Sarah Curran appointed Senior Consultant to UChicago Presents

Sarah Curran headshot

October 22, 2021

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Curran as Senior Consultant to UChicago Presents. This appointment is made upon the departure of Executive Director Amy Iwano, who took a new post in August as executive and artistic director of Performance Santa Fe in New Mexico.

Sarah most recently served as the Consulting Curator for the Experimental Performance Initiative (eXp) at the University of Chicago. She is excited to continue working with the campus community in this new role.

“I am thrilled to return to the University of Chicago as the Senior Consultant to UChicago Presents,” said Sarah. “I look forward to working with the UChicago Presents team and meeting our audiences to share the joy of live music.”

Sarah Curran is an arts consultant and curator who recently served as the Consulting Curator for the Experimental Performance Initiative (eXp) at the University of Chicago. Her broad arts knowledge covers music, theater, dance, contemporary performance, visual arts, and film. Sarah’s curatorial practice includes fostering interdisciplinary work and socially responsive programming. From 2017 until 2019, Sarah served as the Director of the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University, known for its adventurous programming and academic integration. She simultaneously served as Managing Director of Wesleyan’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) a low-residency Master’s degree program offering artist-centered curatorial training in time-based art. Prior to her time at Wesleyan, Sarah spent eight years with Stanford Arts as the Director of Programming and Partnerships, and then as the first Associate Director of the Stanford Arts Institute. She has worked with The Tribeca Film Festival, Martha Graham Dance Company, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School.  Sarah holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, an AB from Princeton University, and certificates in Curatorial Practice in Performance from Wesleyan University and management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

In addition, we are also pleased to announce the formation of the search committee that will work to identify the next Executive Director of UChicago Presents. Co-chaired by David Levin, Senior Advisor to the Provost for Arts, and the Alice H. and Stanley G. Harris Jr. Distinguished Service Professor Germanic Studies, Cinema & Media Studies, Theater & Performance Studies, and the College and Lawrence Zbikowski, Chair, Department of Music and Addie Clark Harding Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago, the other committee members are: Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Arts, Theater and Performance Studies; Leigh Fagin, Senior Director of Programming and Engagement, Logan Center for the Arts; Robert L. Kendrick, William Colvin Professor in Music, Romance Languages and Literatures, and the College; and Angel Ysaguirre, Executive Director of Court Theatre.  We invite you to encourage any interested parties to apply here.

Please join us in welcoming Sarah back to the University and welcoming her to the UChicago Presents team!