For Melique Jones, a born-and-raised New Yorker, iconic cultural institutions like Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) have been a huge source of pride in her city.
“I came to appreciate the arts very deeply, and I noted the transformation happening at Lincoln Center as a place that was becoming more reflective of the diversity and multiculturalism of New York,” she says.
So when an opportunity to join Lincoln Center’s executive leadership team came up in 2022, she didn’t hesitate. Now Jones is making an impact from within the organization as its Chief People Officer.
“It’s been terrific moving from being a beneficiary of that transformation to a contributor in my role championing the employees and team at Lincoln Center,” she says.
Here, Jones talks about why she loves Lincoln Center’s innovative spirit, what her goals are as a new people leader in the organization, and which upcoming performances she has marked on her calendar.
What are you responsible for as the Chief People Officer at Lincoln Center?
As Chief People Officer, I’m responsible for further developing the internal culture at LCPA—leading the pillars of talent acquisition, learning and career development, talent operations, engagement, benefits and compensation, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). As a people team, we are focused on hiring talented candidates who can bring their diverse perspectives and experiences to Lincoln Center’s commitment to excellence and service to our communities.
As a newer leader at the organization, what are some of the ways in which you hope to improve or change the employee experience at Lincoln Center?
When I first joined, there was already an abundance of creative ideas on the table from our employees to enhance their experience and the overall workplace culture. I also embarked on listening tours with employees to hear their thoughts and build rapport, and many of my objectives came about from these conversations. Our immediate priorities are to operationalize our aspirations for: DEIA; employee well-being; civic engagement by aligning our talent processes to reflect and serve NYC’s diverse communities; infrastructure and competency frameworks for employees at all levels; and providing the transparency, coaching, and training that our people need to succeed.
You joined Lincoln Center during a pivotal time marked by big productions, including the Summer for the City series and the opening of the new David Geffen Hall. What was that experience like for you?
I arrived at a thrilling time. All at once, I experienced a range of programming, great collaboration and communication among staff and constituent organizations, and the rekindling of New York City’s arts scene after so much loss during the pandemic. At the beginning of every performance throughout our Summer for the City series in 2022, an artist or member of our programming team led the audience through a poem welcoming everyone into the experience. Written by LCPA’s first Poet-in-Residence Mahogany L. Browne, it invited all of us to remember those we lost, reclaim the rituals that had been diminished, and rejoice in being together. For me, it was yet another invitation to reimagine all the rituals—not just on our stages—but also within our organization. Experimentation is our forte.
What do you like most about the company’s culture?
I like that we embrace innovation, experimentation, and continual learning. We attract stellar talent at every level of the organization, and our colleagues take great pride in the work that we create and accomplish together and in carrying on our mission to place art at the center of civic life for all.
In what ways has Lincoln Center proven to be an adaptable and agile organization? For example, how is it aiming to attract younger and/or new audiences?
In 2019, new leadership at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts set a strategic direction for our work with a renewed focus on equity and service to all of New York City. The COVID-19 pandemic propelled us to rework the script and find ways to continue driving this mission forward. Against great odds, amid the uncertainty and quickly shifting protocols that we all experienced in public spaces, the LCPA team rose to the opportunity for change. In the spring of 2020, almost overnight, we launched Lincoln Center at Home, which offered virtual programming worldwide. It was an opportunity to expand to a wide-reaching global audience and showcase new artists virtually.
We continued to rise to these standards with two multi-stage summer festivals, Restart Stages in 2021 and Summer for the City in 2022, where 75% of audiences were new to LPCA, meaning they had never before reserved a ticket to one of our events.
We also saw the opportunity to accelerate the reopening of David Geffen Hall by two years, a project that supported $600 million in economic activity and 6,000 jobs for New Yorkers. Underscoring our commitment to this city, 42% of the construction contracts went to businesses owned by women and/or BIPOC New Yorkers and an average of 52% of the workforce who renovated the hall were from communities historically underrepresented in the field. The collaboration and partnerships we witnessed led us to the reimagining of performance spaces, the revitalization of public spaces, and making the arts more accessible for more people. It’s a true representation of our commitment to this city.
What makes Lincoln Center an exciting place to work, especially for someone who is just starting their career?
Early in my career, I had to seek out new experiences. At Lincoln Center, we joke that new experiences are constantly finding you. In other words, FOMO can be difficult to avoid! Each team member now has access to a new ticketing service called the Lincoln Center List: free tickets and giveaways to performances and events across the campus.
Beyond our collective passion for the arts, Lincoln Center is an ideal place to work for anyone who seeks a commitment to innovation and inclusive excellence in challenging and fast-paced work. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, and opportunities for career growth by promoting from within. I see Lincoln Center as an employer of choice, and I’m proud of the team we are building here.
What have been the keys to your own career success, especially in becoming a leader?
I’ve been fortunate to have an exciting and interesting career in several industries and functional areas. The common denominator has been caring about the work that I produce, which has allowed me to achieve successful outcomes in a sustainable way for myself and my team members. Being invested and curious in the development and work of my colleagues underscores collective success.
What events are you looking forward to seeing this upcoming season?
The diversity, resonance, and creativity in our upcoming programming makes this an exciting—and somehow ambitious—question to answer. But if you looked at my calendar, you’d find the following events circled: the American Songbook series (especially Ariana DeBose’s Authenticity) and of course, at least one night of dancing under the 10-foot disco ball, one of our most popular installations during our Summer for the City series. A huge bulk of our programming is now choose-what-you-pay or free, so I encourage everyone to come check out a show. Try something new!
We also recently kicked off our yearlong celebration of composer, bandleader, and trumpeter Terence Blanchard in collaboration with seven arts organizations across campus: Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In my humble opinion, Blanchard is tremendously talented and a gifted polymath. I’m so excited to experience the first cross-campus exploration of a single artist, See Me As I Am: Lincoln Center’s Year-Long Celebration of Terence Blanchard.