Kathy Fredrickson

After decades-long successful career, Fredrickson’s most recent position was eliminated during the pandemic. She offers a toolkit of survival tools for the recently unemployed. Her mantra is “Change is inevitable, growth is a choice.”
As Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Director of Exhibition Research and Publishing at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, Kathy Fredrickson led international teams that used design thinking and content strategy to create and share accessible stories. She understands firsthand how teams develop and implement omnichannel communication solutions that resonate with audiences and reflect institutional strategy and goals. She excels at framing ideas in fresh ways, building bridges between people with different skills and perspectives, and clearly defining problems.
As a partner at Studio Blue, Chicago, Fredrickson worked with museums and schools across the country, balancing inventive creative direction with pragmatic leadership. She holds a master’s degree in arts administration and public policy from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Middlebury College. Her prior work experience includes the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.