Nicole Olusanya

Director, BPS Arts Expansion

Nicole (Nikki) Olusanya is the BPS Arts Expansion Director where she oversees the BPS Arts Expansion grantmaking process and supports schools and external arts partners in providing sustainable and meaningful arts education opportunities to young people across the city. She works closely with the Bloomberg Arts Internship program team, providing school year and summer paid arts employment internships at local arts organizations.

Nikki was the Education Programs Manager at Company One Theatre where she developed theatre education programming and curriculum for young people, artists, and educators, and supported a team of local teaching artists providing yearlong residencies in Boston Public Schools. Prior to Company One, Nikki was the Special Initiatives Manager at ArtsEmerson where she reactivated, I Dream: Boston, a youth leadership initiative that used the tools of arts and trauma recovery to support young people, and she managed several community engagement programs including Community Curators and Citizen Read. She was an arts administrator in Boston Public Schools for 7 years at Dorchester Academy, BPS Visual and Performing Arts Department, and Boston Arts Academy. She is a proud alum of Boston Arts Academy’s first graduating class, an actor, and a co-founder of TC Squared Theatre Company. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Emerson College, and a M.Ed in Arts, Community, and Education from Lesley University. Nikki is a current cohort member of the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership. Her essay, co-written with Joshua Streeter, “From Vision to Implementation: Re-examining Essential Practices for Applied Theatre with Youth” was published in the book Applied Theatre with Youth: Education, Engagement, Activism.