The San Diego Dance Theater (SDDT) Board of Trustees has announced the appointment of Matt Carney to the position of executive director. Jean Isaacs will continue her role as artistic director. Carney has been a company dancer for five years and will step into the management role Dec. 1.
According to Board President Margaret Marshall, “Matt’s professional experience and educational credentials make him the best choice to take over the strategic and operational responsibilities to provide time for Jean Isaacs to direct her talents more solely toward the artistic arena.” The position is funded in part by a grant from the Parker Foundation.
“Matt has an unwavering commitment to our mission, supports the legacy of Jean Isaacs’s choreographic work and plans to build new financial partnerships while maintaining local programmatic excellence,” she added. “We look forward to working with Matt in this new leadership and management role.”
A native of St. Louis, Carney began dancing professionally with the Modern American Dance Company (MADCo) and later with the Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company based in Kansas City.
Since moving to San Diego in 2008, Matt has performing with San Diego Ballet and San Diego Dance Theater, and is on the faculty in the dance conservatory at Coronado School for the Arts. He served as Educational Programs Manager and Volunteer Coordinator with Hostelling International USA, San Diego providing Arts and Culture educational programming to youth in the San Diego Area and Tijuana with a corps of over 150 volunteers.
Carney earned his BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, a Certificate in Fund Raising Management from Indiana
University’s Center for Philanthropy, a Certificate in US & British Military Intelligence from the University of Cambridge, England, and has his Master in Public Administration (MPA) from San Diego State University focusing on flow of communication, organizational structure, and fiscal sustainability.
“Ms. Isaacs has been a key pioneer in modern dance in Southern California and an extraordinary teacher and choreographer. My final show with San Diego Dance Theater was in November, so I can focus now on my executive responsibilities,” explained Carney. “Without having to deal with the day-to-day operations of running a nonprofit, Jean will be in a beautiful position to create some of her best work. It will be my pleasure to steward her vision for the company now and in the future.”
Carney has been a Rising Arts Leaders: 2014 Quick Grant recipient, Art Miles Mural Project, Advisory Board Member and member of the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Commission.
He lives in South Park with his partner Trystan Loucado, also a San Diego Dance Theatre company dancer, and their dogs, Gaston and Evangelene.
