UCLA Center for the Art of Performance Names Edgar Miramontes New Executive And Artistic Director

UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Dean Brett Steele has announced the appointment of Edgar Miramontes to the position of executive and artistic director of UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA), effective August 2023. Miramontes comes to CAP UCLA from REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater), a multidisciplinary center for innovative visual, performing, and media arts founded by California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he has served as deputy executive director and curator since 2019, and associate director from 2013-2019.

Miramontes' appointment follows an international search, and he succeeds Kristy Edmunds, who left CAP UCLA in 2021 after ten years at the helm to become the director of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA).

With more than 18 years of experience, Miramontes is a strategic arts leader, curator, producer, teacher, administrator, fundraiser, and festival organizer. In his current role as Deputy Executive Director and Curator of REDCAT, he has been responsible for international, national, and regional programming and management with an emphasis in dance, theater, and performance. During his tenure, Miramontes co-curated and co-produced the Getty-led Pacific Standard Time Festival: Live Art LA/LA (January 2018), an international celebration of art and performance throughout greater Los Angeles, with more than 200 Latin American and Latinx artists and performers creating events at more than 25 indoor and outdoor locations. Miramontes also curated and produced the annual New Original Works (NOW) festival of new performance works, premiering 80 new projects and supporting over 300 artists.

CAP UCLA brings the world's most innovative and dynamic professional artists - representing a diversity of voices, viewpoints, ideas, and creative expressions in music, dance, theater, literary arts, digital media arts, and collaborative disciplines - live to the stages of UCLA's Royce Hall, The Theatre at Ace Hotel, and, soon, to the UCLA Nimoy Theater. Located on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles' Westwood neighborhood, the Nimoy Theater was formerly known as The Crest Theatre, and following an extensive renovation, it will reopen in September.

"Edgar's appointment aligns with the start of an exciting new chapter for CAP UCLA that includes the eagerly anticipated opening of the UCLA Nimoy Theater - a momentous occasion that will fuel the cultural renaissance already taking place in Westwood," said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. "We look forward to having a distinguished alumnus at the helm of our flagship performing arts program, joining other campus leaders who are dedicated to advancing the arts at UCLA and further elevating our university's standing as one of Southern California's great cultural centers."

"Edgar's commitment to artists in the world today is deep, personal, and profound: he is incredibly dedicated to advancing their lives and work," said Steele. "He is generous, supportive, and forward-looking in his vision of what the arts offer the world. As an internationally-recognized curator, Edgar has created opportunities for audiences of all kinds to envision the world in new and meaningful ways through the art of performance, and brings to this work a deep knowledge of both global and local experience."

As a Mexican immigrant leader in arts and culture, Miramontes is committed to working closely with historically marginalized and underserved artists, primarily people of the global majority, women, and LGBTQIA+ identified artists who make experiential, experimental, hybrid contemporary performance. In his work, he intentionally widens the canon of experimentation beyond Western pedagogies through radical inclusion.

"It is a tremendous honor to have been selected as executive and artistic director of CAP UCLA, and join one of the nation's greatest public research universities - and my alma mater - in this capacity," said Miramontes. "It is a true privilege to join the leadership team, staff, and artists, and uplift CAP UCLA's legacy of presenting world-class programming that supports diverse artistic visions. When the doors of The Nimoy Theater officially open, it will welcome audiences into a space where artistry flourishes, creativity knows no bounds, and a sense of belonging permeates the atmosphere."

Miramontes is a board member of National Performance Network and an advisor of the New England Foundation for the Arts's 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, NPN, and as a reviewer for MAP Fund.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) is the public-facing research and presenting organization for the performing arts at UCLA, one of the world's leading public research universities. We are housed within the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture along with the Hammer and Fowler museums and are part of a thriving arts and culture ecosystem at UCLA.

The central pursuit of our work as an organization is to sustain the diversity of contemporary performing artists while celebrating their contributions to culture. We acknowledge, amplify, and support artists through major presentations, commissions, and creative development initiatives. Our programs offer audiences a direct connection to the ideas, perspectives, and concerns of living artists. Through the lens of dance, theater, music, literary arts, digital media arts, and collaborative disciplines, informed by diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, artists and audiences come together in our theaters and public spaces to explore new ways of seeing that expands our understanding of the world we live in now.

In fall 2023, CAP UCLA will launch its inaugural season at The UCLA Nimoy Theater (The Nimoy), formerly known as The Crest Theatre, a landmark venue that has been renovated and transformed into a flexible 300-seat off-campus performing arts space.

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