Alex Aldrich brings 35 years' experience in the arts to his position as executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, a position he has held since January, 1997. Before moving to Vermont in late 1996, Aldrich spent five years in Atlanta, GA, first as Music Programs Producer for the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games' Cultural Olympiad, then as the first-ever "Cultural Paralympiad" Director for the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games, and finally as the Business Manager of Georgia State University's Rialto Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Atlanta.
A graduate of Harvard College (B.A. in English) and Yale School of Management (MBA), Aldrich is married with four children: triplet 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old girl. He met his wife Sue in Washington, DC while serving as Executive Director of the Arlington Symphony Association (Arlington, VA). Six weeks prior to his wedding, he became Assistant Director of the National Endowment for the Arts' Music Program. His first position after graduate school was Program Director with the National Institute for Music Theater (Washington, DC), a not-for-profit foundation serving young professional artists in the field of opera and musical theater.
Between college and graduate school Aldrich held a variety of positions in music performance and management ranging from Music Director of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals (three years) to Company Coordinator for the Lake George Opera Festival in Glens Falls, NY (two years).
Aldrich currently serves on the boards of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, the Vermont Council on Rural Development, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. He is a former boardmember of the New England Creative Economy Council and the Associated Harvard Alumni. He has also served on the advisory board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Vermont Chapter) and the Museum of Glass and Ceramics in Portland, ME.
Most of his work as director of the Vermont Arts Council (the country’s only non-profit state arts agency) is in the area of advocacy: helping to explain the value of investing public dollars in the arts and sharing the many stories of the arts sector with anyone who might help the Council to fulfill its mission to advance and preserve the arts at the center of Vermont communities. In this capacity he also is a registered lobbyist with the state of Vermont.
His creative interests include singing, theater, stained glass and woodworking.
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