Asian American Arts Alliance Board President to Lead CalArts

The Asian American Arts Alliance is thrilled to announce that Ravi S. Rajan, President of the Alliance Board of Directors, has been named President of the California Institute of the Arts, one of the top arts colleges in the country. Ravi is currently Dean of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York. He will begin his tenure on 1 June 2017.

"The CalArts Board of Trustees is to be applauded for its visionary selection of Ravi Rajan as the first South Asian American President of a top arts college in the nation," said Andrea Louie, executive director of the Alliance. "Ravi is a working artist who knows what it takes to successfully navigate as well as thrive in today's creative economy. In addition, he is deeply passionate about the critical role of the artist in society and aims to promote a multiplicity of voices that, collectively, tell our American story. The Pew Research Center forecasts that Asian Americans will be largest immigrant group by 2055--so the CalArts Board of Trustees is particularly forward-thinking in placing diversity and inclusion at the center of its work and in supporting leadership of color at the highest levels. I have been honored to work closely with him during his tenure as President of the Board at the Asian American Arts Alliance, and I continue to be inspired by his good humor, energy, enthusiasm, and steadfast belief in the power of arts and culture to transform lives and communities."

Ravi will continue to serve on the Alliance Board but will step down as its President this spring. He and his wife, the renowned opera singer and vocal and diction coach Lucy Tucker Yates, and their two sons will relocate to Los Angeles this summer. You may read the full announcement here.