Venable partner Gordon J. Davis was featured in a July 30, 2016 New York Times article on the increased diversity of boards of elite cultural organizations in New York City.
Speaking of the Public Theater of which Mr. Davis is a member of the board, he credits the Public Theater's chairwoman Arielle Tepper Madover, "for making its board was more in sync with its championing of nonwhite playwrights and performers." Referring to the fact that four out of five members of its board are nonwhite, Davis said, "this was no accident."
In 1980, Davis co-founded the Central Park Conservancy and as the article notes, "in its first year, there were seven nonwhite trustees on its board of 29, a ratio nearly unheard-of for such organizations."
In addition to his role as a Founding Trustee of the Conservancy, Davis is the Founding Chairman and a board member of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a past President of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Davis to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Davis also currently serves as a member of the boards of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the New York Public Library and the New York Public Theater.