Marianne Gilman

Director of Grants & Sponsorships

Marianne believes in the simple, wonderful idea that the arts—and the chance to gather around them—should be within everyone’s reach. Raised in a small, rural town in Northeast Ohio, she learned early that access takes effort: parents who logged countless miles for museum days and concert nights, and teachers who showed her that curiosity could be its own kind of drive. That mix of wonder and quiet-resolve became the throughline of her life and work.

After a formative internship at the National Endowment for the Arts, Marianne built a life and career that threads philanthropy, fundraising, and service—connecting people, purpose, and possibility from Washington to the West Coast, overseas and back again. A proud Marine Corps spouse, she spent years moving with her family, deepening her sense of what pragmatic optimism and community really mean: listening first, leading quietly, and finding belonging through shared purpose.

Now back home in Montana with her husband, a Butte-born, fifth-generation Montanan and retired Marine Corps colonel, their two sons, and two Aussies, Marianne helps sustain Montana Shakespeare in the Parks’ enduring mission: keeping Shakespeare’s expert storytelling and professional theater free, welcoming, and alive across the Mountain West and beyond — for everyone, everywhere, for all time. She holds a B.S. in Politics and Government from Ohio Wesleyan University.