Arts & Letters Promotes Sara Kastner to Head of Talent

​Arts & Letters Creative Co. has promoted Sara Kastner to head of talent, expanding her remit to oversee recruitment, resourcing and the overall employee experience.

Previously head of staff, Sara now leads the teams responsible for finding, casting and supporting talent across the agency, while also overseeing HR functions such as benefits, compensation, employee relations and talent development. Her role also includes nurturing Arts & Letters’ hybrid working model, known internally as ‘Work Together Anywhere‘, which spans more than 20 US states and connects a distributed network of talent.

A full-circle moment

Sara’s roots with Arts & Letters run deep. She joined in 2019 as director of creative operations, helping to reshape the agency’s approach to creative management and resourcing during a period of rapid growth. In her most recent role as head of staff, she partnered closely with the agency’s creative leadership to run the department, coach talent, and manage resourcing.

What’s more, Arts & Letters founder Charles Hodges met Sara on his first day in advertising when they both worked at Wieden+Kennedy New York. A small conversation at the end of that first day played a role in shaping the mantra that drives Arts & Letters to this day. “Walking out of the building that day,” says Charles, speaking with LBB, “she asked, ’How’d the first day go?’ And I said, ‘Um. I have no idea!’ And she said, ‘Just keep showing up. You’ll figure it out.’

“In some strange way”, adds Charles, “I’ve always connected our ‘We’ll figure it out’ mantra to that. So this is definitely a full-circle moment in many ways and we couldn’t be luckier that she is here at this place at this time with all of her experience to continue to help everyone figure out what’s next.”

The 'Letterhead' portrait wall inside Arts & Letters' Richmond, VA HQ

Arts & Letters' network of talent at an A&L IRL event

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Sara has held roles at the likes of Fallon, barrettSF and Barton F. Graf on top of Wieden+Kennedy. Her background spans project management, creative operations and talent management. Her new role is more focused on people and the overall employee experience versus the day-to-day work, the process and the time needed to keep it all moving.

Rethinking how teams are built

“I’m loving it so far,” she says. “And I’ve had the opportunity to rethink how things work across our approach to talent and how we’re structured.” That restructure has brought recruiting (how Arts & Letters finds top talent to create its teams), resourcing (how it builds teams) and employee experience (how it supports teams) under one umbrella.

“How we build teams and how we create a sustainable environment for teams to be successful is at the core of what we do, so this made perfect sense to us,” says Sara. “And since I’ve been involved in resourcing and adjacent to recruiting from the beginning, reorganising and tapping me to lead also made sense as we continue to focus on building a place that is as talent dense as it is supportive.”

In her new role, Sara says she’s looking forward to evolving how teams are built, with a focus on assembling the most inspired and effective combinations of talent. “We are a resourceful ‘maker culture’ and I’m hoping to focus on not just building the same type of team we’ve built before or hiring the same type of talent we’ve hired before. I want us to keep asking, ‘What is the most inspired and unique team to solve this problem versus just staffing and hiring the same way we always have?’.

Arts & Letters Happy Hour in NYC

'Letterheads' from Austin, New York and Richmond on an all-female shoot for Tito's Handmade Vodka

Putting people first

But first and foremost, those teams need to be happy and comfortable to bring their best selves to the work at hand. In its aim to ensure that, Arts & Letters offers five weeks of paid time off and 25 holidays annually, alongside two full agency shutdowns in July and December. Employees are also eligible for a six-week paid sabbatical after seven years. Parental leave includes 16 weeks for birthing parents and 10 weeks for other caregivers, with structured re-entry support. The agency covers 100% of employee premiums for medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, and provides a range of mental health resources, including EAPs, wellness stipends, and access to digital concierge and wellness apps. A 401(k) matching programme is also available to all employees.

Sara believes that those benefits, alongside the “collaborative nature” of how Arts & Letters works, suggest that the agency can be a “sustainable, supportive environment where people can do the best work of their careers”.

It has also reimagined how its talent, affectionately known as ‘Letterheads’, can grow by providing two separate career track options. One involves those who want to become managers of people, while the other is tailored to those who want to focus exclusively on craft.

“This model gives our creative, strategy and production talent the option to keep growing by evolving their craft versus the traditional industry model for growth, which is to grow only through management,” says Sara. “And people love it. It’s a true unmet need.” Sara reveals that Arts & Letters has a handful of ‘Letterheads’ who have held senior management or leadership positions at different companies but are now individual contributors more focused on craft. “As someone who helped create this model of growth at A&L, I’m excited to lead it and continue to live into it,” she adds.

​A two-track approach to career growth

​Creative directors share work over lunch

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Making hybrid work, work

Part of Sara’s role will also be to nurture the agency’s ‘work together anywhere’ model, which LBB has covered extensively before. That challenge, in Sara’s words, involves “helping a lot of opposing ideas be true at once. We prioritise people over geography. But we also prioritise the power of team.”

Sara says that Arts & Letters’ unique hybrid model is about building the best connected network of talent as well as the best environment for those individuals to come together and work as a team. “There’s a lot of work that goes into getting that balance right and building a place where the best talent can live where they want and simultaneously we can have the best in-person physical experience for those coming into the office every day.”

Charles says that Sara’s promotion comes at a pivotal time, as Arts & Letters continues to refine its talent strategy and hybrid working model – something he believes she is uniquely equipped to nurture. “We’ve always been a place that has the team at the centre of everything we do,” he said. “It’s all about putting the right people together and then doing our best to get out of the way so they can reach their potential as a collective group. Obviously, the most important part of that approach is the unique combination of each and every individual and the superpowers they bring to any given moment.”

He adds that Sara’s approach to leadership is rooted in empathy, informed by her deep connection to the creative process. “Sara’s ability to hold both what is best for the individual’s next phase of growth and that of the team in her mind at the same time is unparalleled in our industry.

“Because she spent so much time connected to helping the actual work get made, she brings a natural empathy to every conversation that has a halo effect in setting up teams of any size and scale for success. We’re thrilled she’s in the role and can’t wait to see what she brings to the next chapter of Arts & Letters.”

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