Steven D. Lavine is an American academic administrator who was the president of the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. He stepped down from that position in June 2017, after 29 years in the post.

Early life

Lavine was born in

Sparta, Wisconsin Sparta is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States, along the La Crosse River. The population was 10,025 at the 2020 census. History Sparta is located on former Ho-Chunk territory acquired by the United States i ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, followed by a Master of Arts and PhD in English and American literature from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Through the professional recommendation of Martin Friedman, then-director of the Walker Art Center, Lavine was put in contact with CalArts's Board of Trustees. In 1988, he was appointed its president, after serving as associate director for arts and humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1991, with Ivan Karp, Lavine co-edited "Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display".

CalArts

As the third president of CalArts, Lavine oversaw the naming of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, The Herb Alpert School of Music, and REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater that opened in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Personal life

Lavine is married to writer and artist Janet Sternburg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavine, Steven Living people Harvard University alumni Stanford University alumni Heads of universities and colleges in the United States 1947 births