Small Town/Big Arts was created by Geoffrey Kershner, an arts leader who spent two decades serving smaller communities. During that time, he discovered there were very few resources tailored to those advancing the arts in small-population areas. This website was created to help fill that gap.

Geoffrey Kershner was the Chief Executive Officer at the Academy Center of the Arts (Lynchburg, VA) In his time at the Academy, the organization increased need based scholarships for arts programming by 124%, increased the overall operating budget between 2015 and 2025 by over 400%, and completed a capital campaign for a historic theatre restoration project which opened its doors in 2018. He also founded the Endstation Theatre Company, the resident theatre company of Randolph College.

Geoffrey serves on the board of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, is currently the Chair of the Virginians for the Arts board of directors, and leads the arts track for the Radically Rural Conference. He has served on the Virginia Commission for the Arts (Area 2 & state wide), Rhode Island Council for the Arts, and ArtsHERE grant review panels and served on the Nomination Advisory Committee and as a panelist for the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund. He was a a National Arts Strategies' 2014-2015 Chief Executive Fellow and has been a featured speaker at the League of Historic American Theatres and the LMDA national conferences.

Geoffrey is launching a new low-residency MFA in Arts Administration at Randolph College which is now accepting applications.