Fan Taylor
Founder & Executive Secretary (1957 - 1971)
Fan Taylor's career in the arts was deeply rooted in her home community, but was also national in scope. A 1938 graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a degree in journalism, she became a member of the faculty in 1939 and subsequently served for 25 years as director of the Wisconsin Union Theater.
She fondly remembers presenting some of the greatest artists and national figures of our time, among them Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Kirsten Flagstad, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Isaac Stern, the New York Philharmonic with Leopold Stokowski, Louis Armstrong, Martha Graham, Marcel Marceau, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, Henry Fonda, Eleanor Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
In 1957, she helped found the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, then known as the Association of College and University Concert Managers. She served as Executive Secretary for the association from 1957 to 1971.
Of her 40-plus years in the field she says, "I loved almost every minute." Retirement has given her the opportunity to participate in numerous community activities. Her words of wisdom for colleagues: "Study your audiences."
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