Liza Eliano, Director, Brunswick Group (New York, U.S.A)

Liza is a seasoned communications expert with nearly 15 years of experience in the cultural sector. With a strong background in media relations and strategic communications, she advises clients on a range of initiatives and critical issues, including leadership profile raising, narrative development, stakeholder engagement, crisis management, and global partnerships and expansion.

During her time at Brunswick, she has supported international cultural institutions, nonprofits, foundations, and luxury brands including Pivotal Ventures, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Recording Academy, New York City Ballet, museums within the Smithsonian Institution, the Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Audemars Piguet. Liza also spent a year working in Brunswick’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices, where she advised some of the region’s most significant cultural and tourism organizations, including Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi.

Travis Malone, Director, Brunswick Group (Dallas, U.S.A.)

Travis Malone is a Director with Brunswick Insight in the Dallas office, bringing more than 10 years of experience in research and strategic advisory. He designs and leads multi-phased research programs that inform client strategy across sectors and has helped many cultural institutions, education organizations, and mission-driven enterprises navigate complex reputational and societal dynamics.

Travis specializes in integrating quantitative and qualitative methodologies to deliver actionable insights that shape narrative development, stakeholder engagement, and long-term positioning. His work frequently supports leadership teams facing business-critical issues, including evolving public expectations, rising societal pressures, and shifts in media and audience landscapes. He has deep experience in media analytics, perception research, and message testing, helping organizations align strategy with stakeholder priorities.

The State of Public Trust and How to Communicate Culture in a Divided World

Brunswick will field a proprietary research study in 2026 to establish a nationwide U.S. benchmark on public trust, credibility, and cultural value in a polarized era. Public trust has long been a quiet asset for museums, performing arts organizations, libraries, science centers, and parks. But the current environment — politicization of cultural programming, misinformation, generational value shifts, and economic strain — demands fresh evidence on how that trust is earned, lost, and restored. Brunswick’s study will illuminate what drives confidence and legitimacy, useful for arts organizations as well as the corporations and foundations that fund them. It will use qualitative and quantitative methodology with adults in the US.

This session would deliver the takeaways from the research, with learnings for communicators across the sector of arts and culture on how they can use the tools of marketing and communication to retain and foster a high level of trust with their stakeholders. It would also draw on my professional experience of 30 plus years of communications in the arts and culture field. I would present the findings alongside a Director from our Insight division.