alston ’13
By Holly Gardner, Marketing & Events Intern
Since graduating from William & Mary with a degree in Theatre and Government, Nathan Alston ‘13 has built a career in arts and business administration, combining his love for the arts with his business expertise to build a strong arts management skillset.
Before beginning his professional journey, Alston was an intern at the Muscarelle.
“My role at the Muscarelle was to write the audio text and descriptions for an Impressionist exhibit that was traveling to the Muscarelle. I learned how important it is to not only showcase art but also contextualize it and discuss why it is important. This skillset is something that I have continuously used throughout my career.”
His time interning with the Muscarelle helped Alston realize that he could pursue a career in the arts. “I was enamored by the opportunity to talk art every day and build relationships with my peers,” he explained. “I was surrounded by interesting arts leaders who built stable and passionate careers in the arts. It became a framework for the type of career and life I would end up pursuing a couple years later.”
After eight years of working in non-profit arts administration, Alston decided to leave the industry and pursue an MBA. In his work, Alston found that artists “are often trained to only prioritize the art. But prioritizing art without considering the economics of your decisions can be catastrophic to your business. I wanted to wrap my head around these concepts so that I could better lead arts organizations in the future.”
Alston currently works as a creative change management consultant at Root, where he “collaborates with designers and other consultants to develop visual metaphors and experiences that explain complex business changes in a way that feels conversational.”
In addition to his work as a creative change management consultant, Alston co-founded Plucky Comics in 2021, which aims to address the omission of Black Queer history from many educational spaces. To address this, he “decided to start building this history into comic books that are compelling and easy to read.” Although it was tough at times to balance this project and his consulting work, he feels that “bringing these comics to our community has been my biggest achievement to date.”
In the future, Alston hopes to be the executive director of an arts organization. He plans to work towards this goal by “continuing to build my artistic development skills through my comic book company, building relationships with people across the art industry, and using my work in consulting to finetune my management skillset.”
When asked to give advice to students interested in pursuing a career in arts management, Alston emphasized the importance of building your own skillset. “You want to make sure you understand how business works so that you can make big investments in the art you like. Do not allow your inexperience with management to be a barrier to your creative work.”
He also urges emerging professionals to “take your own artistic development seriously. Understand your taste. What kind of art do you like? What artists would you be interested in developing? Build relationships with those artists so you can work together to build your own opportunities. I am looking forward to seeing how the Muscarelle can continue to deliver art exploration to W&M and the greater Hampton Roads area. Arts organizations are community organizations, and I am excited to see how we can increase arts education in our community.”