About the TCA

Board / Staff

Staff

Executive Director - Deborah McLean

Deborah was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and has lived in Taos, New Mexico for the past 15 years. Her arts management experience include positions as Interim President at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), Interim Director of the UNM Harwood Museum of Art, and Interim Director for the Couse Foundation. She has over 20 years experience as a planning consultant focusing primarily on organizational and municipal long range plans. She is a jewelry and metal collage artist in Taos and has shown her jewelry in many local galleries and has had her metal collages accepted in a number of juried shows. Deborah has studied fine arts, has a degree in planning and an MBA. She enjoys the performing arts, music, and film.

Director of Programming - Dancer Dearing

Dancer began working with the Taos Center for the Arts in 1996 as the Taos Community Auditorium’s House Manager and graphic designer for TCA presents events. She became technical assistant in 2004 and then General Manager in 2005. She has been nvolved in numerous theatre and dance productions as Lighting Designer and Master Electrician as well as Stage Managing and Producing. Dancer has an extensive background in graphic design and marketing and visual arts and was formerly the Art Director of Publications and Communications Director of the Taos Talking Picture Festival. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and also studied fine art at California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. Dancer was gallery director for La Paloma Gallery and Assistant Gallery Director for New Directions Gallery in Taos and has shown her work in galleries in Honolulu, Cape Cod and Taos.

Office Manager - Holly White

Holly has been with the Taos Center for the Arts for 15 years. She received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Eastern New Mexico University. In addition to her grant writing, Holly manages the TCA office, performs bookkeeping duties, database management and membership/donor record keeping. Holly also chairs the Living Treasures program for the TCA which honors elders in the community.

Taos Community Auditorium Manager - Juniper Purinton

Technical Director -  Damon Klassen
Damon Klassen was a co-founder of EMU Theatre Co. in Lawrence, KS in 1998. EMU is still alive and well in Lawrence as a grassroots, non-profit. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1999 with a Bachelor of General Studies degree in Theater. Following graduation, he toured with the Seem To Be Players all around schools and theaters in the Midwest as well as the East Coast. In 2000 he worked as a tech director’s apprentice at Theatre on the Square in San Francisco. These past eight years he spent working at Taos Mountain Outfitters in Taos as the General Manager and Hard Goods Buyer and the past two years as Technical Director for the Taos Center for the Arts. He has also appeared in three shows on the TCA stage.

Projectionist and Film Programmer - Peter Halter

Voluteer Coordinator - Carlene Christie

 

Board of Directors

ALFORD JOHNSON, president
Andy is retired from the construction business. He was based in Chicago for many years at The American Institute of Steel Construction, Inc.

JOHN HAMILTON, vice president

JAMES DAY, treasurer

James is a dentist by profession who has practiced and ran his own office in California for over 30 years. Jim and his wife share a strong intrest in visual and performing arts. Their artistic focus is in moving image as an art form, they have produced a number of experimental and documentary works.

ROBERT (BOB) BURKE, M.D., secretary
Dr. Burke is a retired biomedical research scientist who worked at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland for 41 years. He has had a long time interest in classical music and playing the piano. Dr. Burke and his wife moved to Taos in June of 2005. They are active supporters of the arts in Taos and Dr. Burke is looking forward to being an active participant in the advancement of the TCA's programs.

MARY DOMITO
Mary has a lifelong interest in the arts and drama, and the owner of Sleep Sanctuary. She moved to Taos in 2004, with a dream and a plan: to open and operate a business that would meet the needs of the community with competitive prices and exceptional service, utilizing the business skills and experience that she had gained in retail sales.

DAVID GOLD
David is President of Gold Communications, which has been producing award-winning direct mail for successful Democratic campaigns across the nation since 1985. Gold Communications has offices in Valdez, NM; Austin, TX and Washington, DC. In 2004 David and his wife Tibby moved to Taos from Austin where he had served on the Board of the Austin Museum of Art, including a term as Board Chair.

JUDITH KENDALL
Judith Kendall has raised a family and worked in Taos since 1976. Keenly interested in visual arts and contemporary artists she owned and operated a fine art gallery in Taos for over twenty years. This gallery still functions as an on-line presence. A certified art appraiser, Kendall currently enjoys working with projects involving appraising, art consulting, curating, education and the performing arts.

DAWN MIRABAL

STEVE TURNER

JANET WEBB

CHRISTINE (CHRIS) L. WELLS
Chris is a retired university professor with extensive research and writing experience in the field of exercise physiology. Before all that she studied piano and continues her deep interest in the arts, especially music and dance.