Courtney Bates

Courtney Bates is an arts manager and nonprofit professional from Charleston, SC, US. She currently holds a MA in Arts, Festival, and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University and a BA in Arts Management from The College of Charleston.

Courtney is the Project Manager for The New Real and is focused on strengthening our understanding of the correlation of AI and the arts, as well as, producing insightful resources for the arts community for future thinking and work with AI and emerging technologies. She is also the Programme and Finance Administrator for Creative Informatics. Her role supports the wider team in providing much needed funding for R&D projects focusing on data-driven innovation in the creative industries.

She is the former Executive Director for The Flowertown Players (FTP), a 44-year-old nonprofit theatre production company for 3 years. Prior to FTP, she served as the Executive Director of Threshold Repertory Theatre (TRT), a 99-seat black box theatre for 4 years. She specializes in creative engagement, nonprofit development, marketing, event management, venue management, and volunteer management. Additionally, she is a director, actor, singer, published poet, and licensed Esthetician.