Dear Advisory Council members,
I’m delighted to share with you the news that Bob Bursey will be joining the College of Fine Arts as the new executive director of Texas Performing Arts, effective January 1.
Bob comes to TPA from the Fisher Center—a Frank Gehry-designed performing arts center on the campus of Bard College in New York—where he serves as executive director. Since his appointment in 2012, the Fisher Center has earned a reputation as one of America’s most adventurous performing arts producers. His experience spans artistic genres and ranges from contemporary experimentation to rediscovering classic works, and is particularly recognized for forward-thinking collaborations and groundbreaking projects.
As executive director, Bob accomplished the rare feat of supporting extraordinary artistic success and expanding programs while engineering a fiscal turnaround. He eliminated a seven-figure annual deficit that had persisted since the organization’s founding in 2003, and achieved balanced budgets every year thereafter. Performances increased from 80 to more than 200 per year, while the yearly audience doubled in size and continues to grow.
An energetic fundraiser, Bob led the Fisher Center during the quiet phase of a $50 million campaign and doubled the membership of the Fisher Center’s Advisory Board. He worked with generous individuals and institutions to realize support for new initiatives such as a new works incubator called Live Arts Bard (LAB), residencies that bring leading artists to campus to work side-by-side with students and faculty, and a $5 student ticket fund.
In 2018 alone, the Fisher Center’s projects were acclaimed as “the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century” (New York Times), “The #1 Theatrical Event of the Year” (Time), and “a bastion of imaginative programming” (Wall Street Journal). The Fisher Center’s lauded 2015 reimagining of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! transferred to Broadway in 2019 and won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Prior to his role at the Fisher Center, Bob served as producing director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. His 10-year role with the renowned choreographer culminated in the founding of New York Live Arts, an organization created through an innovative merger with Dance Theater Workshop.
Bob will hold an appointment in the College of Fine Arts as an Associate Professor of Practice. He will be relocating to Austin with his wife, the prominent dance artist and educator Leah Cox, who will join the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and their young children.
Please join me in welcoming Bob Bursey to the College of Fine Arts and Texas Performing Arts.
Excelsior!
Doug Dempster
Dean
