Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Beverly Sills was renowned for her operatic soprano performances from the 1950s through the 1970s. Though less celebrated, her subsequent 25-year-career in arts administration leadership for the New York City Opera, Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera was likely her greatest contribution to the vibrancy of the arts in New York.

Pittsburgh ain’t New York – and Pittsburghers are fine with that.

But, from a per-capita perspective, our artistic and cultural offerings take a back seat to no city. Artists and performers draw the acclaim of Pittsburgh’s patrons and fellow artists. Behind the scenes it's the business and profession of arts administration that is creating the synergies and momentum behind the city’s flourishing arts and culture scene.

One of the professional arts administrators contributing to this flourishing is Hayley Haldeman, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and a new member of Farmers National Bank’s Advisory Board. Farmers cultivates these groups of business and civic leaders in all of its markets, in large part to better understand the community’s needs and goals.

While Hayley’s mother was a landscape artist, unlike Beverly Sills, Hayley herself does not have a performance or artistic background. “I have no discernible artistic talent,” she says with the laugh of someone comfortable enough with who they are, to not worry about who they are not.

The arc of the career path of this 37-year-old native of the Burgh is unusual enough to be worth telling.

Hayley grew up dreaming of an unusual career that somehow, someway would intersect art and law. After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, she became a successful litigator with an international law firm with offices in Pittsburgh; and, while there, joined the board of the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh’s contemporary art museum. She used her legal expertise to help the museum get out of unexpected labor and financial problems threatening the existence of the institution.

Ultimately, Hayley found herself deciding to leave her prestigious law firm to become the museum’s Interim, then permanent, Executive Director.

Staying true to the theme of “expect the totally unexpected,” shortly after Hayley took the position, the global pandemic struck, closing the museum’s doors with earned revenue plummeting by 80%. Refusing to abandon ship, Hayley stayed on until some sense of normalcy returned to the world,
earning civic kudos for somehow getting the Mattress Factory back onto solid financial footing.

Another brief stint at a different notable international law firm followed, but despite being on the partner track, Hayley couldn’t silence the siren call of the arts.

Kendra Whitlock Ingram, the President & CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, wanted a kind of Chief of Staff to help achieve the ambitious plans she and the Trust’s board were ready to embark upon.

“Hayley’s prior professional experience, as an attorney and nonprofit executive, made her uniquely suited for her crucial leadership role at the Cultural Trust,” says Ingram. “She is a strategic leader and culture builder with an ability to nurture strong, reliable teams and a healthy, collaborative working environment.”

In a city enriched by many diverse and celebrated arts organizations, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust serves as a driving force in the ongoing revitalization of downtown Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s Cultural District is a 14-block swath of performance venues, cultural centers, galleries and restaurants supporting Pittsburgh’s new and growing international acclaim as a vibrant center for arts and entertainment. The Cultural Trust, a nonprofit arts organization, is responsible for the administration and continued growth of the Cultural District.

If “art is civilization’s signature” then it’s the Cultural Trust that often puts pen to paper in Pittsburgh –
creating vibrancy in the Cultural District by stewarding iconic theaters and presenting a wide array of performing and visual arts attractions.

Established in 1984, with storied business and civic icon Jack Heinz leading the way, the Cultural Trust transformed downtown’s formerly seedy red-light district into today’s Cultural District.

Today, under the direction of Ingram with Hayley as a key part of the leadership team, the Cultural Trust is embarking on its most ambitious single project: Arts Landing, a $31 million, four-acre outdoor civic space, adjacent to the rivers with a view overlooking the stadiums and transformative recreational amenities too numerous to detail. (Visit TrustArts.org/ArtsLanding to see what’s coming, just in time for the 2026 NFL Draft to be held in downtown Pittsburgh.)

If you are an entrepreneur or business leader, you can likely learn from the unique leadership and culture-building lessons Hayley has learned as a product of her blended experience of working for large corporate law firms and in leadership roles for artsy organizations. The individual dynamics you may face as a leader are likely different than Hayley’s, but your team is likely composed of, for example, differing generations possessing seemingly unaligned values and expectations.

“Going from working almost exclusively with ‘white shoe’ corporate litigators to progressive international artists and the administrative types attracted to the arts, definitely required a kind of code switching,” says Hayley. She acknowledges differing sensitivities and priorities not just among the individuals, but among both kinds of organizations. “Corporations and arts organizations both have missions to fulfill. But how ROI is measured can be very different and understanding that difference is vital.”

She has, however, found certain crucial commonalities that have informed her leadership style. “People often just want and need an answer to a situation. Even if they don't agree with the answer, if they trust the process of how you got there, they can move forward. I learned, through a couple of missteps along the way, that you're the bottom line as the leader and you embrace it when necessary.”

Hayley also learned a “bias for action” from her husband, Conor Lamb, a former Marine JAG (Judge Advocate General). “In many instances, a thoughtful and timely decision today is better than a perfect decision three weeks down the road.”

Speaking of her husband, it’s hard to imagine a more interesting couple in Pittsburgh to keep an eye on than Hayley and Conor. They have two young children and are expecting a third as of the writing of this article. Hayley is also an adjunct professor in the Masters of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, as well as the Chair of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania’s official history agency.

Hayley’s professional focus is on the Cultural Trust but given the dynamism of that organization who knows what her next goal and assignment for the Trust will be? And Conor, currently a plaintiffs’ attorney, is the former Marine who became a federal prosecutor, won election to the U.S. House of Representatives then ran for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic Primary but lost to John Fetterman.

What’s next for Hayley and Conor? Stay tuned, as it should be worth the wait.