Caitlin Strokosch Named New President & CEO of NPN/VAN
March 4, 2016 • 2 minute read
Caitlin Strokosch Named as President and CEO of the National Performance Network,
including the Visual Artists Network
The National Performance Network, including the Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN), has named Caitlin Strokosch, currently executive director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, as its new President and CEO. Strokosch will assume responsibilities in July 2016 and will succeed MK Wegmann, who is retiring after 15 years of leading NPN/VAN.
Strokosch’s selection comes after an extensive national search that generated a pool of highly qualified candidates. Abe Rybeck and Abel Lopez, outgoing and incoming board chair respectively, and members of the search committee express enthusiasm about Strokosch’s appointment: “We are very excited to welcome Caitlin to NPN/VAN. She is an internationally recognized advocate for artists and has strong business acumen. In addition, she has a demonstrated commitment to advancing equity and social change through artistic expression and dialogue. Her inspired leadership will ensure that NPN/VAN remains at the forefront of efforts that promote the practice and public experience of the arts in the United States.”
Strokosch has served the Alliance of Artists Communities, an international association of artist residency programs since 2002, and was named executive director of the organization in 2008. During her tenure, she organized international residencies for emerging Arab writers, conducted national level research on the sustainability of artist residency centers, and expanded the Alliance’s grantmaking in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, 3Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and others. Prior to joining the Alliance, she managed several nonprofit music ensembles in Chicago, including the acclaimed chamber choir Bella Voce and the pioneering new music group CUBE.
“It is an honor and a delight to be selected as the next President and CEO of NPN/VAN,” says Strokosch. “I have long admired MK Wegmann’s extraordinary leadership and the organization’s commitment to supporting artists at the forefront of social change. NPN/VAN’s core values of cultural equity and freedom of expression are more important now than ever, and I look forward to joining an incredible team to further this work.”
NPN/VAN is based in New Orleans and supports a local network as well as its national, international and regional programs. Caitlin looks forward to working with the New Orleans community. New Orleans native Gia Hamilton, director of the Joan Mitchell Center on Bayou Road, says, “I have worked with Caitlin for years now and I am excited to welcome her to New Orleans. She understands how to build strong and deep partnerships that strengthen the infrastructure of the local and national arts community. Bravo!”
Strokosch is a frequent public speaker and has served as a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Joyce Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She currently serves on Grantmakers in the Arts’ board of directors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Columbia College in Chicago and a master’s degree in musicology from Roosevelt University in Chicago, where her research focused on music as a tool for building communities of resistance and social dissent.