Edgar Miramontes

Edgar Miramontes is a leader with broad experience as a curator of contemporary performance, producer, teacher, administrator, fundraiser, and festival organizer. He describes himself as “a respected and trusted colleague focused on relationship building and inclusive processes and outcomes that center artists, participatory experiences, community exchange, collaboration, and dialogue.” In 2023 he was appointed as the Executive and Artistic Director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.

Edgar previously served as the Deputy Executive Director and Curator of REDCAT (Roy and Enda Disney/CalArts Theater), a multidisciplinary center for innovative visual, performing, and media arts founded by California Institute of the Arts in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. He is currently Vice Chair of the National Performance Network Board and an advisor of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project. He was on the curatorial team for the National Performance Network’s (NPN) Performing Americas Program and has served as a panelist for Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Network of Ensemble Theaters, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, LA County Arts Commission, and NPN. He was also a reviewer for MAP Fund. Edgar holds a BA in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and MA in Creative Leadership from MCAD.

Could you introduce yourself?
Yes! I am Executive and Artistic Director for the Center of the Art of Performance at UCLA. And I am from the Chumash and Tongva lands in what we now call Los Angeles.

What drew you to the MA Creative Leadership Program?
When I saw and read the program of Creative Leadership, it had this sensibility: organizational leadership using artistic practice as a framework to embody change and leadership. I wanted to put myself in that nexus to be able to continue as a changemaker.

Why attend a college of art and design to study leadership?
Innovation happens in creative spaces. A school that inhabits creativity and creative thinking is a catalyst for programs like this to exist.

How do you feel about the program delivery methods: online asynchronous plus two residencies?
I didn’t really believe in online communities or that you can build communities online. It made me a believer. I think that this program allows you to be yourself really quickly. You can make deep connections with people that you've not met from across the US completely online. That was really significant. The residencies of the program have been incredibly rewarding because it felt like you were coming home to meet people who you've been engaging with virtually over many months.

What has excited you most about the program and the curricular content?
I'm most excited to think about how I might apply shared leadership. The field I’m in can be quite hierarchical.

Was there a particular assignment that you loved and would like to mention?
The final capstone project has multiple components. One of them is a community change project in your city which allows you to work with a community that you've never worked with, and requires you to do something that you find scary (e.g. exercise new leadership approaches and unlearn old ones).