Bio
antonio c. cuyler, ph.d. (he/him/his) is Professor of Music in Entrepreneurship & Leadership and Faculty Associate in Voice & Opera in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), and Faculty Associate in the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan.
dr. cuyler’s scholarship optimizes curiosity about arts administration, entrepreneurship, leadership, & management education and practice, creative justice, cultural policy, cultural politics, and experiential learning. The central question that he seeks to answer through his consulting, research, service, and teaching is, “in what ways can the creative sector ensure and protect the creative justice of historically and continuously low casted, othered, and subalterned peoples?” To this end, he authored Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the U. S., edited Arts Management, Cultural Policy, & the African Diaspora, co-edited Accessibility, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Cultural Sector: Initiatives and Lessons Learned from Real Life Cases, and authored his most recent monograph, Achieving Creative Justice in the U. S. Creative Sector. He has also authored or co-authored 26 peer reviewed journal articles and 8 book chapters. The League of American Orchestras commissioned him to lead the seminal report, Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field in 2023, and the Hewlett Foundation commissioned him to author Arts Leadership in the Bay Area: A Qualitative Study.
Internationally recognized as a thought leader, he has given lectures & presentations, and facilitated workshops around the globe on 6 continents and in more than 30 countries. Most recently, he served as a delegate at the 2024 World Opera Forum in Los Angeles. He has also moderated panels such as #BlackLivesMatter in and Through the Arts, Truth Telling: The Kinship of Critical Race Theory and Hip-Hop, and Opera: Reflecting on the Past, Reaching Toward the Future. In addition he has given interviews about his work, Q & A with Antonio C. Cuyler and the Michigan Minds podcast.
In 2020, he founded Cuyler Consulting, LLC, a Black-owned arts consultancy that partners with cultural organizations to maximize their performance and community relevance through access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI). He has worked with a variety of cultural organizations to actualize creative justice. During the 2024-25 season, he serves as Lyric Opera of Chicago’s inaugural Scholar-in-Residence with Lyric Unlimited. He also serves on the boards of the American Composers’ Forum and OPERA America.
As a proud 1st Generation college student, dr. cuyler previously held faculty positions at Florida State University (FSU), where he also became the first Black man to earn promotion and tenure in arts administration in the U. S., Colorado State University (CSU), Purchase College, SUNY, American University, and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). dr. cuyler is the inaugural recipient of the Luminary in Arts Equity and Education award given by the Distinguished Black Classical Excellence Awards, and the 2025 North Campus Deans’ Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award for Lifetime Achievement.
