Director, University Events Office
Artistic Director, ArtPower!
University of California, San Diego
01/04 - 09/13
Provide oversight, management, artistic direction and strategic development of University Events Office programs (250+ events per year) and services including: ArtPower! at UC San Diego, the university’s premiere multi-arts performance program; Artpower! Film, an eclectic offering of film experiences; The Loft performance lounge and wine bar (the only venue of its kind on a college campus); UC San Diego Box Office; Advising and Event Management for Associated Students Concerts & Events; Campus-wide Traditions Event Management; Campus Music Licensing; Delegated Campus Authority for approval of UC San Diego Performance Agreements.
Curation/Artistic Programming Highlights
ARTPOWER!: Created distinctive performing arts series in international contemporary dance, chamber music, jazz, global music. Inaugurated new series of contemporary classical music, Speed of Sound Sessions. Creating commissioning initiative in partnership with Carlsbad Music Festival. Significantly expanded campus and community engagement programs and initiatives. Established downtown performance events paired with dinners from partner restaurants. Created “Powerlines” performance magazine.
THE LOFT: Envisioned and collaboratively created a new campus venue, The Loft, a performance lounge, restaurant and wine bar where “emerging art and pop culture collide.” With a $3.75 million design/construction budget led a team of staff, students, architects and designers to build this new and intimate artistic crossroads, the first of its kind on a college campus. In addition to a performance stage and wine bar, The Loft programming includes rotating visual art exhibits as well as a public video/film gallery. Opened in September 2008, the Loft is actively programmed 4-6 nights per week and has a flexible capacity of 175-250. UC San Diego students “pay-as-you-can” so that price does not become either a real or perceived barrier to exploring something new. Voted Best Venue in San Diego to appreciate music by San Diego City Beat. The Loft was featured in “Café,” a book featuring exemplary international design published by Braun Publishing AG.
ARTPOWER FILM!: Hired a film curator in 2008 and created ArtPower! Film, that expands them film experience by creating interdisciplinary film adventures. Voted Best Film Festival in San Diego by San Diego City Beat.
WONDERLAND INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL: Inaugurated in partnership with the UC San Diego Theatre and Dance Department and Sushi Performance and Visual Art (local arts non-profit) an international dance festival in Spring 2011.
FILMMAKER-IN-RESIDENCE: Initiated a 10-week residency with internationally recognized Israeli filmmaker, Nira Pereg. An ArtPower!, academic and community partnership, the residency includes film salons, film creation, full- credit course instruction though the Communications Department, and numerous other activities.
INNOVATOR-IN-RESIDENCE PROJECT: Created the Innovator-in-Residence Project with Wayne McGregor of Random Dance (U.K.) which brought together students, faculty, researchers and artists in uncommon proximity to explore the juxtaposition of arts, science and technology. McGregor and his company were in residence for three weeks developing new work and working with researchers in cognitive science to study the creative cognition in choreography as well as to create a unique digital database of the creative process in dance and make this freely available to researchers worldwide.
ARTS & ACTIVISM: Developed series of moderated conversations with artists who are engaged in issues of social, political or cultural significance as part of their artistic expression and identity. Artists from Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal, Haiti, Mexico and the U.S.
ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS: Created a campus and community engagement programs that both enhanced the performance experience for audiences and supplemented the academic investigations of UC San Diego students. Programs included Student Matinees, Concerts in Close Quarters (chamber concerts and artist dinners in the residence halls), Arts6 Partnership (annual series of lectures, workshops and performance presentations that reflected the academic theme of Sixth College), Shashelet Project (a series of formal and informal artist interactions in partnership with San Diego Hillel to explore Jewish identity and innovation), The Place Matters Project, The Innovator-in-Residence Project.
PLACE MATTERS PROJECT: Created and implemented The Place Matters Project, the most comprehensive, interdisciplinary arts initiative in the history of UC San Diego. Working collaboratively with three of the university’s colleges, built three credit bearing Place Matters courses using the performing arts as a lens for exploring community, civic engagement and leadership on campus. Selecting non-arts student participants, each college course built a site-specific performance work that was a reflection of the readings, writings, discussions and research which took place over the two-quarter project. ArtPower! worked with local and nation- ally recognized dance makers to embed dance movement in each class and create a final site-specific work that synthesized the ideas and energies of the previous performance pieces.
CURATORIAL MODEL: Created Collaborative Curatorial model of programming with the hiring of The Loft Curator, Film Curator and Engagement Manager as well as student partners with the aim of developing interdisciplinary programming not bound by labels or genres.
Management Highlights
BUDGET: Oversee an annual budget over $1.9 million, a 35% increase in first five years.
PERSONNEL: Increased staffing from 7 to 14 in first five years; update job descriptions annually; set annual goals and objectives; provide comprehensive appraisal and review process; support professional development.
STRATEGIC PLANNING: Create regular staff strategic planning retreats to explore organizational/programmatic direction, leadership development, communication development; team building.
DONOR DEVELOPMENT: Created an individual giving program. Increased giving on an average of 40% each season. Created a partnership with Student Registration Fee Committee and External Relations to hire the program’s first Director of Development in 2009. Created strategic short-term and long-term goals to enhance donor relationship building. Created/led “PowerTrips” national tours for donors to summer festivals.
CAMPUS EVENT MANAGEMENT/SAFETY: Through intensive staff and student collaboration, re-structured and enhanced event management practices and significantly developed safety protocols for Sun God Festival, UCSD’s annual concert tradition that draws 20,000 attendees. In collaboration with faculty, staff and students, oversaw the creation and development New Student Convocation from 600 students in the first year to over 4,000 students.