Ernest A. Figueroa
Associate Vice President
Los Angeles
858 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 406
Los Angeles, CA 90069-4120
efigueroa@ArtsConsulting.com
Tel (888) 234.4236 Ext. 226
Ernest A. Figueroa is an arts administrator, live event producer, director, performer, and playwright with 30 years of experience in professional theater, educational theater, film, television, radio broadcasting, and arts event management. Figueroa is a part of ACG’s leadership transitions team that supports numerous arts and culture organizations in executive search, as well as facilities and program planning, strategy, and capacity building.
Prior to joining ACG, Figueroa spent more than a decade with The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center. As Producer, he navigated artist coordination, contract negotiation, program selection, education supervision, production, and development to present more than 900 events from the top performers in opera, jazz, choral, orchestral music, multi-media, theater, and dance. Figueroa has also worked as the Special Event and Grants Coordinator within the Arts and Cultural Affairs Department for the City of Pasadena. In this role, he served as the city’s liaison to its multitude of visual and performing arts organizations, coordinating the bi-annual Arts and Ideas Festival and the twice yearly ArtNight, growing the event from 4,000 to 14,000 attendees in five years. He also coordinated public meetings and surveys with all stakeholders in the development of the Cultural Nexus, Pasadena’s first city-wide cultural plan.
“Arts leadership requires continual reinvention and ever-expanding artistic vision and partnerships. To further a community’s goals while simultaneously maintaining the fiscal and creative health of an organization is an ongoing challenge and one that can succeed through multi-arts interconnectivity and exchange.”
“The arts are a powerful cultural force, and it is the time to inspire all artists to expand their influences, explore unique partnerships, and bridge boundaries. The results of a vibrant arts scene are both cultural and economic and demonstrate what success can be achieved through the pursuit of artistic excellence with dedication to and commitment from an engaged community.”
Figueroa has extensively worked in arts education with the Alliance for Drama Education in Hawai’i, the Summer Fine Arts Camp in Alaska, and as the National Education Director at Plays for Living. In addition, Figueroa has worked on the artistic and administrative staffs of The Pasadena Playhouse, The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, and The Groundlings Theatre. Figueroa won a WAVE Award (Western Access Video Excellence) for his talk show ¡Adelante!, a weekly locally produced series celebrating the rich heritage of Latino people. At the Fairfield University Management Training Institute, Figueroa developed and launched Impro:Vision program, training business executives in the best practices of extemporaneous presentation skills.
Figueroa is a Drama League fellow, a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab. Figueroa is also a Founder of Directors Lab West, having served on the Steering Committee since its inception in 2000. He has also served on the diversity committee for California Presenters, where he helped craft policies, goals, and objectives in the areas of equity, diversity, access, and inclusion. Figueroa earned a bachelor of arts degree in speech and theatre education from McPherson College in Kansas and a master of fine arts degree in theatre and dance with an emphasis in directing from University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
Figueroa's ACG client work includes:
- Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
- California Center for the Arts, Escondido
- Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts
- Diamond Head Theatre
- Eisemann Center for Performing Arts
- Escondido
- Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
- League of Chicago Theatres
- Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Foundation
- Mesa Arts Center
- Museum of Latin American Art
- New York Botanical Garden
- Ojai Playwrights Conference
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival
- Street Poets, Inc.
- South Coast Repertory
- Sundance Institute
- ZACH Theatre
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