The Arizona Commission on the Arts, an agency of the State of Arizona, announced today the hire of Claudio Dicochea to the position of Organizational Programs Manager. The position was previously held by Kristen Pierce Kent, who left the agency in October 2019.
“Claudio is an extraordinary arts practitioner, educator, thought leader, and service provider, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with him as an Arts Commission team member,” said Jaime Dempsey, Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. “In keeping with our abiding commitment to statewide service, Claudio will initially split time between Phoenix and Tucson, while also traveling to cities, towns, and neighborhoods across the state. In this locational experiment for our agency, we aim to discover if this working arrangement can provide Arizona arts organizations with greater access to resources and support.”
A visual artist and educator, Dicochea previously served as Research Associate, Strategic Communications Associate and Leadership Institute Guest Faculty for the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC), a service organization dedicated to the promotion of US Latinx arts and artists. Raised on the Mexico–United States border in southern Arizona, Dicochea earned degrees from the University of Arizona, San Francisco Art Institute, and Arizona State University.
Claudio has taught painting and drawing as Faculty Associate for Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, TX. Prior to that he was Adjunct Faculty for the School of Art at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Claudio has been an active lecturer and panelist for several organizations and institutions, including the Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture, the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, ASU Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), New York Foundation for the Art’s (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, the NALAC Leadership Institute, and the Latino Art Now National Conference.
