Toni Shorter Smith

Education 

Ph.D., Art Education, The Ohio State University
M.A., Black Studies, The Ohio State University
B.A., American Studies, Miami University

Biography

Toni Shorter Smith teaches Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship at Miami University. She has taught at The Ohio State University, Columbus and Newark, Columbus State Community College, and Nichols College in Massachusetts. In addition to teaching, Toni is active with both professional and community-based arts organizations. She wrote and narrated the award-winning educational video series “I Too, Sing America” presented by Opera Project Columbus (OPC), as well as the OPC script introducing Middle and High School students to the opera art form. Toni has served on the Board of Columbus Landmarks and co-founded the James Preston Poindexter Foundation, a non-profit organization developing a museum in a former public housing complex. She managed a  3-year project of volunteer researchers documenting African American communities, culminating in a National Preservation Trust report, African American Settlements and Communities in Columbus, Ohio. Toni facilitated development of the Aminah Robinson Fellowship and Residency programs.

Toni has written grants, developed programming, and coordinated festivals for non-profit arts organizations including Opera Columbus, Phoenix Theater for Children (now CATCO is KIDS), Jazz Arts Group, and King Arts Complex. Her children’s play To Be A Drum, received an artistic excellence nomination from Greater Columbus Arts Council and her audience development initiative, “Reach to Teach,” won an award for “innovative outreach” from Opera America.

Toni has written scripts for the City of Columbus MLK, Jr. citywide celebrations and presented papers at the Columbus Museum of Art, the Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts conference in Montreal, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry conference in Illinois and conferences in New Orleans, Chicago, and Xenia, Ohio. She is a Howe Faculty Writing Fellow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7784sJJAg8 link to “I Too, Sing America”