Tara Aesquivel
She is an advocate for the arts, education, and sustainable practices. She is a classically trained musician, studying oboe and voice while earning a B.A. in Music from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Convinced that she could have a broader impact offstage, she earned a Master’s degree in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University. During graduate school she was selected to study Cultural Economics at the University of Bologna, Italy, and conducted a thesis project for Americans for the Arts that studied the challenges of providing arts education in public schools. Her professional experience includes work in project management, program evaluation, fund raising, and marketing. She has completed projects for the Center for Arts Management Technology and Pittsburgh Opera, and has held full-time positions with LA Opera and A Noise Within. She is currently Adjunct Faculty and Program Coordinator for the M.A. in Urban Sustainability program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She is also Executive Chair of the Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles professional development network and serves on the Young Professionals Advisory Board for Inner-City Arts. She enjoys traveling to new places, being a cultural consumer, and tending to her vegetable garden.