Philadelphia Live Arts Announces Staff Changes

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is expanding its organizational capacity with the hiring and promotion of several key staff members. New hires in the development, marketing and programming departments will help the Festival continue to commission, cultivate and present a diverse range of cutting-edge, contemporary performance and visual art works, as well as support the organization's move toward year-round programming.

Expanding the programming department, Theresa Rose has been named Visual Arts Program Director. Rose previously served as Public Art Project Manager for the City of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, having managed the city's Percent for Art Program and produced Soil Kitchen, the City's first temporary and participatory public art commission. She is also founder of Philly Stake, a micro-granting program for creative community engaging projects.

Two new staff members join the development department: Development Director Renee Archawski and Institutional Giving Manager Sandy Upton. Archawski comes to Live Arts from Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania where she was Director of Institutional Giving. Upton comes to Philadelphia and Live Arts from Boston, Massachusetts where she developed experience in grant writing, event planning, donor management and stage management and was the program coordinator for the launch of the National Theater Pilot at the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Live Arts has promoted Dan Comly to the role of Marketing Manager and Tara Demmy to Marketing Coordinator. Comly had been the organization's Marketing Coordinator since 2010. He has held positions with the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and the Philadelphia Kixx soccer team and is a 2008 graduate of Saint Joseph's University where he majored in Entertainment Marketing. Demmy previously filled the role of Volunteer Coordinator, overseeing the festival's 200-plus volunteers. She completed the Arden Professional Apprentice program in 2010, a prestigious yearlong administrative training program at Arden Theatre Company, and is currently a teaching artist at the Arden, teaching improv and storytelling to kids on Saturdays.

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Philly Fringe and Live Arts Brewery exist to commission, develop and present a range of high-quality contemporary performance. Founded in 1997, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe supports artists and brings the world's newest and most cutting-edge cultural experiences to the city, amplifying the vibrancy of Philadelphia as a renowned cultural center and an unparalleled place to live, work and visit. The 16th annual festival, held September 7 – 22, 2012, will feature the work of International Artists Back to Back Theatre (Australia), Toshiki Okada's chelfitsch (Japan), and 7 Fingers(Montreal). Nationally recognized artists include New York's Elevator Repair Service and Young Jean Lee Theater Company, and Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, BrIan Sanders' JUNK and Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, among others.

For more information about the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, visit www.livearts-fringe.org.