Kirkland Fine Arts Center and the Millikin College of Fine Arts announce the hiring of LJ Pemberton, MFA (Columbia University), as the new Marketing and Patron Relations Manager. In her new role she will be creating digital and print marketing for the Kirkland Fine Arts Center, as well as coordinating social media for the College of Fine Arts and its various schools. She comes to Decatur, Illinois from Los Angeles, California, where she was a legal assistant in entertainment law at Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark, Inc. Prior to that position she was the Senior Writer/Editor in Creative Direction at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she oversaw fine arts marketing for the SCAD Museum of Art, SCADFASH and the School of Fashion. In New York, she was a freelance copywriter, market researcher and digital strategist for a variety of clients including several Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and boutique enterprises. As a student at Columbia, she also expanded the Columbia Artists/Teachers program, a performance learning initiative to enable writing students to gain teaching experience at the university and in the greater New York City community before graduating. This spring, in addition to her marketing duties, LJ will also be teaching an Arts Administration course for the School of Art and Creative Media, focusing on non-profit, entrepreneurial and government arts admin.
In addition to the above, LJ is also a working artist and published author. Her debut novel, STILL ALIVE, will be published by Malarkey Books in February 2024. Her essays, poetry and award-winning stories have been featured in the Los Angeles Review, Exacting Clam, [PANK], Malarkey Books, Hobart, Words & Sports Quarterly, VICE, the Brooklyn Rail, Northwest Review and elsewhere. Her photography has appeared in the Northwest Review, Hobart, and has been featured by Metro Los Angeles. She was previously an assistant editor at NOON and she currently reviews fiction for Publishers Weekly. She is the editor of the Bureau of Complaint, available online.
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About Kirkland Fine Arts Center
Kirkland Fine Arts Center is located on the Millikin University campus in Decatur, Illinois. Since its grand opening in 1970, Kirkland Fine Arts Center has played an integral part in continuing the arts in Decatur and central Illinois. The center is home to a 1,903-seat auditorium and houses several music and choral facilities, lecture halls, art galleries and other multipurpose rooms. Kirkland Fine Arts Center has brought in many nationally acclaimed musical tours including Rent, 42nd Street, Grease, Godspell, Side by Side, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats and many others. World-renowned entertainers such as Trace Adkins, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Vicki Lawrence and others have also performed at the center. Visit to learn more.
About the Millikin Community Arts Academy
The mission of the Millikin Community Arts Academy (MCAA), formerly known as the Preparatory Department, is to foster an appreciation of and participation in the arts while instilling a lifelong love and enjoyment of them. MCAA seeks to provide learning and performance opportunities for students of all ages in music, theatre, dance and art; enhance students’ knowledge and performance expertise; and cultivate a companionable link between university and community. Visit to learn more.
About Millikin University
Millikin is a private, not-for-profit, four-year university with an enrollment of approximately 2,000 students in traditional and non-traditional undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Located in Decatur, Illinois, you will quickly discover that the signature of a Millikin education is a unique experience we like to call Performance Learning.
Since its founding more than 120 years ago, Millikin has operated under the philosophy of providing an education that combines theory with practice. While this was a radical idea at the time, we know today that students must perform their knowledge in order to be truly prepared for a successful career after college. Through immersive experiences such as internships, co-teaching, running a business, presenting research to experts and performing in front of audiences, students find new ways to live out their learning and reap the rewards of their hard work. Visit to learn more.
For further information, please contact LJ Pemberton, Marketing and Patron Relations Manager at Kirkland Fine Arts Center at 217.424.3931 or lpemberton@millikin.edu.
