DiMartino has the credentials and creativity to activate and elevate arts and culture in Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah - June 11, 2024 - The Utah Cultural Alliance (UCA) is delighted to announce that Annie DiMartino will start as Executive Director of the organization with a 40-year history of supporting the arts and culture in Utah. With over twenty years of experience as an actor, educator, administrator, and advocate, she is known for her warmth and wisdom, along with a proven track record of making a significant impact on arts and culture in the Pacific Northwest.
“Annie is the person to lead the Utah Cultural Alliance into its next chapter,” said UCA Board Chair David Wicai. “She has experience in all areas of the arts and culture sector, and brings a unique perspective to collaborating and visioning with UCA’s diverse and invested stakeholder groups across the State.”
Annie arrives at UCA from the Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE), where she served as Deputy Director. During her tenure, PACE experienced exponential growth and increased relevance through its acclaimed arts education and community engagement programming, strategic planning, and fundraising. Annie established a robust and popular free concert series that performed in multiple cities, reaching audiences of over 60,000 annually. She also re-established Bellevue’s Bellwether Art and Tech Festival as a thriving and immersive experience for audiences of all ages.
Annie will relocate to the Beehive State next month, and she is eager to listen to, engage in, and experience Utah arts and culture. “I am thrilled to be joining UCA as its new Executive Director,” Annie DiMartino said of her appointment. "I felt an immediate connection to the mission, to the members of the Board, and to the spirit of Utah.”
Annie continued, “I am inspired by the role UCA plays as a catalyst for economic growth and connecting communities. The Board has done truly significant work over the last year, and I’m honored and delighted to be joining UCA at this watershed moment in history and to make Utah my new home.”
Prior to her leadership of the Performing Arts Center Eastside, Annie served as the Arts Education Director for Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle and as the Education Director for the Tony Award Winning Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT. As an arts leader, Annie has been recognized for her passion for providing young people with innovative arts experiences, building community partnerships, and ensuring that the performing arts are accessible to all.
DiMartino assumes the role of UCA and UCAF Executive Director beginning today. DiMartino’s full professional biography may be found below. Her email address is [email protected]. Please feel free to send her a message welcoming her to our state!
Annie DiMartino Professional Biography
Originally from Seattle, Ms. DiMartino received her Bachelor of Arts from Central Washington University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton where her emphasis was acting. While living in California, Ms. DiMartino performed in and around the Los Angeles and Orange County areas where she was nominated for both a LA Weekly Award and OC Theatre Award for her work in
Grasmere wherein, she originated the role of Dorothy Wordsworth. Her work would later have her reprising the role at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles where she earned a Best Featured Actress Nomination from the
LA Times, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Off Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York.
During her decade on the East Coast, Ms. DiMartino held the position of Director of Education for Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven CT, where she oversaw all educational programming. In her tenure, Ms. DiMartino started the Shake-it-Up Shakespeare Summer Youth Ensemble, of which she directed the Summer Shows, offered private acting coaching to many students who went on to land roles on Broadway, and work in film and television. In addition, Ms. DiMartino had the privilege and honor to collaborate as a child acting coach on two world premier plays by Athol Fugard,
Coming Home
and
Shadow of a Hummingbird in which Mr. Fugard also starred. As an acting instructor, Ms. DiMartino has taught year-long courses at Amistad Academy and New Haven’s Educational Center for the Arts as well as facilitated various theatre workshops and Master Classes at Wesleyan University, Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University, Housatonic Community College, and the University of Bridgeport.
Having returned to Seattle in 2015, Ms. DiMartino held the position of Director of Education for Book-It Repertory Theatre, where she oversaw a robust touring season, school residencies, Listen Up Spoken Word Festival and served as a faculty member with BTiC (Bringing Theatre into the Classroom). In her tenure with Book-It, Ms. DiMartino adapted 5 touring shows including
A Splash of Red, Last Stop on Market Street, Ada’s Violin (which she also directed)
The Odyssey (which she also directed), and
Wordy Birdy.
In July 2019, Ms. DiMartino became the first Education Director for the Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE) and soon was promoted to Deputy Director after leading the organization through their first SWOT survey, Real Time Strategic Planning, and Rapid Planning Process which feeds their Ghant Chart. In 2021 Ms. DiMartino also conceptualized and produced her first Festival Series,
Arts Without Barriers, which earned 4 awards from the Washington Festival and Events Association, and later won a multi-year contract with the City of Bellevue to produce their Bellwether Arts and Tech Festival.
Professionally, Ms. DiMartino has performed in Anton in Show Business with Theatre Four and served as an acting company member with ARTFARM where she appeared in leading roles in
The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Argument, Much Ado About Nothing and
King Lear. In addition, Ms. DiMartino performed extensive recording work having lent her voice to a multitude of radio ads, article readings for Yale’s Center for Dyslexia and Creativity and voiced the role of Destra in the animated film Prodigal Son produced by Gener8tion Entertainment.
