Kathi Bateson is the president and CEO of the Arts Center of South Carolina on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. She was also the founder and president of Management for the Arts, a firm specializing in institutional planning, organizational restructuring, and new business ventures. Her numerous cultural clients included the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, the North Carolina Dance Theater, and Washington Ballet. Bateson worked as a goldsmith, an art teacher, and a professional set designer before shifting into a corporate career and then arts management. Her arts-packed resume includes stints at the historic Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, VA, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' TheatreVirginia, and the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, FL. She was a Center management panelist in 2009.