Olivia Payson

Olivia Payson (she/her/hers) is a committed artist and advocate originally from Jupiter, Florida. Olivia is a musical theatre performer, and this past spring, she graduated with her B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Oklahoma. While at OU, Olivia took to the stage in many roles, such as “Sonya” in the regional premiere of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and “Woman #1” in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. However, Olivia’s proudest accomplishments occurred off the stage. While jointly pursuing a B.A. in Political Science, Olivia worked to combine her passions of advocacy and arts through student groups and community outreach. Olivia chaired the Fine Arts Diversity Committee, was the sole College of Fine Arts Representative in Student Congress, and served as Vice Chair for the Dean’s Student Advisory Council, where she advocated for her fellow artists within university policy and sought community-based opportunities for these students. Olivia continued this pursuit of public policy last summer, where she worked on Capitol Hill within the office of Representative Frankel. Following her recent move to NYC, Olivia will pursue a performance career while furthering her practice of art activism. One day, she aspires to secure better diversity, equity, inclusion, and acceptance policies and accountability for the film of musical theatre, eventually establishing her own nonprofit geared towards this mission. And Olivia is beyond excited to start embracing this career through her work and exploration next year at NYU.

What drew you to the M.A. in Arts Politics:

Olivia has always dedicated herself to making the world a better place, and from an early age, discovered how the arts hold the tool for greater societal change or simply challenging one person's perspective. Committing herself to the life of an artist, Olivia's passion for art activism soon led to her wanting to be an advocate for these artists themselves. It is this desire for improving art policy and for art activism that drew Olivia to the M.A. in Arts Politics, where she will have the opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded artists while gaining new knowledge and tools to help her follow her aspirations.